NHL Rumor Mill – March 27, 2020
Check out the latest Rangers off-season speculation in today’s NHL rumor mill.
NEW YORK POST: Larry Brooks believes the Rangers face a daunting challenge to re-sign Tony DeAngelo this off-season. The 24-year-old defenseman is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights with 53 points in 68 games this season.
Can the New York Rangers afford a big raise for defenseman Tony DeAngelo? (Photo via NHL Images)
It could cost the Rangers at least $6 million on a long-term contract. The two parties could agree to a short-term bridge deal around $5 million per season. Failing that, DeAngelo could become the first Ranger in over a decade to file for arbitration, but that’s not an alternative favored by anyone.
A cap crunch is coming for the Rangers, with Jacob Trouba earning $8 million annually, Adam Fox due for a big raise down the road, and promising Nils Lundkvist within their system. If signing DeAngelo proves too difficult, Brooks suggested shopping him for a legit top-nine forward with top-six potential.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Cap Friendly indicates the Rangers have over $67 million invested in 15 players for next season. Assuming the cap remains at $81.5 million, a $6-million annual average value for DeAngelo will eat up almost half of their roughly $14 million in cap space.
If they can find a way to shed the final season of Henrik Lundqvist‘s contract (or a significant chunk of it), it would free up room for DeAngelo’s new deal. Still, it might also be a good idea to sell high on DeAngelo if they’re confident Trouba will improve, Fox won’t regress, and a promising youngster like Lundkvist can make an easy transition to the NHL.
Brooks also reported there was some discussion within the Rangers front office if they would be better off with a prototypical north-south forward (like Columbus’ Josh Anderson) rather than a finesse-oriented one like Pavel Buchnevich. While the 24-year-old winger surfaced in trade speculation, the Rangers weren’t close to moving him.
A primary reason is his compatibility with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider on and off the ice. He also reached career highs this season in assists (30) and points (46).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Buchnevich also has another season remaining on his contract with an affordable $3.25-million AAV. They can afford to hang onto him for another season and see if that chemistry with Zibanejad and Kreider continues to flourish.
Brooks reports Jesper Fast‘s future with the Blueshirts is in doubt. The 28-year-old winger will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season. Management had preliminary discussions with Fast’s camp before last month’s trade deadline but failed to reach an agreement on a contract extension.
A lower-than-projected salary cap for next season means fewer dollars for the Rangers, but also for other clubs, which could make it difficult for Fast to find better options elsewhere. Brooks speculates the Rangers could circle back to Fast once the fate of this season is decided.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Re-signing RFAs like DeAngelo, Brendan Lemieux, and Alexandar Georgiev could leave the Rangers with little room to retain Fast. Unless, of course, they find a way to shed Lundqvist’s contract.
It’s becoming more and more evident that some GM’s idea of managing their money is to arrange all their bills so that they face the same direction
I’m not sure that this is exactly Rocket Science.
Lundquist = $8.5million/ year with one year to go.
I think the Buyout formula is 2/3 of remaining total salary spread over twice the years of remaining total contract.
That means that in Buyout they pay him about $2.8 million for the next two seasons.
Saving themselves almost $5.7 million per year.
And that is pretty much the quoted amount for DeAngelo’s new deal at $6 million.
Yeah, yeah, team/player loyalty and all that.
Well it cuts both ways.
This way the Rangers get to keep both young G in the League, get to sign/ retain DeAngelo going forward, and now have one fewer players to sign for next year with the same remaining Cap space.
It has to be Lundquist going.
So either this, a trade with salary retained, or some other, more face-saving solution it will be.
Nothing else makes sense.
rich
ok, so they get rid of Lundquist and keep the youngsters, but wouldnt they both be eligible in the Seattle
Looks like the cap hit next season is $5.5M and $1.5M the year after if they buy out Lundquist
https://www.capfriendly.com/buyout-calculator/henrik-lundqvist/2020-06-15
Will that leave them enough for Strome, Lemieux, Georgiev, Fast and DeAngelo. Not sure the math works.
Somebody needs to go, and they have prospect depth on the blue line. Agree on keeping both tenders as who knows with young goalies. Both may shine, just one, or neither.
Tough call.
Wasn’t this current year DeAngelo’s freak season? or breakout season? I think Rag$ can sign him for less $$ 4.5 or so.
Some contracts have a form of a “force majeure clause” in them. This acknowledges that there exists events beyond anyone’s control that can nullify parts or all of a contract.
With all the complicated contracts that exist between the NHL and its players, suppliers and its customers, and all those high priced lawyers, I would be curious to know if this existed in players contracts and other contracts.
It does seem unreasonable that with revenues down to zero that contracts would continue as if nothing had changed.
Have any of you read or heard about such a clause in the NHL?
I am sure there is OBD. I heard on the radio on my way in to work that it does exist with the NBA and that players may have to repay some $$.
They expect to work out some sort of deal as if the league invokes that clause the CBA ends and a new one will need to be negotiated.
With the potential cap crunch and Tony’s potential asking price who is the trade partners? Wouldn’t they have the same issue?
That was a harder question to answer than I thought it would be Chrisms.
Winnipeg if Buff contract gets terminated, he retires, or they move him.
They need RD.
Roslovic comes back with a pick if required.
FLA if they shake things up.
Maybe. Not so sure the return on him would be overwhelming though. Only did it one year… rfa with tration rites…. potential for a bad contract. But decent thoughts on who might be interested.
trade ADA.
get some wingers.
Lots of issues resolved.
Go the other way, create more issues.
That’s how I see it.
It’s pretty much a no brained to lock up Deangelo. I was never a fan, but had zero to do with his play. He seems to have turned the corner on the maturity side which has always been his biggest problem.
Deangelo finished last year strong and has been one of the most productive d-men in the league this year. Why would you not sign him?
Ny has plenty of young d prospects. What are the odds any of them step in the next year and pick up where Deangelo left off? I’d say less than 0%
Brooks predicts gloom/doom. He was wrong about Kreider, although at time played both sides. Ultimately wrong, and I prefer it that way.