Rangers need cap space. So who goes?

Breaking news: the New York Rangers — yes, those New York Rangers — need to free up some cap space

It seems like decades ago that the New York Rangers were flush with cap space. My close personal friend HockeyStatMiner and I were driving “The Vision” bus, claiming the Rangers should be eating bad contracts to get more assets (picks and prospects) in their pipeline. Then the homie Jeff Gorton decided to shell out close to $20 million for Artemi Panarin and Jacob Trouba, then another $3.25 for Pavel “Kyle Kuzma” Buchnevich and now the Rangers are about $4 million over the $81.5 million salary cap ceiling for next season.

Let me be clear: I’m by no means saying any of those deals are bad; I’ve been clamoring for Panarin for over a year; Trouba fills a need and is just entering the prime of his career; and while I am lower on Buchnevich than most Rangers’ fans, I have zero (0) issue with that deal. But now the Rangers have some tough decisions to make, whether it be a buyout or a trade. So let’s look at some of the options Mr. Gorton has in front of him, shall we?

Buyouts

*All buyout numbers, figures, things of that nature, are courtesy of CapFriendly.com, quite possibly the best invention since the wheel*

The Candidates: Brendan Smith ($4.35 million AAV), Marc Staal ($5.7 million AAV) and Kevin Shattenkirk ($6.65 million AAV)

Alright, let’s get the Shattenkirk buyout out of the way now. Many people have pointed this out on the ole Twitter machine, but buying Shattenkirk out doesn’t make a ton of sense for the Rangers. Sure, they’d save about $5.2 million on the cap this season, but next year is where things get messy. The Rangers would owe Shattenkirk a little over $6 million, equating to a savings of $566,667. For Shattenkirk, getting paid $6 million to NOT play for the Rangers is pretty dope; for the Rangers, paying Shattenkirk $6 million to NOT play for them is pretty terrible. So yeah, I’m out on a Shattenkirk buyout like most people.

Staal, to me, is the least likely to get bought out because the Rangers just seem to like having him around. He’s a veteran, he’s played in a lot of big games over his career and, in an ideal world, would be the type of guy to help mentor the abundance of young defensemen the Rangers have in the pipeline right now. But this is a salary cap world, not an ideal world. So, in buying out Staal, the Rangers would save $2.8 million this season, $2 million next season, and then owe Staal $1.2 million in both 2021–22 and 2022–23. They would still have to make a trade to get under the cap this season, but buying out Staal would be a step in the right direction to doing this.

The most likely buyout candidate to this man is Brendan Smith. Listen, I think most of us will admit that we fucked up and fell for a small sample size with Smith. He was terrific down the stretch and in the playoffs during the 2016–17 season, but since then, he’s been very, very bad (Stephen A. Smith voice). The Rangers tossed him on the fourth line as a forward last year, and while he wasn’t the worst forward I saw dress last season, given the team’s abundance of forwards now it makes no sense to keep him around as forward. Buying out Smith saves the Rangers about $3.4 million this year and $1.2 million for 2020–21. After that, they’d owe him around $1.15 million for 2021–22 and 2022–23. Factoring in Smith’s decline, the amount of forwards that need playing time and the influx of defensemen on the roster, Smith seems like the ideal buyout candidate.

My Preferred Move: Brendan Smith, see you later bud.

Trades

The Candidates: Chris Kreider ($4.625 AAV), Vladislav Namestnikov ($4 million AAV), Ryan Strome ($3.1 million AAV), Jesper Fast ($1.85 AAV) and Brady Skjei ($5.25 million AAV)

Kreider is the big name here, mainly because he’s: 1) a very good hockey player; 2) on the last year of an extremely team-friendly contract; and 3) has been rumored to be on the block for a few months now. Once again, in an ideal world, Kreider is extended and stays a Ranger for the rest of his career. But with the Rangers bringing in Panarin, drafting Kaapo Kakko and signing Vitali Kravtsov to an ELC, Kreider‘s next contract is what has the folks all in a tizzy. He’s probably going to get $7 million per season or more, which is well deserved, but the term is the scary part. Shelling out a long-term deal to Kreider, a player who, while extremely good, has struggled with inconsistency in the past, has never reached 30 goals and has never cracked 55 points. I get it, I really do. But I’m of the belief that the Rangers need to capitalize on this ELC-driven window of paying their youngins pennies and keeping Kreider helps with that. And it’s not like Kreider is a bum in the playoffs; he has 23 goals and 37 points in 77 career playoff games and has been the Rangers’ best player for a couple of series in the past. So he fits the bill of a 16-game player (big ups to Draymond Green for that saying). So yeah, I’m out on trading Kreider.

Namestnikov and Strome are the two likeliest options to get traded, even though it appears no one wants either of them. Namestnikov is a solid player; he isn’t going to put up a lot of counting stats and he doesn’t have any eye-popping abilities, but he’s a useful player nonetheless. Strome is a former lottery pick (fifth overall in 2011) and just turned 26 a couple of weeks ago. He scored 18 goals for the Rangers last year and put up 33 points, but he had an astronomical 22.5% shooting percentage; Frank Ntilikina, the Knicks’ first-round pick from a couple of years ago, shot 28.7% from three last year. You might be asking “what’s the correlation?”. Quite frankly, I don’t know. I just find it hysterical.

But back to brass tacks: here’s a look at every team that currently has $4 million or more available in cap space:

There’s a mix of teams in there that are contenders and rebuilders. You’re telling me no team wants a useful top-nine player or a former lottery pick? If I’ve learned anything from my years watching sports it’s that the “former lottery pick” tag doesn’t wear off until you hit your 30th year of life. Some NHL GM has to have enough hubris to take a chance on Strome, and another has to be smart enough to realize that Namestnikov can help their team out. Am I trying to sell the many, many GMs I know who read my blogs on these two players right now? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe fuck yourself.

Fast is an intriguing option. Even putting his name on the “Candidates” list left me a little weepy. But talk about a player that every team in the league could use. Quickie is a Swiss Army knife type-player, who can play in pretty much every situation except the power play (though I’ve seen it tried before) and can play up and down the lineup. He’s the literal definition of a hockey cliche. But I am very biased, so I’m going to go ahead and say he should be locked up for the next seven years immediately.

I put Brady Skjei on the “Candidates” list just because he is still pretty young (25 years old) and doesn’t have an outrageous contract, although the latter can certainly be debated or, dare I say, argued (not by me of course) by folks. I don’t see Skjei going anywhere right now, especially because the Trouba trade/signing seems to be a move that’ll help Skjei take the next step; he’s struggled since his excellent rookie season, and personally I think that’s due to him being cast in a role (the team’s number-one shutdown defenseman) that doesn’t suit him. So giving him a partner like Trouba should only help his game, something that can’t be said for the partners he’s had the last two seasons, outside of maybe Shattenkirk.

My Preferred Move: Sheeeeit it seems simple to me that Namestnikov and Strome are the pieces to trade, but apparently no one wants either. But I’m sticking with those two as the tradeable pieces.

So there you have it. The Rangers should buy out Smith and trade one of Namestnikov/Strome, or maybe even both. They seems like the right moves so naturally none of them will happen. But personally, in my opinion, to this man, those are the moves to solve the Rangers’ current cap situation.