I wonder if there’s a way to retain $2.5 mil on Trouba and trade him. He’d have to waive but it’d give us another $1.5 mil in cap space. Might be wishful thinking but I hope in 2025-26 both Sykora and Perrault can make the team cause that’d go a long way in giving us more flexibility. I wonder if we could Lindgren locked up to the Cernak contract at $5.25 mil. $6 mil is a little scary given his play style, but he is the lynchpin of the defense core. Instead of taking back Coyle I wonder if just retaining 50% on Panarin would work for a trade. He’d be at $5.8-5.9 mil for the last year of his deal and that should squeak out another $1-2 mil in cap space as well. I looked at the other post and I do think Stephenson will be closer to a $7-8 mil player on his next deal. But with Chytil and Trocheck I’m not as worried. The key for this team is really going to come down to the development of Othmann, Cuylle, Berard, Perrault and Sykora. Those guys flourish and we could be in a solid spot. If they struggle and Kakko, Chytil and Laf are unable to take the next step, then we might be in some serious trouble. Hopefully they can iron out the awful development issues so we can end up with less Ryan Gropp’s & Dylan Mcilrath’s and more Ryan Callahan’s & Pavel Buchnevich’s.

For starters, I was alerted to the fact that Stephenson will command more like $7M. I overlooked the fact that he is a late bloomer, posting consecutive 60 point seasons with Vegas. However, that does not negate what I was attempting to demonstrate.

If you could trade Trouba, I would do it. But contract wise, Trouba has always been about Trouba. His contract was predicated by his wife's Medical School agenda. She finished up a year or so ago. A trade would be better for sure.

Re: Lindgren, I might be a tad high. $5.25M is a reasonable alternative. Re: Panarin salary retention: I considered as high as 50%, I'll have to explore that further, but it certainly isn't out of the question.

Regarding the kids in the pipeline, a share your sentiment completely. Although as you point out, they have a bad track record with prospects in their system. I thought it best, for my purposes, to stick with NHL'ers to simplify matters.

I'm not worried about Chytil or Trocheck either.

I believe I found a ***** in CapFriendly's armor. When I bought out Trouba and Goodrow for 24-25, the buyout numbers were correct. But for 25-26, CapFriendly assumes that the buyout is occurred in the year you are working. I could find no way to demonstrate accurate numbers for a buyout that occurred in a prior year. But I created a spreadsheet with accurate numbers, and the math worked.

As always, you provide thoughtful and insightful commentary that I appreciate. I'm going to go back to the drawing board later today. I have a nice seafood lunch planned before I can resume. Have a great day. Looking forward to our next exchange.

BTW - The Alaska King Crab Claws were not cheap, but they were delicious. A belated lunch (by four months) to mark my 72nd birthday.

As they like to say in the nation's capital, I'd like to revise and extend my remarks.

Now down to business. As things stand at this moment, the Rangers need to resolve the Laffy - K'Andre and possibly the Goodrow issues before trying to project future years. They have just a bit more than $6M to work with. I always like to leave $1M or so to give a GM some room to maneuver during the season. In my mind, there is really just $5M to work with. It's been "all quiet on the western front since the free agency window opened. Here's what I think is going on.

The Trouba and Goodrow contracts make more sense to buyout next year. That said, the I am sure the Rangers are shopping Goodrow. Maybe Anaheim in a reverse cap dump to enable the Ducks to reach the CAP floor. And I would be all for a Trouba trade, if possible, this year. That would go a long way toward retaining both K'Andre and Laffy.

K'Andre and Laffy are both likely to receive competing offer sheets. With only $5M or so ($6M, and probably less than that at most) to work with. Unless both are willing to take less to stay with the Rangers, you will have to decide which one you want to keep. Until this is resolved, trying to project the out years is a bit of a guessing game (although I intend to tinker with this problem). I will re-visit the out years at that time. Ranger management may also be shopping both to gauge interest in helping the decision-making process. I know what the pronouncements have been, but they are always for public consumption. There are a lot of moving parts potentially.

Some further comments on your earlier response: Lindgren at $5.25M seems to be right in the middle of most of the estimates I've seen. And after some considerable reflection, I'm convinced your estimate is correct.

I also intend to use the 25 to 50 percent retained salary of a final year trade of the Breadman. The closer to 25%, the better. As a said in an earlier post on another thread, who the idiot who agreed to a buyout scenario where you could reduce to CAP by $300K to a meager $11.3M.

Finally, Chandler Stephenson is off the table. That was clearly an oversight on my part.

Stay tuned!!!

Just posted a hypothetical team "What to do." I am really looking forward to the responses.