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The Rangers need to use their cap space as an asset

NHL teams aren’t known for using their cap space as an asset, but the Rangers have a golden opportunity to do just that this summer

Salary cap space is like (SPOILERS) the end to Infinity War: everything’s fine and dandy, then someone snaps their fingers one summer and half of the space you had is gone. That’s why the Rangers, who are flush with cap space right now, have a great opportunity to use their cap space to bring in more assets to help their rebuild.

Next year’s salary cap is projected to be between $78-$82 million, according to commissioner Gary Bettman. The Rangers currently have $24.95 million in cap space. That’s operating with this year’s salary cap ($75 million), so that $24.95 million can end up between $27.95-$31.95 million if Bettman is telling the truth. Obviously, the Rangers have some pending UFAs and RFAs, and they’re probably going to sign Ilya Kovalchuk once free agency starts. For debates sake (not arguments), we’ll say the cap rises to $80 million next season, leaving the Rangers with $29.95 million in cap space. I’ll say they spend $17 million on their own RFAs and Kovalchuk, giving them $12.95 million in cap space heading into next season.

Every team in the league—the Rangers included—has bad contracts. That’s just the way the game works. There are definitely going to be cap-strapped teams this summer, so the Rangers should be willing to take on those trash-ass contracts in order to get picks/prospects in return. You see this all the time in the NBA and MLB, but not so much in the NHL (even though the Rangers did it at the trade deadline when they acquired Ryan Spooner because they took on Matt Beleskey’s contract).

So, what are some contracts the Rangers should be willing to take on? I’m glad you asked.

Troy Brouwer

Contract status: Two years remaining, $4.5 million cap hit

The Flames signed Brouwer to a four-year, $18 million contract (yuck) in the summer of 2016. He’s been, um, not great with the Flames, totaling a 19–28–47 line in 150 games. The team fired Glen Gulutzan after a disappointing season and hired former Hurricanes coach Bill Peters. GM Brad Treliving is certainly on the hot seat, so there are bound to be changes this offseason. Kent Wilson of The Athletic did a great piece about the Flames’ cap situation moving forward, so I won’t rehash it too much here. Wilson does mention Brouwer as a potential buyout candidate, and also mentions their need for a top-six winger, so there’s kind of a match here. Mats Zuccarello is almost certainly gone this summer, and he has the same cap hit as Brouwer, but only has one year left on his deal.

The Rangers and Flames could swap the contracts, but Jeff Gorton would need to ask for one of the Flames’ defensive prospects—Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington and Adam Fox –since Zuccarello is clearly superior to Brouwer. The Flames current top-four defensemen—Mark Giordano, Dougie Hamilton, T.J. Brodie and Travis Hamonic—are all signed through the 2019–20 season, so it’ll be tough for the aforementioned prospects to crack the roster in a big role (unless the Flames decide to trade Brodie, as Wilson mentions in the piece). The Rangers would obviously be getting the worse player between the two, but getting a solid defensive prospect would be a huge success.

Paul Martin/Justin Braun/Mikkel Boedker (San Jose Sharks)

Contract status: Martin- one year remaining, $4.85 million cap hit; Braun- two years remaing, $3.8 million cap hit; Boedker- two years remaining, $4 million cap hit

The Sharks are in a fascinating spot right now after getting boatraced by the Golden Knights in the second round. It’s been rumored that the Sharks plan to aggressively pursue John Tavares this summer, but that might be difficult considering they’re low-key teetering on the edge of cap hell: Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Martin Jones both inked massive extensions last year that will kick in next season; Tomas Hertl is an RFA this summer; Evander Kane, who was a fantastic fit after being acquired at the trade deadline, is a UFA; and Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture and Joonas Donskoi will be UFAs after next season. So yeah, they’re going to have to move money out at some point, especially if they want to make a run at Tavares and bring back Joe Thornton (Thornton has expressed interest in taking another one-year deal to return to the Sharks).

That leads us to the three names mentioned above. Braun’s formed a formidable shutdown pairing with Vlasic over the past few years and can certainly be useful on the Rangers; it’s never bad to bring in a veteran who’s played in big games to mentor a team full of young defensemen. Boedker has been disappointing in San Jose, notching a 25–38–63 line in 155 games the past two years, and had porous possession numbers this season (46.79 CF%, 63.45 CA/60, 49.32 GF%). Martin had ankle surgery last offseason and was placed on injured reserve after the first two games of the season. Upon returning, he wasn’t able to crack the Sharks’ lineup , and was sent to the AHL for a bit in February after the team said they were looking to move on. However, Martin returned to the NHL in March and was a regular for the Sharks’ stretch run. He was pretty effective, posting a 55.63 CF% and a staggering 61.54 CF% (to play devil’s advocate, his shot suppression wasn’t great with his 56.74 CA/60).

Kevin Kurz of The Athletic wrote a piece about which Sharks’ players will be staying and going this offseason, saying Braun is almost certainly staying, Boedker could go either way and Martin probably on the way out. Braun still plays a big role and is on a great contract, so that leaves Boedker and Martin as likely candidates for a salary dump. The Sharks don’t have a second or third-round pick this year, and don’t have next years third-round pick either. They’re unlikely to get rid of a young player like Timo Meier, and their prospect pool is rather barren. So maybe the Sharks retain some salary and throw in a middling pick to entice the Rangers to take either Boedker or Martin.

Brandon Dubinsky

Contract status: Three years remaining, $5.85 million cap hit

An old friend! Dubinsky, while grossly overpaid, was a pretty useful player up until this past season; he had 48 and 41 points in 2015–16 and 2016–17, respectively, but posted only 16 points this year. His season was tumultuous, to say the least: he underwent wrist surgery last offseason and struggled at the start of the regular season; was stripped of his alternate captaincy in October; suffered a broken orbital bone in December; and was sent home in January during the Blue Jackets’ Vegas trip in a bizarre situation.

Again, I don’t want to rehash the Blue Jackets’ salary cap situation, as Aaron Portzline of The Athletic did an in-depth write-up of that, but it’s worth re-mentioning: they have a ton of RFAs needing new deals in the next two years, with the main ones being Zach Werenski, Boone Jenner, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Ryan Murray and, eventually, Pierre-Luc Dubois; and two of their best players, Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky, are UFAs after next season. Things are going to get murky for the Blue Jackets cap-wise moving forward.

So Dubinsky’s contract will look worse and worse as the Blue Jackets need to shell out the dollars to keep their young core together. They have their first, second and third-round picks this year, but don’t have their second-round pick next year. If they buy Dubinsky out this summer, it will cost them $1.95 million in cap space for the following six seasons.

That could be costly for the Blue Jackets with all their players due for raises. So maybe the Blue Jackets decide to eat some of his contract and/or attach a second or third-round pick to get off it. I don’t know that it would take too much from the Rangers’ perspective to get something like this done; they could send back a middling prospect, an older roster player or a pending RFA that won’t cost too much.

Jonas Brodin

Contract status: Three years remaining, $4.17 million cap hit

Outside of the Oilers, the Wild might have the worst cap situation in the league (22 players signed next season for $67.5 million, with a couple of big RFAs). Their big contracts—Zach Parise and Ryan Suter—are immovable, so they’re going to need to shed salary another way. The Wild are also in flux, as they let go of longtime GM Chuck Fletcher after another early playoff exit. Make no mistake about it: changes are certainly coming for the Wild. That’s where Brodin comes into play. Brodin is the worst of their defensive core (Suter, Jared Spurgeon and Matt Dumba are simply better players) and makes a decent amount of money. He’s not going to put up counting stats (he’s cracked 20 points once and has never score double-digit goals), he’s not a possession driver (career 47.8 CF%) and he’s not great at suppressing shots (58.59 CA/60 in 2017–18). Quick side note: it’s mad funny he inked his contract after being a +21 in 2014–15; I really hope front offices don’t value this boujee-ass stat like they once did.

Brodin is as average a defenseman as you’re going to find. At $4.17 million, his cap hit isn’t crazy, but for the Wild, it could hinder a lot of their flexibility moving forward, especially if they plan on signing Matt Dumba and/or Jason Zucker long term. Michael Russo of The Athletic suggested in a mailbag at the end of April that Brodin is one of the higher-valued trade assets on the team, but doesn’t think they can afford to trade him for picks/prospects because they are in win-now mode, which confirms my belief they are the Raptors of the NHL. Maybe they’d take a look at Zuccarello to bolster their forward group for one more (mediocre) run? They don’t have a ton of prospects to trade, but they’ve shown in the past they’re willing to move them/picks if need be (that was under a different regime, though).

Like the last blog I wrote about potential trade targets, these are all hypothetical situations. As I mentioned earlier, you don’t see NHL teams use their cap space as an asset enough. But if Jeff Gorton is truly trying to rebuild this team the right way, he should 100% be looking to add players on bad deals to get other assets in return. Who knows, maybe a nondescript third-round pick turns into a star; maybe the player rediscovers their game and can be used as another trade piece; or maybe they just stink and the Rangers bury them in the AHL. No matter which way it turns out, they should definitely be entertaining the idea.

*All contract/salary cap information courtesy of CapFriendly.com. Stats courtesy of Corsicahockey.com and HockeyReference.com*