New York Rangers one of fifteen teams over the cap

NHL: Stanley Cup Playoffs-New York Rangers at New Jersey Devils
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The New York Rangers are one of fifteen teams that have gone over the cap due to performances bonuses and the use of LTIR (long term injured reserve). According to Hart Levine of PuckPedia, the Presidents’ Trophy winning Boston Bruins top the list at $4.5 million over.

They’re followed by the Philadelphia Flyers ($1.18M) and Montreal Canadiens ($1.17M) to round out the top three. Meanwhile, the Rangers come in 7th at $610,981 which will be applied to their cap for next season.

New York Rangers over the cap

NHL: New York Rangers at Vancouver Canucks
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The Rangers were actually facing a much larger carry over charge but the trade acquisitions of Vladimir Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola likely saved the Blueshirts around $400,000 for next season.

PuckPedia noted that those additions bumped Braden Schneider and Alexis Lafreniere out of potential time on ice bonuses.

At this time, the Blueshirts have 14 players under contract for next season, and if the cap only goes up by the projected one million ($83.5M), it gives them just $11,762,918 per PuckPedia to sign multiple players.

The two most important restricted free agents to sign are Lafreniere and K’Andre Miller. A large amount of that cap space will go to extending both of them and right now your guess is as good as mine on what it will take to keep them.

They’re each likely to get at least two-year bridge deals since they don’t have arbitration rights. For argument’s sake, let’s assume anywhere between $5-7 million will be used in order to make it happen. That’s now 16 players under contract in 2023-24 with the need to sign at least four forwards, one defenseman, and a backup goalie with just about $5-6 million in cap room.

Not an envious task for President and GM Chris Drury. Especially when you know that it’s near impossible to go an entire season without having an extra forward/defenseman on the roster.

That will put the Rangers in a tough position to look for ways to free up cap space either by trades or buyouts.

We’ll have more on what the Rangers can do as we get closer to the NHL Free Agency in July.

Anthony Scultore is the founder of Forever Blueshirts and has been covering the New York Rangers and the NHL... More about Anthony Scultore

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