Important disclaimer: I’m 80% sure the Rangers will buy him out, but only because I don’t think we’ll find a trade partner. (NOT because of money). However, if a trade partner appears, the Rangers need to capitalize on it no matter how much money we retain. Obviously, $2.4M is more TOTAL dead money than the entire buyout price, but the truth is, no one should prioritize clearing salary cap for the 2021-22 season ON THE CONDITION that you're still clearing cap for the 2022-23 season.
The 2022-23 offseason is going to be VERY constricting for the New York Rangers. You probably know that Adam Fox, Kaapo Kakko, Vitali Kravtsov, and Mika Zibanejad are all due new contracts. But on top of that, the Rangers will still need about another $3-4M in salary cap just to round out the rest of the roster. That is EXACTLY why avoiding the dead cap from a buyout is crucial.
As for my hypothetical roster, I'm not going to acquire anyone specific. However, I am going to assume that we will have found our new center to pair with Zibanejad, and that the following players will not be on the roster: Ryan Strome, Brendan Lemieux, and Alexandar Georgiev. As you can see, I had a TON of difficulty staying under the cap. I was forced to sign four league minimum players -- and this does NOT include the $883k dead money from a Tony DeAngelo buyout. If that were included, I would not have been able to sign one of the four league minimum players without trading one of our RFAs in order to get under the cap with a 22 man roster.
I know some will suggest that trading Vitali Kravtsov or perhaps Pavel Buchnevich isn't the end of the world, and while that is true, it's much easier said than done to find their replacements. And chances are, it would probably just be a cheap and below average winger for under $2 million. As of now, we REALLY want to hold onto them.
I hope this illustrates why we need all the salary leeway we can possibly garner for the 2022-23 offseason, up to the point where even avoiding just $883k in dead money is worth it.
If you've made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read through my two posts. I encourage all feedback! I promise I'll get back to you, but for the past half hour I've been procrastinating on a paper. So just a heads up I probably won't be able to reply right away, haha
Good content. I just want to add something that most people including me tend to forget : bonuses that come with ELC contracts.
I dont fully understand them & how overages work, but you might need to consider that NYR cap space isn't really 81.5m. The DeAngelo situation makes it even more painful
Good content. I just want to add something that most people including me tend to forget : bonuses that come with ELC contracts.
I dont fully understand them & how overages work, but you might need to consider that NYR cap space isn't really 81.5m. The DeAngelo situation makes it even more painful
You get $6.1125M of leeway in bonuses (aka the Bonus Cushion). This roster wouldn't be affected by overages.
A DeAngelo cap dump trade (1yr at $4.8M, 5.8% of cap) isn't going to be pretty in a flat cap environment. Jets dumped Steve Mason (1yr at $4.1M, 5.5% of cap) in a better cap environment and it cost them Armia, a 4th and a 7th and they got a ballast (which retired soon after) in return. At the time, Armia was a young 3rd line winger with potential (as opposed to now, where he is at his ceiling).
If you can get away with losing a young roster player and a 4th that would be a steal in this environment.
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