The NY Rangers are a cap-strapped team that will have to make some unpleasant decisions regarding their roster in the next few weeks. Glen Sather and Jeff Gorton have only $9.5 million in salary cap space for next season, and, they have four noteworthy RFAs and one legendary UFA that they would like to sign. Unfortunately for Rangers fans, Sather and Gorton will have to perform an arthoscopic surgical procedure in order to retain their young assets.
Here are the facts:
Derek Stepan, Carl Hagelin, J.T. Miller, and Jesper Fast will become RFA in July. Martin St. Louis is unrestricted. All five forwards play key roles in the short term and long term success of the NY Rangers.
Stepan just concluded a two year $6,150,000 bridge contract. He was a $3,075,000 cap hit the past two season. Stepan is a vital part to the ongoing success of the Rangers who can be counted on to produce 55-60 points per seasons. The Rangers will have to pay him in the $4.5 million to $5 million range on his new contract, Hagelin is the slippery playmaker who scored 17 goals and 35 points this season. His two year $4.5 million has ended and he will be line for a pay raise in the $3.5 to $3.8 million per season range. Miller and Fast have expiring entry level contracts and will be tendered qualifying offers moving forward.
St. Louis just played out the final season of his four year $22.5 million contract. $His $5.625 cap hit is now off the books and it doesn’t appear likely that the Rangers will be able to afford him next season. At 40 years of age, St. Louis has been a leader and a role model for the young Rangers, however, he would have to take a serious haircut in order to stand a chance of sticking and staying in Manhattan.
The Rangers have a 1,000 gorilla in their room. It’s name is Rick Nash. The Toronto native scored 42 goals for the Rangers during the regular season. Nash has three years remaining on his current contract at $7.8 million per season.
Nash is going from a complete no-move clause to a variation of a modified no-trade clause on July 1.
The conundrum with Nash is that he is Tarzan in the regular season. Jane in the postseason.
In 862 career regular season games with the Rangers and Blue Jackets, Nash has accumulated 697 career points (378 goals and 319 assists). However, in 60 playoff games he has scored just 10 goals and added 22 assists.
Is it too much to ask that your highest paid player on your team be your best player in the regular season and playoffs?
Trading Nash at or before the NHL Draft on June 26 would alleviate a lot of the cap distress and pressure that exists in The Big Apple right now. Nash’s behemoth contract makes him nearly untradeable. There are only a few teams in the NHL that could absorb Nash’s contract without maxing out their salary caps.
With defensive systems driving goal scoring down to all-time low levels, 40+ goal scorers are a rarity in the NHL. Every GM wants a proven 40 goal man but they don’t grow hydroponically in the locker room. 40 goal scorers are born with the innate ability to light the lamp with frequency.
On Monday morning, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman told 960 AM in Calgary that the Buffalo Sabres are a team to watch with relation to Nash.
“The team I think to watch in something like this is a team like Buffalo. They already went out and they got Evander Kane. I could see them being interested in a player like Nash too. Tim’s a bit aggressive that way. But again, I’m not 100 percent convinced that one’s going to happen".
Tim Murray isn’t afraid to swing for the fences. Just look at the Kane-Bogosian trade. Making a bold move for a 31 year old 40 goal scoring right winger doesn’t seem to be an outlandish thought. On it’s surface. Murray has been looking for a right winger who can play in his top 6 and on the PP. Nash has a ton of street cred in those departments. Imagine two power duos in Eichel-Kane and Reinhart-Nash torching the NHL for the next five seasons in Buffalo. It’s a tasty thought.
I don’t like the idea of the Sabres trading for Nash ala carte. I would prefer that Murray get his starting goalie in the deal, too. I’m not adverse to Murray trading his 21st overall pick, Mikhail Grigorenko, and a third round draft choice in exchange for Nash and Cam Talbot. My bud Andrew Peters feels them same way that I do.
Subtracting Nash could provide the Rangers with $7.8 million in cap space to add to the $9.5 millon kitty that they already have which they can immediately invest into Stepan, Hagelin, Miller, Fast, and St. Louis.
Am I crazy?
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Get ready, Buffalo.
Evander Kane is counting down the days until he walks among you die hard Sabres fans.
Late last week, Kan e skated for the first time since having shoulder surgery in February in Buffalo.
Check out Kane's snazzy new Sabres sweater. Very cool.
"Good feeling being back on the ice for the first time in five months!" the caption read. "I'm liking the new practice jersey too! ... Time to shake off the rust!" Kane had surgery on his left shoulder in early February. The orthopedic surgeon gave him a 4-6 month recovery period.
He was given a clean bill of health earlier this month when he had his follow up visit with teh Sabres doctors and the Buffalo orthopedic surgeon.
Does this look like a guy who is feeling any pain?
Right now, Kane is all systems go.
In February, Sabres GM Tim Murray shocked the hockey world when he traded for Kane and Upstate NY native Zach Bogosian from the Winnipeg Jets in a trade for defenseman Tyler Myers, forward Drew Stafford, two prospects and a first-round pick in the 2015 NHL Draft.
In 37 games with the Jets before leaving the lineup, Kane had 10 goals and 12 assists