The Rangers were reportedly about to acquire Alex Barabanov from San Jose but the deal fell through because San Jose used up its last salary retention spot in the big trade that sent Tomas Hertl to Vegas. (SJ Hockey)
Barabanov had a cap hit of $2.5 million that the Rangers did not have enough salary cap space to fit that in without San Jose retaining money.
The Rangers acquired Jack Roslovic from Columbus for a conditional 4th round pick. Columbus retained half of Roslovic’s salary that brought his cap hit down to $2 million.
Barabanov, 29, has 3 goals and 7 assists this season for San Jose. He was teammates with Artemi Panarin and Igor Shesterkin with SKA in the KHL.
Teams are allowed to retain salary on three contracts and San Jose was already retaining on Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson before they did on Hertl.
Adam Rotter: That Hertl deal was a massive surprise in the final minutes before the deadline and I guess it also helped deliver Roslovic to the Rangers. Barabanov had 39 points and 47 points the prior two seasons before dropping down to 10 points in 38 games this year. I’m sure that the cost for him was going to be about the same as it was for Roslovic. I think that there is more versatility and upside with Roslovic, but I think Barabanov would have brought a similar level of offense. Obviously, the Rangers were interested and tried to get him and maybe they hoped that getting back on a team with Panarin would raise his game, but it’s not a huge miss that it didn’t work out.