PHILADELPHIA, PA – MARCH 31: Pavel Buchnevich #89 of the New York Rangers celebrates a first period goal against the Philadelphia Flyers on March 31, 2019 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images)
This is the salary cap’s world and we all live in it as the New York Rangers are being reminded of right now.
After a blockbuster start to the offseason that yielded the No.2 overall pick in Kaapo Kakko, two stud defensemen in Adam Fox and Jacob Trouba and the prize of free agency in Artemi Panarin, the New York Rangers are now having to crunch the numbers and piece the jigsaw together.
As it stands, the Rangers are now $906,466 over the cap following the news on Friday that the franchise had locked down stud defenseman Jacob Trouba to a seven-year, $56,000,00 contract, which carries an average annual value of $8,000,000.
It doesn’t get easier, either, as the Blueshirts still need to thrash out new contracts for restricted free agents Pavel Buchnevich, Brendan Lemieux and Tony DeAngelo. Chuck into the mixing pot the fact that Chris Kreider’s long-term future with this franchise also needs resolving, then you have some idea of the work that lies ahead.
It is going to be extremely tight and the front office tandem of General Manager Jeff Gorton and President John Davidson are going to have to get creative to ensure that they are under the salary cap of $81.5 million once the puck drops to start 2019-20.
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It is a complicated situation which could involve buyouts and other such cap-related wizardry, but the purpose of this article isn’t to delve into the finer logistics of the mission facing the Rangers.
Instead, we strongly urge you to check out these excellent pieces by Steve Paulus and Jim Madden who have both done a good job of breaking down the cap implications facing NYR and what they could do to get themselves out of salary cap hell.
There is one potential serious implications of the salary cap issues facing the Rangers, though, and that’s what we want to focus on today.
If you Google search the Blueshirts at any point this week then the likelihood is that you will see the name Pavel Buchnevich and the dreaded ‘trade’ word in the same sentence.
Yes, you read that right. The latest trade bait snippet doing the rounds involves Buchnevich being placed on the trade block along with Vlad Namestnikov. Personally, Namestnikov has now become expendable due to his $4,000,000 cap hit and the fact that the Rangers now boast a glut of high-end offensive talent in the pipeline.
However, it seems a rather sizeable risk that you would consider trading Pavel Buchnevich now and I think this could turn out to be a mistake down the road. Let me map out the reasons why.