Rangers to be saddled with $7,494,444 in dead cap space
The Rangers may have solved their cap issues for the upcoming season, but when 2020-2021 rolls around they will have almost $7.5M in dead cap space. The repercussions of this decision means big changes to this roster in 2 seasons.
The Aftermath
Yesterday it was confirmed that Kevin Shattenkirk would be bought out and restore a little over $5M back to their cap space. Combined with the expected moves of burying Brendan Smith and Matt Beleskey in the minors (saves an additional $2M+), they will be able sign both Tony DeAngelo and Brendan Lemieux to their qualifying offers. In essence the Rangers borrowed from tomorrow to pay for today.
Sadly for next season the Rangers will carry over $7M in dead cap space paying buyout penalties for Shattenkirk (6M), Dan Girardi (1.1M) and salary retention on Ryan Spooner (300K). That is basically Chris Kreider’s next contract, and likely spells the end of his tenure in NY come next year’s trade deadline.
The 2020-2021 Broadway Exodus
Aside from Kreider’s tenure with the Rangers ending, the Rangers will likely be parting ways with the following players as well:
Vlad Namestnikov (4M)
Ryan Strome (3.1M)
Jesper Fast (1.85M)
Combined with Kreider, that will be a little over $13M in cap space which they will need about 6M to re-sign DeAngelo and Lemieux again, but this time they will have arbitration rights. Alex Georgiev and Boo Nieves are also RFA’s next summer, plus the Rangers need to find cheap replacements for at least 2 of the 4 departing forwards.
Critics Everywhere
Funny how quickly fans turned on Jeff Gorton after going out and vastly improving the team this summer. Here’s my assessment based on everything I could learn over the last 2 weeks.
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