Larry Brooks, as he always does, certainly gave the Rangers fanbase and their bloggers something to chew on today. Matthew Tkachuk, reuniting the Kid Line, Will Cuylle as a possible first line all were topics in his NY Post column. As New York sweltered in a summer heat wave, Brooks found a way to add fuel to that fire.
It does not matter that Matthew Tkachuk is available out of Calgary. The Rangers cannot get the 24-year-old, coming off a 42-62-104 season. It would not matter if Connor McDavid were available out of Edmonton. The Blueshirts would not be able to get him, either.
They have neither the cap space nor the means to create it. Wishing it so doesn’t make it achievable.
I think everyone would love
Tkachuk, why would you not. But as Brooks notes, and we all know, freeing up the requisite cap space and making a deal to get Tkachuk would look to be an impossible challenge. Proposals of having Jacob Trouba waive his NMC to go to Detroit, for example, clearing $8 mil of space and Artemi Panarin doing the same to reunite with Ryan Strome in Anaheim and move his $11.64 million sound great in theory. In practice, not so much.
The Blueshirts have seven players carrying cap hits of at least $5 million per. Five of them have no-move clauses through at least 2023-24. They would be Trouba (2023-24), Chris Kreider (2023-24), Vincent Trocheck (2024-25), Panarin (2025-26) and Mika Zibanejad (2029-30). The other two are Igor Shesterkin and Adam Fox
Let's say you move Trouba and Panarin. Who are you trading to get Tkachuk? Is Kaako Kaapo, Filip Chytil, Nils Lundqvist and a first enough? Swap in Brendan Othmann maybe? Let's say they get Tkachuk, did you also forget that he may want similar dollars to Panarin? Who then are you using next to K'Andre Miller on your first d-pairing or opposite Ryan Lindgren if Adam Fox moves up? How are you replacing Chytil and Kakko if both move, unless you get Evan Rodrigues plus another forward cheap? Too many moving pieces and impediments to acquiring Tkachuk, despite us knowing how valuable an add and asset he would be.
Past tense, The Rangers needed to get bigger. Present tense. They still do.
Which is why 20-year-old Will Cuylle, 6-foot-4, 209 pounds, has an excellent chance to crack the opening night roster. That, and his talent. That, and the fact he can play up and down the lineup.
Right wing with Kreider and Zibanejad? I’d like to get a look at that trio in camp.
One of the reasons? He’s a shooter. And head coach Gerard Gallant consistently talked about the value of having deadline acquisition, high-volume shooter Frank Vatrano on the right side of the BFFs.
Hey kid, no pressure. We know it's your first real shot at earning a roster spot. You are joining a team that made a run to the ECF last season. We are going to ease you in - go play on the first line next to Kredier and Zibanejad and as such, we will leave Alexis Lafreniere on the third line. Maybe
Cuylle earns a spot. Maybe his size and speed and willingness to go into the dirty areas and quick release opens eyes and he makes the roster. But how about not putting that kind of potential pressure on a 20-year-old kid and allowing him to work his way up the ladder.
Not at all sure that Gallant is going to see it this way, but I’d be fine with reuniting Alexis Lafreniere, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko to start the season as the third line.
The kids are comfortable and confident with each other. They bring out each individual’s best. It is important that each gets off to a strong start
if Lafreniere does not flip to right wing (and I’m not sure why that became such an enduring issue last season), the Blueshirts’ right side lineup of Kakko, Sammy Blais, Julien (Still Here) Gauthier and Vitali Kravtsov combined for 10 NHL goals in 106 games last season and have produced an aggregate 50 career goals in 406 games.
I am fine with keeping the
kids together. The problem is, as Brooks noted, right wing looks pretty scary. Maybe that gives Cuylle a better shot at earning a spot. But comparing the left side to the right side is a luxury yacht versus a dinghy. Far from ideal, and with little cap space, unsure NY can add to help remediate that situation. If Ryan Carpenter opens as the fourth line center, maybe Barclay Goodrow slots into that spot.
Remember this about the flat-cap squeeze — negotiated as part of the 2020 collective bargaining agreement extension in concert with an escrow cap — with which essentially every contender is attempting to navigate.
The upper limit had increased an average of 3.61 percent over the four seasons that preceded the pandemic (Panarin, Trouba and Kreider were signed prior to the March 2020 pause).
Had the NHL simply sustained this modest annual escalation, this year’s cap would be set at $90.64 million with an increase to $93.91 million for 2023-24. Instead, it is $82.5 million this season and will be $83.5 million for 2023-24.
When people complain about
Kreider's seven-year, $45.5 million contract extension signed in February of 2020 or
Trouba's seven-year, $56 million contract signed in July of 2019, keep in mind the expected rise in the cap. The differences from what potentially should be to what it is now is $8 mil this year and $10.4 mil next year. This is partially why team's across the league, not just the Rangers are up against the cap and having a hard time signing players. Plus it's why the term difficult decisions is kind of the mantra and one the Rangers will face even more starting next season.
The Rangers will subtract $8.965 million from the cap after the season on expiring contracts of Ryan Reaves, Blais, Dryden Hunt and Jaro Halak plus dead weight buyout charges.
But they will owe second contracts to Lafreniere, K’Andre Miller, Chytil and Kravtsov and will have to replace those departing free agents.
It may be folly to look ahead a full 12 months, but regardless of their value to the unit, it is going to be mighty difficult for the Rangers to keep Barclay Goodrow and Ryan Lindgren beyond this season.
Brooks spells out the
cap crunch. Lindgren will have one-year left at a $3 mil AAV before next season. Please tell me which current blueliner or acquired one will do what Lindgren does at that price? For all the hate on the Goodrow contract, four more years after next season at a $3.641 mil AAV, please look at the $4.9 mil AAV Blake Coleman is making for the same period and tell me who is the potentially overpaid one? Goodrow was brought in to fill a role, which he did ably. He showed the ability to move up and down the lineup, better suited to the third or fourth line.
A buyout before next season saves a little over $2 mil per season for the next four years. The cap hit would be $1.258 vs. $3.641 mil, but it adds on $1.258 mil in dead cap space for an additional four years from 2027-28 through 2030-31. For all the hand wringing about the dead cap space over the last several years that finally comes off the books after this season, are you ready for eight more years of dead cap space to buy out Goodrow?
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