Drury is Carefully Building a Championship Team Right Before Our Eyes.

Now that the trade deadline has come and gone and the new players the Rangers acquired have had a chance to acclimate themselves to their new team, it's time to state the obvious: apart from Justin Braun, the Flyer defenseman with 100 games of playoff experience that Chris Drury was able to pry away from Cliff Fletcher for a 4th round pick, all three forwards - Andrew Copp, Frank Vatrano and Tyler Motte - could be here to stay.

As the old saying goes, why rent when you can own? While other GMs in the league for the most part ponied up first and second round draft picks for the privilege of renting the services of players that will be gone next season, Drury set his sights a bit higher. He opted for players that can not only help his team now but, with a little creative math and the shuffling of one or two current players on the roster, can be retained after the playoffs are over.

I've been saying this for months now. The negotiations with Ryan Strome's agent over a contract extension are at the epicenter of all Drury's decision making with respect to the number two center position. In a nutshell, it is untenable for him not to have a Plan B in place in the event Strome decides to walk, which with the signing of Tomas Hertl to an eight-year extension by the San Jose Sharks, is all but a given. There's no way in hell Strome is going to get anywhere close to the $8.1 million salary Hertl will be making next season. Even if the Rangers had the cap space - which they don't - Drury would be a fool to even entertain such a contract.

It's also obvious that the longer these negotiations dragged on, the less likely it was going to be that the two sides would reach an agreement. And given that Drury locked up Igor Shesterkin and Mika Zibanejad before the start of the season, and Adam Fox shortly after, you can draw your own conclusions as to what happened and why. Suffice to say Strome's agent may have overplayed his hand by rejecting a deal that was believed to be around four years at $5.75 million AAV.

But that's water over the dam now. If Strome isn't staying, a replacement must be found. J.T. Miller was never a practical candidate. Yes, at $5.25 million through next season his contract was the most team friendly out there. Assuming the Vancouver Canucks even make him available during the off season, Drury would have to pay a king's ransom to land him. And as I wrote in an earlier piece, Drury would only be kicking the can down the road an additional season. A year from now, he'd be in the same predicament, but without the draft capital or assets needed to get out of it.

As for Mark Scheifele, the Winnipeg Jet comes in at $6.15 thru '24, which gives the Rangers an extra year to play with. But in the end, like Miller, the result would be the same: a parting of significant draft picks and assets with a limited return on investment. For the Rangers to tell their fan base that they endured a four-year playoff hiatus in order to enjoy a two to three year playoff window is a non starter. What Drury needed was a long-term solution that allowed him to protect his assets while still fielding a team that could contend for the Cup now and in the future. And it looks like he may have found it.

Andrew Copp and Frank Vatrano are not Claude Giroux and Rickard Rakell, that should be obvious. But they ain't Bobby Sheehan and Pierre Plante either. And considering what Drury paid to acquire them, it's fair to say he hit it out of the ball park, so to speak. Both players have made significant contributions since their arrival. Copp has a goal and four assists in his first four games as a Ranger, while Vatrano has five goals in his first seven. The new additions also seem to have impacted the team's overall performance, as well. According to Stat Boy Steven, since the trade deadline, the Rangers 5v5 scoring has almost doubled, from 1.87 goals per game to a league-leading 3.6. That cannot be a coincidence.

And here's the best news: While both players are UFAs after the season, both can be re-signed without breaking the bank. Now that the NHL has made it official that the salary cap is going up to $82.5 million next season - an increase of $1 million over this season - that leaves the Rangers with $11.7 million in cap space with 16 players under contract. While not as bad as the Florida Panthers, who have only $4.5 million available with 15 players under contract, it does mean that Drury will have to thread the needle carefully over the summer.

If he can find someone to take Patrik Nemeth's contract off his hands, that would increase the amount Drury has to play with by $2.5 million. And if he can move Filip Chytil, that would free up an additional $2.3 million. Say Copp signs for $5 million and Vatrano for $3 million. That leaves $8.5 million left for Kaapo Kakko ($2.4m?), Motte ($1.5m), Sammy Blais ($1.5m), Zac Jones ($925k) and a backup goalie ($1m). My point is Drury has everything he needs within his own organization to build a contender next season and beyond. How many GMs can say that?

Since taking over as president and general manager of the Rangers, I've been very impressed with Drury. He's been methodical and deliberate in the moves he's made. There's always a rhyme and a reason for everything he does. Indeed, he seems to be taking a page out of Julien BriseBois' playbook. If the Tampa Bay Lightning go on to win their third Stanley Cup in a row this spring, it'll be due in no small part to the job BriseBois has done as GM.

Bottom line, the cupboard is full, the future bright. Trust the process, people. Chris Drury knows what he's doing.

The Pros and Cons of Rangers Trading for J.T. Miller

Before I get to J.T. Miller, a word on the new Covid-19 protocols that the NHL and the NHL Players' association jointly announced. Beginning February 3, the league will no longer test fully vaccinated, asymptomatic players. Only players who develop symptoms will be tested, and if positive, will be isolated. The lone exception will be teams that travel across the border to Canada. In those instances, the protocols will be dictated by the "relevant health authorities." In other words, for teams in the lower 48, the NHL will adopt the NFL protocols; for teams in Canada, the Provinces will run the show.

It's a welcome sign that this league, which was forced to postpone dozens of games over the last six weeks, has finally admitted what the medical experts have been saying for a couple of months now: that while Covid-19 isn't going anywhere, for the vast majority of people who are fully vaccinated, the health risk is relatively small. In the end, pragmatism won out. Good for them, and good for the fans who will now be able to see their teams play at or near full capacity.

Now onto the main topic. Frank Seravalli of Daily Face-off is reporting that the Rangers are one of the teams interested in trading for the services of the Vancouver Canucks' center. 

Let's assume for the moment that Seravalli is right and Chris Drury is serious about re-acquiring the player his predecessor Jeff Gorton sent packing in 2017, along with Ryan McDonagh, in what is now considered one of the franchise's most lopsided trades. 

It would signal two things: 1. After returning home from a 3-2 road trip that saw them take over first place in the Metropolitan division with 54 points, Drury believes this team has a legitimate shot at a deep run in the postseason; and 2. Contract negotiations with Ryan Strome's agent don't appear to be going well. If I had to guess, I'd say it's mostly the latter that is driving this bus.

With Strome scheduled to become a UFA after the season, it's logical to assume he is seeking a rather long and substantial payday, say six years at around $7 million AAV. He's currently making $4.5 million. Given the cap constraints the Rangers will be under for the foreseeable future, such a contract would be too rich for Drury's blood. So unless he can talk Strome's agent down to a more mutually beneficial number, say four years at closer to $5.75M AAV, Drury's hands will be tied.

Hence the Miller speculation.

Of course, it wouldn't surprise me one bit to learn that Drury is floating the idea of a possible class reunion with Miller to force Strome's agent to come to the table. I can't be the only one who thinks it wasn't a coincidence that within 24 hours after Larry Brooks of The New York Post reported last October that the Rangers would only be interested in trading for Jack Eichel if they believed they couldn't re-sign Mika Zibanejad that the two sides miraculously came to an agreement on a contract extension. The more I see of Drury, the more impressed I become with him.

So, what are the pros and cons of J.T. Miller coming back to the organization that drafted him?

The pros:

1. Since his departure from Broadway, Miller has developed into one of the better pivotmen in the NHL, averaging just under a point a game over the last three seasons. With 38 points in 38 games, he is currently the leading scorer on the Canucks this year. As a Ranger, he would be tied with Artemi Panarin for second in team scoring, right behind Adam Fox, who has 39.

2. In addition to his offense, Miller is exceptional on draws. At 53.5 percent, he would be tops on the Rangers. For a team that has struggled winning face-offs over the last few years, this would be like manna from heaven.

3. Miller has one of the best team-friendly contracts in the league at $5.25 million AAV and is signed thru 2023. Re-acquiring him would give Drury the financial flexibility he needs to retain Kaapo Kakko, who is scheduled to become an RFA after the season. It also doesn't hamstring him if he wants to acquire a rental like Reilly Smith from the Vegas Golden Knights. Imagine a top line of Chris Kreider, Zibanaejad and Smith and a second line of Panarin, Miller and Strome, who I assume would shift to right wing. Now that would be a helluva one-two punch.

The cons:

1. Strome is gone. I've crunched the numbers over and over and there's no way the Rangers can afford to keep both Miller and Strome next season. Even if they decide to let Kakko walk - a bad idea - and they find someone to take Patrik Nemeth off their hands, they still don't have the room for both players. With the salary cap scheduled to increase by only one million to $82.5 in 2022-23 - and that's assuming the Omicron variant doesn't impact the league's bottom line further - a lot of teams are going to be faced with some tough choices next season, the Rangers no exception. Face it, this pandemic has really fucked things up royally.

2. The chemistry on the team could suffer. So far this season, the Rangers have been one of the most resilient teams in the NHL. They continue to defy the analytics gods who insist they aren't as good as their record suggests. They currently have the third-best penalty kill percentage in the league and their power play has been in the top ten for most of the season. They also boast one of the best goaltenders in Igor Shesterkin. His acrobatics in net have allowed them to win games they had no business winning. Trading for Miller could upset the apple cart, so to speak. There's no way of telling how Panarin would react knowing that Strome's days with the team are numbered. Drury would be taking a huge gamble potentially pissing off his top winger.

3. Despite Miller's team-friendly contract, Drury would only be kicking the can down the road an additional year. Come the '23 season, he'd be faced with the same dilemma he's facing now: a pending UFA he can't afford to re-sign. With no one in the system capable of stepping in - and let's face it, Morgan Barron is not the answer - Drury would have the daunting task of trying to find someone who can put up numbers comparable to either Strome or Miller, and who doesn't cost a king's ransom. Good luck with that.

So why Miller and not someone like Tomas Hertl of the San Jose Sharks? As a UFA, Hertl would be the ideal rental and Drury could land him without sacrificing any of his valuable assets. Then there's Claude Giroux. With the Philadelphia Flyers sinking faster than the Lusitania, a second-rounder and a couple of prospects might do the trick.

A rental, of course, assumes Drury can re-sign Strome. All things being equal, he'd probably prefer to do that. But if Strome's agent plays hardball, Drury may have no other option than to pull the trigger on Miller. Getting him won't be cheap. Vancouver will demand at the very least a first round pick, a young center who can develop - Filip Chytil makes sense - and a top prospect - anyone but Braden Schneider, Will Cuylle or Brennan Othmann.

Evaluating Chytil is the Key to Rangers' Future Success

Some thoughts on the news that Sammy Blais will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL due to a collision with P.K. Subban, and where the Rangers go from here.

One, it's time the NHL finally dealt with this man. This is not the first time Subban has injured someone by slew footing them. Ryan Reeves was almost seriously injured during the pre-season when Subban stuck out his leg, causing Reeves's right leg to buckle and landing him on his ass. And while technically, Subban did not slew foot Blais, he definitely stuck out his leg and caused Blais to go down awkwardly. A simple fine won't be sufficient; the league must suspend him in order to send a clear message.

Two, while Blais was having a good season, four assists in 14 games is hardly what I would call indispensable. It's amusing to see the same people who publicly ripped Chris Drury a new one for only getting Blais in return for Pavel Buchnevich now proclaiming Blais as the second coming of Stephane Matteau. At best, he's a third or fourth line winger. The fact that he was on the first line says more about the team's lack of depth at right wing than it does about Blais' bonafides.

Three, having said all that, it was a relief to see that Gerard Gallant resisted the urge to replace Blais with Filip Chytil on this line. While my first choice would've been to move Chris Kreider over to right wing - where he's scored all but 3 of his team-leading 12 goals - and promote Alexis Lafreniere to the first line, I can live with Barclay Goodrow there for now. He does have 7 points so far this season and he's played alongside Kreider before; it was Goodrow's pass from center ice that set up Kreider's goal in Seattle earlier in the season. And I must admit, having Lafreniere on the third line with Chytil and Julien Gauthier, who scored his first goal of the season last night against the Habs, does make this team deeper and harder to play against.

But the biggest reason for keeping Chytil at center has more to do with next season than it does this season. As I've mentioned before, the Rangers have a salary cap problem that is going to profoundly impact the roster for the next several years. They may have $7 million in available cap space now, but once the season is over, all that goes out the window. Both Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad's contract extension's kick in next season. Between the two, the Blueshirts will have to pony up over $11 million in additional salary. 

But they're not out of the woods just yet. That's because Ryan Strome, who's currently making $4.5 million, is a UFA. When you factor in that Kaapo Kakko and Alexandar Georgiev are both RFAs, the total hit to sign all could well exceed $15 million. Even if the team decides to let Georgiev walk, they still have to come up with a suitable backup goalie, and that won't be cheap. Neither Tyler Wall nor Keith Kinkaid seem like viable options - Kinkaid looked average at best in his brief stint with the Rangers last season - so Chris Drury will most likely have to look outside the organization to find one.

Clearly some tough decisions are going to have to be made if this franchise is to make the jump from playoff contender to Cup contender. While Strome is having another solid season anchoring the second line with Artemi Panarin on the left and Kakko on the right, unless Drury can convince him to re-sign for the same salary, he will be gone next year.

And that means it is imperative that Gallant find out whether Chytil can handle the 2C position. Before he got hurt in a collision with Blais a week ago, Chytil had a goal and an assist in the game at Edmonton. Last night, he put on a burst of speed, blew past the Montreal defense and hit the goal post. His forecheck helped set up Gauthier's goal in the 3rd period. When he's been healthy, he has shown signs of promise.

And that's the rub for Chytil. He has proven to be brittle. Last year he missed 14 games due to injury. Assuming he has what it takes to be the second-line center, can management entrust him with the duties knowing he's one hit away from being out for an extended period of time?

Now you know why Drury signed Goodrow instead of Blake Coleman. Goodrow has played both center and wing throughout his career and is comfortable playing either. If push comes to shove, Drury can always trade Chytil for a bruising winger. Then maybe Strome re-ups for, say, $5.5 million, and Goodrow centers the third line. Not ideal, but it works (see chart below).

But none of that can happen until a full assessment is made of Chytil. He is the key to any future success this team has. If he develops into a solid 2C, then Strome is gone; if he doesn't, Drury will likely trade him and do his best to retain Strome.

It's all on Gallant's shoulders. He has the unenviable task of determining who plays and where. We know David Quinn wasn't up to the challenge, which is one of the reasons why he's no longer behind the bench. Gallant has gotten teams with less talent into the postseason. The question that begs to be answered is whether he can navigate a team coming out of a rebuild into the postseason while not sabotaging its still uncertain and fragile future.

Season	2022-23
NHL CAP	$82,500,000.00
Forwards
Panarin	$11,642,857.00
Zibanejad	$8,500,000.00
Kreider	$6,500,000.00
Strome	$5,500,000.00
Goodrow	$3,641,667.00
Kakko	$2,300,000.00
Reaves	$1,750,000.00
Blais	$1,500,000.00
Lafreiniere	$925,000.00
Cuylle	$850,833.00
Gauthier	$775,000.00
Hunt	$762,500.00
Rooney	$750,000.00

Total	$45,397,857.00
Defensemen
Fox	$9,500,000.00
Trouba	$8,000,000.00
Lindgren	$3,000,000.00
Nemeth	$2,500,000.00
Lundkvist	$925,000.00
Miller	$925,000.00
Tinordi	$900,000.00

Total	$25,750,000.00
Goalies
Backup	$1,000,000.00
Shesterkin	$5,666,667.00

Total	$6,666,667.00
Buyouts
Girardi	$1,111,111.00
Shattenkirk	$1,433,333.00
DeAngelo	$883,334.00

Total	$3,427,778.00
Total Cap Hit	$81,242,302.00
CAP SPACE	$1,257,698.00

Rangers Lock Up Their Fox

For once the Twitter universe was in complete agreement. News that the New York Rangers have re-signed their Norris trophy-winning defenseman Adam Fox to a seven year extension with a $9.5 million AAV was met with widespread approval. Even the Debbie Downers who expressed their skepticism about the Mike Zibanejad extension three weeks ago took the night off on this one. For once, all was right with the world.

Let's be honest. The moment the Bruins inked Charlie McAvoy to an eight-year, $9.5 million contract, you knew Fox was going to get the same money. The only question was why didn't Chris Drury lock him up for the full eight years? He certainly had the option to do so if he wanted. Also, while the terms have not yet been disclosed, you can bet the ranch Fox got a no move clause for the full duration. Meaning he isn't going anywhere.

The significance of this signing cannot be overstated. In an earlier piece, I wrote that Artemi Panarin was the best player on this team, but that in a couple of years, Fox might supplant him. Turns out I was only off by about two years. Adam Fox, right now, IS the best player on this team and will likely be so for the foreseeable future. Indeed, both he and Igor Shesterkin are almost entirely responsible for the Rangers being tied for second place in the Metropolitan division going into tonight's game against Vancouver instead of in dead last. Between Shesterkin's acrobatics in net and Fox's clutch scoring, a team that still hasn't gotten comfortable with coach Gerard Gallant's system is quickly becoming one of the best stories of the season.

But while Drury locked up yet another vital component of his core, he will have his work cut out for him next season. That's because Ryan Strome will be a UFA. The second-line center is currently making $4.5 million and when he hits the open market next summer he will fetch in the neighborhood of $6 to $7 million per year. According to Capfriendly, when you account for the Fox and Zibanejad signings and the $3.4 million in dead cap space, the Rangers have a total of $70.8 million committed for 2022-23 with only 16 players under contract. The NHL allows each team up to 23 players.

Starting to see the problem? Even if, as expected, the league increases the salary cap to $82.5 million, that leaves Drury with approximately $11.6 million to sign seven players. And that's not counting the bonus cushion penalty that teams are required to set aside for players with ELCs that have bonus provisions. For instance, this season, the Rangers are setting aside $1.4 million. Assuming that next year's cushion is the same, the real number for Drury will be closer to $10.2 million. Good luck squeezing seven players into $10.2 million.

Bottom line, Strome is gone. Whether he's dealt at the trade deadline or he walks during the summer, the Rangers simply cannot afford to keep him. That's why it is imperative that this team find out whether Filip Chytil can hack it as a number two center. I've been saying for weeks that Galant needs to pair him with Alex Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko to give him the ice time he needs to display his talents. David Quinn tried this combination a few times last season with mixed results. If Gallant can't get him to the next level, Drury will have to find a suitable replacement for both him and Strome that is affordable. 

As for the balance of the roster, Drury can sign Kakko to a two-year bridge deal similar to the one Pavel Buchnevich got two years ago. $3.25 million is more than fair for a player that is still developing into the second overall pick of 2019. Maybe Sammy Blais re-ups for $1.5 million; the same for Kevin Rooney at $750,000. Drury has several goalies in Hartford that can take Alexandar Georgiev's place as a backup for under a mill. With a little creativity, the Rangers should be able to field a team that can contend while still remaining under the cap. Once the dead cap comes off the books in '23, Drury should have enough to re-sign Lafreniere in two years.

Things will be tight but manageable for the next couple of seasons. But this organization is headed in the right direction. Rangers fans who've been more than patient during this rebuild will soon be rewarded for their loyalty. Think about it. They have two of the top ten forwards in the league, a top five defenseman who's just entering the prime of his career, and an elite goalie that might one day win the Vezina trophy. 

How many teams can say that?

Rangers Glass Half Empty

This time there was no miracle comeback. This time there were no acrobatic saves. The lucky and resilient Rangers were neither last night against a Calgary Flames team that out checked, out hustled and, in the end, outscored them. The final score was 5-1, and like the season opener in Washington, it was a fair representation of a team that is still finding it difficult acclimating to the system their coach wants them to play.

After a four-game road winning streak that saw them play maybe four periods of spirited hockey, last night's performance was a dud, to say the least. Time after time, the Rangers tried to carry the puck out of their zone; time after time, the Flames prevented them from doing so. When they did manage to gain the offensive zone, their passes were often intercepted and led to scoring chances the other way. 

Chris Tanev had one of those chances when the Rangers got caught up ice on a 3 on 2. The Calgary defenseman scored with 70 seconds left in the first period. Another came courtesy of a giveaway by Patrik Nemeth behind his own net early in the second and was converted by Andrew Mangiapane. And just like that it was 2-0 Flames. In all, they committed twenty giveaways, nine in the opening period.

We've seen this movie before. The Caps, the Stars, the Senators and now the Flames. The common theme in all four games has been a lackluster performance leading to deficits that make it difficult to overcome. Seriously, if you had the Rangers scoring three goals in a span of 3:20 in Ottawa you're either a liar or clairvoyant. Regardless, this is no way for a team to play if it has any postseason aspirations.

Consider this: not one of the seven teams the Rangers have played this season is considered a legit Cup contender. I know there are fans in Washington and Toronto who might beg to differ. Let them. If either the Caps or Maple Leafs makes it to the finals, I'll start buying lotto tickets. Like I wrote in my last piece, if this is how they're going to play against teams that are beatable, imagine what's going to happen to them when they play against the Bruins, the Hurricanes, or, gulp, the Islanders.

They haven't scored more than three goals in a game all season. Their power play is an anemic 3 for 26. Apart from the goaltending, the lone bright spot has been their penalty kill, which had successfully killed off 14 straight power plays until Mangiapane scored on a five on four at 19:55 of the third period.

Gerard Gallant hinted they might have been tired after a long road trip. Excuses won't cut it. They weren't tired out there, they were sloppy; sloppy and stubborn. They still think they can carry the puck into the zone and set up shop like it's the '80s or something. This reluctance to dump the puck in the corner and forecheck is mind numbing. Even more frustrating is the unwillingness to put bodies in front of the opponents net. Indeed, their only goal came as a result of Kevin Rooney and Dryden Hunt screening the Calgary goaltender with Hunt pouncing on the rebound. See how simple that was?

They got Ryan Strome back last night. He was one of the few bright spots on the ice, winning 11 of 12 face-offs and setting up Artemi Panarin for a breakaway that was stopped. Kaapo Kakko makes his return from an upper-body injury Friday when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets, another beatable team. After that, they embark on a road trip out west.

They're 4-2-1. They could easily be 2-4-1. Barring a trade or serious injury, this is the team that will determine whether the rebuild started by Jeff Gorton four years ago, and tweaked by Chris Drury this summer, was successful or not. Are the Rangers a contender or a pretender? This is the question that remains to be answered. I'm still bullish on the former, but then I've been known to be wrong.

Just take a look at my blog posts.

Rangers Can't Afford To Get Sentimental Over Lundqvist

Face it, growing old sucks. Trust me, I know. I'm 59 going on 80. And that's on a good day. I can't imagine what it must feel like to be an athlete and to grow old. The window for a professional athlete is extremely small. Most don't survive for more than a decade without serious decline setting in.

For the better part of 15 years, Henrik Lundqvist has been an elite goaltender who was almost single-handedly responsible for the Rangers advancing to the Stanley Cup finals in 2014. And if his team had managed to protect multiple two-goal leads in games one and two against the Los Angeles Kings, it is quite likely that the Blueshirts would've captured the Cup that year and the King, as he has come to be affectional called, would've been awarded the Conn-Smyth trophy.

Alas, that wasn't the case. The Rangers blew those two-goal leads and with it the series, losing in five. The following year (2014-15) the team won the President's trophy only to lose to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the conference finals. From there, it's been all downhill. Back-to-back early exits in the first and second rounds respectively, followed by a two-year hiatus from the playoffs altogether.

All that brings us to this past season. A young coach and a very young team with an aging goalie, who looks more like a backup than a perineal Vezina trophy winner. Were Lundqvist making what most backups make, he'd be a steal. But with a salary cap hit of $8.5 million, he's a luxury this team can no longer afford.

In an earlier piece, I wrote that the Rangers had approximately $13 million available cap space with which to sign their RFAs and UFAs. In actuality, it's $14 million, so they shouldn't have all that much difficulty, right?

Wrong.

Turns out I neglected to factor in all those ELCs that the team is carrying. What is an ELC, you ask? That would be an entry level contract, and the Rangers have a boat load of them. While on the surface, it may seem as though players on entry level deals are quite cheap insofar as the cap is concerned, if you look under the hood, they're not quite as cheap as you might suspect.

That's because virtually all ELCs carry what's called a performance bonus that if a player hits, entitles him to additional money. And that additional money, as you might expect, gets added to the cap. According to Capfriendly, the Rangers would need to set aside roughy $7 million in cap space if all their ELCs were to hit their bonus levels.

How likely is that to happen? Let's put it this way, would you want to take a chance that Igor Shesterkin wins the Vezina and Kaapo Kakko scores something like 80 points and have to pay out more than $5 million in bonuses between them, only to find out you don't have enough cap room and are now relying on the benevolence of Gary Bettman to avoid what will almost assuredly be a substantial penalty? I sure as shit wouldn't.

So, long story short, that $14 million is now, for all intents and purposes, $7 million, which barely covers the cost of re-signing Ryan Strome and Brendan Lemieux. The former is an absolute must. There's no way this team can afford to go into next season without a number two center, not unless you think Filip Chytil is ready to assume those duties. And from what we saw last season, that would be an enormous risk, one that the franchise would be reckless to take. You don't commit $11 million a year to arguably the best left wing in the NHL in Artemi Panarin and not have a legitimate center to feed him the puck. Strome and Panarin were - to coin a phrase from the movie Forrest Gump - peas and carrots. You don't split that pair up unless you're pretty damn sure you have someone in the wings who can step right in and assume the role.

So let's say Strome agrees to a two-year bridge deal for $5 million a year, and Lemieux re-signs for, say, $2 million. Now what? You're at your cap limit, and you still have at least two players left to sign. Without shedding some salary, you're basically rolling the dice hoping your young players under perform. But what would be the point of that? Either these last three years have been worth it or they haven't. The truth is nothing would accelerate this rebuild more than to see Kakko have a breakout season alongside Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider.

And let's not forget, there will be one pretty substantial young player joining the team next season: Alexis Lafreniere, the overall number one pick. And unless the scouting reports on this kid are severely off, he will likely hit his performance bonus with room to spare, meaning the Rangers would need to set aside at least $2 million for him, not the standard $925,000.

You can see where this is going. If it sucks getting old, imagine what it must be like being the GM of the second youngest team in the league with a lot of holes to fill and not enough available cap space to fill them.

That's why it is imperative that the Rangers buy out Lundqvist's contract. Sure it adds more dead cap space to an already mountainous total, but Gorton has no other choice. He needs the $3 million in cap relief to help him fill out his roster, and even then, he'll have to get creative.

This is the part of the game nobody likes. A player who has given everything he can for an organization that came up short twice and is now on the verge of putting together a core that will hopefully be together for many years, is now the square peg in a round hole, and that sucks. If there was another way to do this, I'm sure the Rangers would've found it by now. 

He isn't going to retire, nor should he, and in a league with a flat cap and with several teams needing to shed salary themselves, no one is going to trade for a 38 year-old goaltender that is at least two years removed from elite status. Even with the Rangers picking up half the tab, you're still talking about $2.75 million. Think about it this way: the Rangers will likely have to fork over $2 million just to re-sign Alexandar Georgiev, and he's 24. Get the idea?

It's been a nice career for Hendrik Lundqvist; a brilliant career, in fact. As I've said before, he's the best Ranger never to win a Stanley Cup, but it's time to move on. Gorton knows it and so does Lundqvist.

Parting is such sweet sorrow, especially when it's bittersweet.

Post script, 

Breaking News: the Rangers announced Saturday that they have traded defenseman Marc Staal and a 2021 second-round draft pick to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for future considerations. Staal was in the final year of a contract that paid him $5.7 million. Detroit was able to absorb the full amount of Staal's cap hit because they were significantly under the minimum and actually needed to add salary.

Given this development, the Rangers might decided not to buy out Lundqvist but I would still do it. The added cap space would help them acquire a solid left-handed defense partner for Jacob Trouba - Vince Dunn? - and allow them to re-sign Tony DeAngelo who had a good year offensively last season.