The NHL playoffs are grueling, but the truly hard part for the New York Rangers comes now, as general manager Glen Sather decides who will be back for another try at the Stanley Cup and who will be gone.
From the team whose season just ended three victories from a championship, six players will become unrestricted free agents on July 1. Sather will mostly likely have to confront what so many general managers have faced in the NHL’s salary-cap era — breaking up a team that had both success and promise for the future.
Sather will almost certainly have to say goodbye to Brad Richards, his prize signing three summers ago, who became the voice of the team. Richards, 34, is not set to become a free agent, but his contract, which he signed for US$60 million in 2011, extends all the way to 2020.
However warm Sather’s appreciation for Richards may be, the cold calculus of the balance sheet will always prevail. The Rangers have at their disposal a compliance buyout, which must be used by 5pm on June 30, and Sather’s farewell to Richards could come as soon as Monday.
If Richards and his US$6.67 million annual cap hit go elsewhere, Sather may be better able to re-sign some of the team’s pending free agents.
Three are key forwards: Brian Boyle and Dominic Moore from the fourth line and Benoit Pouliot from the third, which often functioned as the top line during the playoffs.
Useful substitutes Daniel Carcillo, a wing, and Raphael Diaz, a defenseman, are also set to become unrestricted free agents, as is second-pair defenseman Anton Stralman, who, in some playoff games, was the Rangers’ best blue-liner.
In addition, five players will become restricted free agents: linchpin forwards Chris Kreider, Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello; promising third-pair defenseman John Moore; and spare defenseman Justin Falk.
Sather would probably like to lock up all of them except Falk, but that would require salary-cap space the Rangers may not have.
Next season’s salary cap should be about US$70.5 million, up from US$64.3 million for the season that just ended. That would leave the Rangers with about US$16 million in available cap space for the seven to 10 players they must sign and carry on their roster.
Boyle, 29, had a US$1.7 million cap hit last season — the average of his three-year contract — but his value skyrocketed this spring. A big center whose game has improved in the playoffs, he can expect a substantial raise, whether from the Rangers or from another team.
Dominic Moore, 33, cost the Rangers US$1 million in cap space. Versatile enough that he effectively centered the Rangers’ second line this spring, he, too, will command more money next season.
Pouliot, 27, is a former first-round draft choice who, this past season, finally started to produce like one. His salary (and cap hit) was US$1.3 million and he is likely to ask for a good bit more.
Stralman, 27, has transformed himself from a journeyman into a legitimate top-four defenseman. Many teams will probably be willing to use up much more than the US$1.7 million of cap space he cost the Rangers.
Carcillo (US$825,000) and Diaz (US$1.22 million) are less vital, but would be less expensive to keep.
Sather could theoretically re-sign all those players, but that would leave him less to spend to keep the hugely important Brassard (whose cap hit was US$3.2 million), Kreider (US$800,000) and Zuccarello (US$1.15 million), not to mention John Moore (US$840,000).
The likelihood is that one or more of these players will have to go.
It will not be comfortable for the Rangers to part with any of them, Richards perhaps most of all, but Sather can take solace in knowing that wherever the departing players go, they earned their raises by helping the Rangers reach the Stanley Cup Final.
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