How much can the New York Rangers afford to spend this summer?

It depends, but new team chairman and general manager Chris Drury will have some cash to work with.

While many teams are feeling the tightening of the flat $ 81.5 million salary cap, the Blueshirts are in an enviable position. A few contracts are expected to come off the books, but the biggest boost will come from their buyout penalties, dropping from nearly $ 13 million last season to well under $ 5 million in 2021-22.

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Getting back to the original question of how much Drury needs to spend, I’ve broken down all the factors involved – the players under contract in each group of positions, the free agents on hold, the money left over from the buyout, and how much the Rangers are expected to spend. carry. in performance bonuses.

As a base, we start with 17 players who are already registered for next season. The Rangers have more than that if you include all of their entry-level contracts and the AHL Hartford guys, but these 17 represent those who A) have been in NHL games this season, and B) are likely to do. part of the roster if they’re still there in the fall.

We’ll go through all the names and numbers first and then do a scan.

Questions? Email me at [email protected] or find me on Twitter @vzmercogliano.

Attackers

Players (10) under contract for 2021-2022: Artemi Panarin ($ 11.643 million), Chris Kreider ($ 6.5 million), Mika Zibanejad ($ 5.35 million), Ryan Strome ($ 4.5 million), Morgan Barron ($ 925,000), Kaapo Kakko ($ 925,000), Vitali Kravtsov ($ 925,000), Alexis Lafrenière ($ 925,000), Kevin Rooney ($ 750,000) and Colin Blackwell ($ 725,000)

Total cap hit: $ 33,167,857

Notable RFAs: Pavel Buchnevich, Filip Chytil, Julien Gauthier and Brett Howden

Notable FMUs: Phil Di Giuseppe

Defenders

Players (6) under contract for 2021-2022: Jacob Trouba ($ 8 million), Ryan Lindgren ($ 3 million), Adam Fox ($ 925,000), Zac Jones ($ 925,000), K’Andre Miller ($ 925,000) and Anthony Bitetto ($ 737,500)

Total cap hit: $ 14,512,500

Notable RFAs: Libor Hájek

Notable FMUs: Jack Johnson and Brendan Smith

Goalkeepers

Player (1) under contract for 2021-2022: Alexandar Georgiev ($ 2.425 million) NOTE: Keith Kinkaid is on an $ 825,000 contract, but the Rangers won’t have room for him and Georgiev in the NHL roster.

Notable RFAs: Igor shesterkin

Notable FMUs: Nothing

Redemptions

Penalties: Henrik Lundqvist ($ 1.5 million), Kevin Shattenkirk ($ 1,433,333), Dan Girardi ($ 1,111,111) and Tony DeAngelo ($ 383,334) NOTE: DeAngelo hasn’t been redeemed, but it’s the wait for the summer.

Total cap hit: $ 4,427,778

Performance bonus

Performance bonus (six players): Lafrenière ($ 2.85 million), Kakko ($ 2.65 million), Barron ($ 850,000), Fox ($ 850,000), Kravtsov ($ 850,000) and Miller ($ 300,000)

Total performance bonuses: 8,350,000 USD

Total limit reached (amount greater than 6,112,500 USD): $ 2,237,500

Final countdown

Salary limit (17 players): 50 $ 105,357 + Redemption limit: $ 4,427,778 and over Performance bonus exceeding limit reached: $ 2,237,500 = Total cap hit: $ 56,770,635

Who leaves …

$ 24,729,365 projected ceiling space

Analysis

Think of this as Drury’s starting point for the offseason.

The lineup, as of today, looks something like this, with a few vacancies the Rangers can fill with their own free agents or outside help:

Lines

Lafrenière – Zibanejad – xxx

Panarin – Strome – Kakko

Kreider – xxx – Kravtsov

Barron – Rooney – Blackwell

D pairs

Lindgren – Fox

Miller – Trouba

Jones / Another Perspective – XXX

Goalkeepers

xxx

Georgiev

I left out Kinkaid because there is no way he will be on the NHL roster unless Georgiev is traded, while Bitetto is listed to be an extra who will be in good health. most evenings.

The whole projection could change if Drury succeeds in a trade, which we know is a strong possibility. But for the sake of this drill, let’s say he has to add two or three forwards, a defender, and a goalie with that $ 24.7 million in cap space.

Shesterkin isn’t going anywhere, so you can designate him as the starting goalie. And although he has only 47 career NHL games to his name, he has officiating rights this offseason. The logical range for his next salary is $ 4-5 million.

Buchnevich and Chytil are the other priority RFAs. Buchnevich could be able to surpass $ 5million per season after averaging nearly a point per game (48 points in 54 games) in 2021 while establishing himself as one of the top two-way strikers in the world. Rangers. Chytil, on the other hand, does not yet have arb rights and will land well below.

A safe number for this trio is $ 12 million combined, which would cut the Rangers cap in half.

As for the final defender, you could really look at him like two slots are open. I wrote in Jones as a placeholder because he has played 10 games in the NHL this season, but he will be competing with other prospects such as Nils Lundkvist, Tarmo Reunanen, Matthew Robertson and Braden Schneider for the last two. roles. All of their salaries will be comparable – less than a million dollars – and the cheapest way for Drury to get there would be to fill the two spots with rookies. More likely, however, he’ll want to bring in a veteran.

Payment for the remaining calls for claims – Gauthier, Howden and Hájek – will be easy to pay, if Drury chooses to keep them. But there’s a good chance one of them will be lost to Seattle in the expansion draft. And, frankly, it’s hard to envision a regular role in the NHL for any of them at this point.

Where does it all leave the Rangers?

If they keep it basic – re-sign their key RFAs and don’t do any trading – imagine they’ll have around $ 10 million to spend on free agency.

But if they want to shake things up in their quest for a place in the 2021-22 playoffs – trade for a top-six striker or pursue other sweeping roster changes – they have the flexibility to be. bold.

Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers reporter for the USA TODAY Network. To learn more about his work, visit lohud.com/sports/rangers/ and follow him on Twitter @vzmercogliano.