How The Rangers Make The Most of The Salary Cap Increase

Updated:

This is the now current cap space agreement that was Voted on by NHL/NHLPA.

NHL/NHLPA announce Team Payroll Range for 2017-18:
Lower Limit: $55.4 million
Adjusted Midpoint: $65.2 million
Upper Limit: $75 million

Getty Images

Currently, the Rangers have a cap hit of around $62 million next season, if you don’t include the free agents they will most likely sign. This leaves around $13 million to sign our free agents, and maybe someone by the name of Kevin Shattenkirk. If Klein does indeed retire from the NHL and moves on to Europe to play hockey, the Rangers will get a solid $2.9 million boost from his departure. This would put the Rangers around $15.9 million with the buyout of Girardi and the retiring of Klein. 

This leaves some room for the Rangers to sign their UFA/RFA’s. Who is up for re-signing?

Rangers forwards Brandon Pirri, Mika Zibanejad, Jesper Fast and Oscar Lindberg are all restricted free agents, while Tanner Glass is the lone unrestricted forward. On defense, the Rangers only have two free agents: restricted free agent Adam Clendening, and unrestricted free agent Brendan Smith.

Now, The Rangers will probably let Glass, Pirri, and Clendening walk. So this leaves Zibanejad, Smith, Fast and Lindberg with $15.9 million available. Have to imagine Mika gets between $4.5-5.5 million per year. Fast might fetch around $2-3 million and anything higher than that will be tough, even if he may deserve more for the effort. Lindberg will probably bridge out at something low as well, maybe $2-2.5 million for two years. With Reports of Smith looking for a deal between $4-4.5 million per year for four or five years, he is a player we should hold onto. When you add those players up, you get a cap hit of somewhere around $10 million on the high end or $8.5 million on the low end. This would leave around $6-7.5 million to spend.

With $7.4 million to spend, most Rangers fan are thinking the same thing as me. Yeah, that’s right, Kevin Shattenkirk. We can sign him somewhere between $6-7 million. This is something the Rangers really need to look into as Shattenkirk brings a lot to the table on our PP. The PP that has been struggling since Brian Leetch left the Rangers.

Of course, none of this takes into account any possible trades that the Rangers seem to be always a center of. Moving players like Stepan, Nash, or possibly Staal (NMC) could be a seismic shift in the team’s current dynamic.

No matter what, the Rangers Will Profit from the 75 Million Cap Ceiling!

Mentioned in this article:

More About: