Rangers setting themselves up for Salary Cap Disaster?
July 2, 2008 – 11:18 amIt’s hockey free agent frenzy time, correct? Well, it must be time for the New York Rangers to spend some money, no? After last year’s splash of Scott Gomez and Chris Drury, the Rangers bolstered their backline Tuesday, by re-signing Michal Rozsvial to a 5-year $20 million contract and adding free agent Wade Redden from the Ottawa Senators to a 6-year $39 million contract. While both of these guys are certainly talented, the question of whether or not they were overpaid certainly arises. Moreso, you have to wonder what GM Glen Sather and the Rangers management is thinking. After all, if you look at the Rangers salary cap hits for the upcoming season, the Rangers have $41,075,893 tied up for the upcoming season in just 9 players (see chart below). When the salary cap is $56.7 million, it doesn’t leave much wiggle room to not only make future adjustments, but to even field a viable roster of 23 skaters, there definitely isn’t a whole lot of margin for error, to say the least.
Player cap hit Length
Scott Gomez 7,357,143 thru 2013-14
Chris Drury 7,050,000 thru 2011-12
Wade Redden 6,500,000 thru 2013-14
Michal Rozsival 5,000,000 thru 2011-12
Henrik Lundqvist 6,875,000 thru 2013-14
Chrisitan Backman 2,300,000 thru 2008-09
Fedor Tyutin 2,843,750 thru 2011-12
Petr Prucha 1,600,000 thru 2008-09
Dan Girardi 1,550,000 thru 2009-10
Total 41,075,893
Other players under contract for 2008-09 and expected to be on the team:
Lauri Korpikoski 1,017,533
Aaron Voros 1,000,000
Marc Staal 826,667
Brandon Dubinsky 633,333
Blair Betts 615,000
Ryan Callahan 575,000
Colton Orr 537,500
Ryan Hollweg 512,500
Total (17 players) 46,793,426
Not included in this calculation are players like Nigel Dawes and Fredrik Sjostrom who are currently RFA’s, as well as backup goaltender Steven Valiquette, who has signed, but contract terms are not currently available. Let’s assume Valiquette will count for 600,000 against the cap for next year, so that leaves $9,306,574 to fill 5 spots, 2 of which will likely be to Dawes and Sjostrom. Barring trades to unload some salary (I believe Gomez, Drury and Lundqvist all have no-trade or at least minimum no-trade clauses), how can the Rangers still be in the running for Mats Sundin or Marian Hossa? It would be crippling for them to sign either, at least as I see it. Maybe they have knowledge to something I do not. At a minimum, I would think it’s unlikely (at best) that any of the 3 big UFA’s they have on the market return to the team, Jaromir Jagr, Brendan Shanahan or Sean Avery. Stay tuned Rangers fans, it could get ugly in the upcoming years. Maybe Cablevision thinks it’s the NBA soft cap they are dealing with. No sir, you cannot field a team if you are over the cap in the NHL.
Someone should ask Sather & Company what the plan is for the future if the cap actually goes down next year, which is always a possibility…..
2 Responses to “Rangers setting themselves up for Salary Cap Disaster?”
I agree. If the Rangers think they can spend themselves out of the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference, they are mistaken. Losing Jagr will hurt them on the offensive end big time. Who is going to make up that slack?
By Joshua Rosenstock on Jul 5, 2008
The pickup of Zherdev is a total wild card, he has a history of isolating himself from his team, dissenting against the coach, and not working hard. He has unbelievable talent, but will he and can he thrive in front of a NY crowd?
As for Fritsche, I don’t know much about him, he’s unknown to me.
I think the Rangers will miss Tyutin more then a lot of people realize, he was a good well rounded defenseman, and Backman was ok, but is replaceable.
By The Squid on Jul 7, 2008