New York Rangers salary cap includes performance bonuses
When most people look at the New York Rangers salary cap, they focus on two things; the cap limit and projected cap space. If it were that easy, NHL teams wouldn’t hire people who focus on dealing with the salary cap in their front offices.
Depending on how the roster shakes out, they have around $1 million in cap space per CapFriendly. Yet the Rangers could be over the cap by the end of the season without making another roster move.
The often forgotten performance bonus is something that plays a big factor for team decisions. NHL teams need to make sure that’s covered by the end of the year or else it will be a cap penalty in 2023-24.
Which Rangers have performance bonuses
As it stands today, the Rangers could potentially payout $3,700,000 in performance bonus money by the end of the season. Here are the current rosters players eligible with their max performance money for 2022-23:
- Alexis Lafreniere (+$2.85 million)
- K’Andre Miller (+$400,000)
- Braden Schneider (+$400,000)
- Jaroslav Halak (+$50,000)
Of course, the roster for next year is not set in stone. Here’s a look at at some prospects with a chance to make the team along with their max performance bonus money:
- Nils Lundkvist (+$850,000)
- Brennan Othmann (+$450,000)
- Bobby Trivigno (+$212,500)
- Matthew Robertson (+$132,500)
- Will Cuylle (+$82,500)
When you begin to think of some key training camp battles, those performance bonuses could be a factor. The best example I can give you off the top of my head is Nils Lundkvist and Zac Jones. They are both expected to compete for that opening on the third defense pairing with Braden Schneider.
A deeper dive into their contracts shows Jones has no performance bonus to worry about. Meanwhile, Lundkvist could earn another $850,000 if he were to have a stellar year and achieve all his performance bonuses.
In the end, not all that performance money will be hit by players. But teams have to keep that cushion in mind or the overage will hit your cap the following season. Last season, the Rangers had many players with performance bonuses which was a concern, that is not the case for 2022-23.
We pointed out in yesterday’s salary cap series regarding buyout penalties that the Rangers will get back $3.4 million to the cap next season.
Editor’s note: The CBA allows for teams to go 7.5% over the cap in performance bonuses. That is $6.1 million, which the Rangers would be well covered at this point for next season. Portions of this article have been updated to reflect that information.
Note: All cap info from CapFreindly
Entry Level Performance Bonuses
Players on Entry Level contracts may have Schedule A and Schedule B performance bonuses.
Schedule A bonuses can be up to $212,500 each. For example, if a forward scores 20 goals or a defenseman scores 10 they can hit that bonus if it’s in their contract.
Schedule B bonuses are big and awarded for league-wide accomplishments. A player could earn up to $2 million dollars if they win the Hart Trophy etc…
For more information on Entry Level Performance Bonuses check out Puckpedia.
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