Analyzing the Rangers’ buyout options

The New York Rangers are currently in Cap Hell when it comes to their blue line. Their top two highest salaries are arguably fringe defenders at this point of their careers and both carry significant dollars and term. In fact, anyone on the team’s blue line not named McDonagh or Skjei should be be concerned with their future in NYC.

The most obvious targets of a salary cap dump trade or buyout scenario are veterans Marc Staal and Dan Girardi. It’s seemingly unthinkable that the team would be able to move their contracts elsewhere via trade, but stranger things have happened. Much more likely however is a scenario in which the team buys out one or both of the players to clear roster space and cap space for new additions. 

Staal is signed to the largest deal of any defender on the team, a six year, $34.2 million deal signed in 2015. If the team were to buy him out during this offseason’s buyout window his annual cap hit would be reduced from $5.7 million to just over $2 million annually for 2017-18. While the amount escalates in 2018-19 and 2019-20, it drops to just $1.43 beyond that. This frees up roughly $3.5 million for the Rangers to use in free-agency to replace him. It may seem appealing, but the long-term effects of paying out such a hefty sum over such a long-term may nuke any possibility of it actually happening.

In Girardi’s case, unfortunately the consequences aren’t much more palatable. Were he to be bought out this offseason, his annual $5.5 million cap hit would be reduced to roughly $2.6 million for 2017-18, then up roughly an additional $1 million for 2018-19 and 2019-20 before dropping to just $1.1 million for the three seasons following.

These numbers, quite frankly, are staggering. So, what’s the likelihood of Rangers ownership and management biting the bullet on one or both of these deals this offseason? It really depends on what the team can then do with the cap space created by any potential buyout. If suddenly the team has freed up enough salary to acquire free-agent Kevin Shattenkirk, then it may be worth the price. If, however, they miss out on the offseason’s only prize UFA on defense, they’ll being paying a whole lot of money for a whole lot of nothing.