Larry Brooks notes that the Rangers are likely to have around $19 million in cap space if the salary cap rises to around $83 million. (NY Post)
He notes that RFAs Pavel Buchnevich, Brendan Lemieux, Tony DeAngelo and Neal Pionk are likely to take around $10 million of that $19 million and that the remaining space would likely only allow for “one marquee addition.” (NY Post)
The Hockey News Free Agent issue projected the Rangers RFAs to sign deals that have cap hits between $2 million and $3 million each.
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Pionk and Buchnevich are each arbitration eligible.
When that was brought up to Jeff Gorton, Gorton told Brooks that the Rangers have “a number of guys who are pretty valuable around the league” and will have flexibility. (NY Post)
Gorton also noted that teams are allowed to be 10% above the upper limit of the salary cap during the summer. (NY Post)
Chris Kreider, Vlad Namestnikov and Jimmy Vesey have all been mentioned as potential trade chips with Brendan Smith and Kevin Shattenkirk as potential buyouts.
Kreider, Namestnikov, Vesey and Jesper Fast are all scheduled to be unrestricted free agents following the 2019-20 season.
Matt Beleskey, who played four games for the Rangers last season, has one-year left on his contract with a cap hit of $1.9 million.
If Beleskey were to be sent to Hartford, where he played most of last season, he would count $825,000 against the Rangers cap.
Adam Rotter: The expectation is that the Rangers are going to clear some more cap space but how exactly they do that still remains to be seen. Buyouts are possible but I think it’s more likely the Rangers try to make some trades and possibly retain salary. Namestnikov is definitely a prime candidate to move, especially if the Rangers retain some of his salary and something is probably going to have give on defense.