What's All This Cap Space For?

I’m absolutely stunned that it is this quiet around the Rangers at this point.

*checks notes*

President fired

GM fired

Coach fired

New President/GM

player wins Norris

new coach

Traded for player

Traded away a first liner

Traded away Brett Howden

lost player in expansion draft

NHL Draft

Bought out player

signed a RFA

We havent even hit Free Agency yet.

Doesn't make sense to leave it open for a year though. I don't need to pay anyone else this year, but I've got 13M in space?

 

We're going to have 32M in space as things stand for next year. We know Fox is going to come in between Heiskanen and Makar, let's say 9. We know Zib is going to come in around there too. We're at 14M left for Strome/C, Kakko, Kravtsov, Blais, a spare forward and a backup goalie.

 

We've got no reason to leave the cap open so long as we're not making significant long term investments - what are we doing with it all?

Not to digress here, but does it make sense to try and sign Fox to a lower AAV based on only 2 seasons worth of work? He may not win another Norris trophy next season, but chances are that his production will not fall off tremendously from this season; however that possibility does exist. The Rangers could make the obvious bet that is doesn't, and try to negotiate a max 8 years X 7.5 million AAV contract(60 million).

What does everyone get out of this? For the Rangers, they get a slight discount on the life of the contract assuming that Fox's production doesn't decline. Fox gets to lock in the 60 million against the possibility that he gets injured(or has his production drop significantly) and still becomes a free agent at 32 years with the possibility for another 3-4 year contract. If he waits a year to negotiate over the Summer of 2022 that 9 X 8 year contract would be worth 72 million. 12 million is obviously alot of money, but it may be considered nominal when you look at it as a bird in the hand vs. two in the bush perspective.

With the impending cap crunch, I think that Drury has to at least look into this possibility to try and find value where he can. Others have pointed out that Gorton waited a year too long to not identify who their core could be on the Buchnevich and Hayes contracts. I mean if they had proactively signed Buchnevich for 4-4.5 million before the season for the same 4 year term that he just signed in St. Louis for; they probably could have avoided giving him away for a 4th liner and 2nd round draft pick to save 1.8 million vs. the cap. At the very least his value coming off a season as a point per game forward would have had to yielded more.

*checks notes*

 

President fired

GM fired

Coach fired

New President/GM

player wins Norris

new coach

Traded for player

Traded away a first liner

Traded away Brett Howden

lost player in expansion draft

NHL Draft

Bought out player

signed a RFA

 

 

We havent even hit Free Agency yet.

I meant as in today and the Draft.

It's temporary cap space in a long-term contract world.

Yup. The only smart thing to do with it is throw a one year max deal at the top player that fits a hole in the roster. Imagine signing Dougie Hamilton for shiggles. Or Landeskog. Let them go after one year, no harm no foul.

Yup. The only smart thing to do with it is throw a one year max deal at the top player that fits a hole in the roster. Imagine signing Dougie Hamilton for shiggles. Or Landeskog. Let them go after one year, no harm no foul.

This or even the 1 year offer sheet route seems interesting. Logan Brown or Pettersson

This or even the 1 year offer sheet route seems interesting. Logan Brown or Pettersson

Would be ballsy given the penalty for offersheeting.

But, what if... 1 yr 13 mill to Petterson, with a verbal agreement on a long term contract at a lower aav signed the following year...a new kind of cap circumvention.

Would be ballsy given the penalty for offersheeting.

 

But, what if... 1 yr 13 mill to Petterson, with a verbal agreement on a long term contract at a lower aav signed the following year...a new kind of cap circumvention.

Yeah that’s pretty much what I was thinking. It is Ballsy but even ballsier is a young player turning down a 13 million dollar offer for one year of play! Then you just let them enjoy New York and playing with all the talent here and yeah hope they sign a cap friendly long term deal next year

The problem is they boxed themselves in badly with the Krieder and Trouba deals. It’s too much money to be spending on talent that is either stagnant or digressing.

You can sit on all this money but what does it REALLY accomplish? Nothing because once you sign all those people, you STILL haven’t really improved the team. You are still essentially the same

team that didn’t make the playoffs.

You hope the likes of Kakko and LaFreniere and some others really step up their game, but IMO, you are still missing a major cog(what that cog is, is to be determined). And that major cog will require money.

What they need to be doing is looking to move at least one of either Krieder or Trouba and get some of that money back off the books, I order to have money to actually improve the team.

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Yup. The only smart thing to do with it is throw a one year max deal at the top player that fits a hole in the roster. Imagine signing Dougie Hamilton for shiggles. Or Landeskog. Let them go after one year, no harm no foul.

This team isn’t even a playoff team. Why they making contender-like moves?

I guess I’m not seeing how this really helps the team. They aren’t winning the cup next season (sorry), so you take away development/playing time from someone that will get them to the cup for someone you can’t re-sign when it really matters? This is a video game move.

Yup. The only smart thing to do with it is throw a one year max deal at the top player that fits a hole in the roster. Imagine signing Dougie Hamilton for shiggles. Or Landeskog. Let them go after one year, no harm no foul.

This team isn’t even a playoff team. Why they making contender-like moves?

 

I guess I’m not seeing how this really helps the team. They aren’t winning the cup next season (sorry), so you take away development/playing time from someone that will get them to the cup for someone you can’t re-sign when it really matters? This is a video game move.

This team isn’t even a playoff team. Why they making contender-like moves?

 

I guess I’m not seeing how this really helps the team. They aren’t winning the cup next season (sorry), so you take away development/playing time from someone that will get them to the cup for someone you can’t re-sign when it really matters? This is a video game move.

In the case of a one year max deal, it weaponize the cap space to secure an asset that can be part of a winning core. A Landeskog who wants to play center, or as Phil mentioned, an Elias Petterson - those are good adds and we can use our cap space to basically buy off competition in a way that doesn't fuck us in the long run, because it's one year of a stupidly high hit.

Agree with @josh ... Also why are these players taking a risk signing a one year deal? They get injured and it's millions left on table.

Flat cap and limited opportunity? Kinda like Taylor Hall. Granted Landeskog and Hamilton will most likely find homes, but the flat cap is really hurting the appealing teams they might want to sign with. At least the Rangers are on an upward trajectory and could be fun to play with.

Flat cap and limited opportunity? Kinda like Taylor Hall. Granted Landeskog and Hamilton will most likely find homes, but the flat cap is really hurting the appealing teams they might want to sign with. At least the Rangers are on an upward trajectory and could be fun to play with.

That's why I would do it in a heartbeat. Of all the owners in the league, Dolan definitely won't miss that money. And the upside is Landeskog falling in love with New York and playing with a talented squad on the up and up like you said, and deciding to take a somewhat affordable extension at the end of the year, with the overpayment in the one-year contract being considered to bring down the AAV of the extension. The Zibanejad/Landeskog friendship could play a part in getting him to stay here as well. And yeah there is a chance this team wins the cup this year, albeit a slim one but if Vegas nearly did it in their first year as a team maybe anything is possible.

These players get one shot at unrestricted free agency usually, they're not going to take one year deals.

Especially a physical player like lando, if he gets injured and it ends his career, he's leaving millions on the table.

In the case of a one year max deal, it weaponize the cap space to secure an asset that can be part of a winning core. A Landeskog who wants to play center, or as Phil mentioned, an Elias Petterson - those are good adds and we can use our cap space to basically buy off competition in a way that doesn't fuck us in the long run, because it's one year of a stupidly high hit.

no, that's a rental.

no, that's a rental.

not if you re-sign them in January

That's why I would do it in a heartbeat. Of all the owners in the league, Dolan definitely won't miss that money. And the upside is Landeskog falling in love with New York and playing with a talented squad on the up and up like you said, and deciding to take a somewhat affordable extension at the end of the year, with the overpayment in the one-year contract being considered to bring down the AAV of the extension. The Zibanejad/Landeskog friendship could play a part in getting him to stay here as well. And yeah there is a chance this team wins the cup this year, albeit a slim one but if Vegas nearly did it in their first year as a team maybe anything is possible.

Landeskog has that exact situation in Colorado. Him not taking less is why he's on the market

not if you re-sign them in January

you don't have the cap space

Where have you been all thread?

you don't have the cap space

 

Where have you been all thread?

Doing actual math instead of trying to keep everyone.

You go out and get Landeskog or Petterson, you get rid of Strome and/or Chytil next offseason, math works fine.