The Rangers salary cap situation

All figures below thanks to capgeek.com

updated: 7/28/12

2012-13 Salary Cap ceiling: $70.2 million

NYR contracts against the cap: 21
Total NYR contracts signed: 45/50

NYR Salary Cap payroll: $58,508,334

NYR Salary Cap space: $11,691,666

To be continually updated as the Rangers sign UFA's and potential trades.

Rangers finally get their man, acquire Rick Nash

Rick Nash trade to New York Rangers in process now. Details to follow.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) July 23, 2012

After months and months of rumors, proposed deals and intense discussions on social media, the Rangers on Monday finally acquired Rick Nash from Columbus for Dubinsky, Anisimov, prospect Tim Erixon and a first round pick in 2013. The trade is a huge win for the Rangers. First and foremost, you have to commend Glen Sather for his steadfast patience in dealing with Jackets' GM Scott Howson as the Rangers the deal they wanted for an elite scorer. Howson most definitely caved to the Rangers demands after months and months where it seemed nothing was going to get done. The Rangers as an organization, has taken huge strides in the past 12 months that left them just 6 wins shy of a Cup and Monday's trade puts them right there with the elite teams in the Eastern Conference.

There is no game breaker in Nash deal - NYR did very well in trading no core players #goodforNYR
— Ray Ferraro (@rayferrarotsn) July 23, 2012

Not ultimately getting JT Miller is really what makes me think Howson screwed himself a bit.
— Sean Gentille (@seangentille) July 23, 2012

If the McDonagh-Gomez trade didn't tell the hockey world about Glen Sather's trading prowess, the Nash trade certainly did. It was a minor miracle the Blue Jackets couldn't acquire better prospect talent from the Rangers. Yes, Tim Erixon is an NHL ready prospect (you would think) but what is left of Erixon's trade value, who just 12 months ago was deemed as the Calgary Flames' top prospect. But if Erixon fails again in his quest to stick on a NHL roster, he's just another Matt Gilroy.

As far as the two roster players were concerned, my feelings about Artem Anisimov are well known. I don't think there is much more upside when it came to Artie. He only had 20 assists this past season playing on a line with Marian Gaborik for a good chunk of the year. I'm not sure Anisimov will ever come remotely close to the 81 point season, that included 37 goals that he had with Hartford just 3 years ago. To me, Anisimov was just another fringe top 6 player on the Rangers who'll net you 35-40 points a year. Sather didn't sound too optimistic in Monday's conference call that he would've been able to re-sign Artie after this season anyway.

Regarding Dubinsky, Dubi became a fan favorite two seasons ago when Callahan and Gaborik were out of the lineup due to their various injuries. Dubinsky was the Rangers best and most consistent  forward in 2010-11 and was handsomely rewarded by the Rangers last offseason with a 4 year $16.8 million contract. It's quite unfortunate that Brandon was never able to improve on the 54 point outing he had two years ago leading into this past season. Whether Dubi was injured, tired or just snake-bitten, he just couldn't buy a goal last year which led to his steep decline in production and his inability to crack the Rangers top 6. When Dubinsky's game is on, he becomes quite dangerous with the puck on his stick from anywhere on the ice. The Rangers are going to miss Dubinsky's tenacious play and his physicality along the boards dearly, as well as his 2 on 1's with Callahan.

The Rangers are not quite finished with their offseason, the Rangers did trade away 2 centers and will likely be in the market for someone else cheap. Also can't rule out the possibility of Shane Doan signing with the Rangers as well. The Rangers are officially all-in fans!! It's Stanley Cup or bust now for the New York Rangers.

NYR Untouchables

Since early February when it was discovered that Columbus was shopping Rick Nash, Ranger fans have been widely discussing exactly who on the Rangers should be deemed 'untouchable' in a trade. Before the trade deadline, many had wondered if it was going to take trading away a player like Kreider, the Rangers number 1 prospect in an all in push for the Stanley Cup. As we all know the Rangers came 6 wins shy of winning it all, Kreider's virtuoso performance in the playoffs quickly made him a star in the New York hockey scene and Rick Nash still sits unhappy in Columbus waiting to be dealt.

On every team there are roughly 5 players that GM's would be absolutely unwilling to include in any trade whatsoever. To me, the Rangers untouchable list right now includes Lundqvist, Richards, Callahan, McDonagh and Kreider. But as it stands right now there should be one more name on that list. To me, the sixth player on that list should be Derek Stepan, especially for any trade for Rick Nash and before you rip me to shreds, just hear me out.

I know of many who would say that Derek Stepan should not be the only thing that is holding up a trade to Columbus for Rick Nash. However the issue still remains, without Stepan the Rangers would have a very glaring hole on the second line. It would be a completely different story if the player you were trading for was another center, but since Nash does not play that position, Stepan is a deal-breaker. As far as your other options are concerned, Torts has Dubinsky over on the wing but if he is included in a potential Nash deal, that point is moot. This leaves you with Anisimov, Boyle and Halpern as your remaining centers and the latter two are penciled in on the bottom six. Anisimov would be a bad fit on a line with Kreider because like Gaborik, Kreider shouldn't be handling the puck before center ice. Anisimov doesn't make that accurate second pass to the open wingers the way Richards and Stepan do. Stepan and Kreider's style of play mesh so perfectly that Stepan centering a productive Kreider should make both of them 50-60 point players when the season starts up again.

The Rangers simply don't have anyone else that would be able to replace the skill-set Stepan possesses. Leave Stepan and Kreider alone on a line together and 10 years down the road you'll be happy the Rangers never broke them up.

Shane Doan visits the Rangers, Casey Wellman traded

Shane Doan was spotted in New York Friday as part of the NHLPA contingent in ongoing collective bargaining sessions. He did find time in his busy day to visit the NYR organization as a potential landing spot for the (hopefully) 2012-13 season. I've stated on here as well as twitter how much I would love to have a player like Doan play out the end of his career in NY so he can get his well deserved shot at the Stanley Cup.

Doan would bring another strong locker room and on-ice presence as well as mentoring some of the younger Rangers. Any team signing Doan takes on some risk as he is 35, on the downslope of his career and the four year, $30 million contract that an Eastern Conference team reportedly offered him could scare away some suitors. In the Rangers' situation, that's well worth the risk.

Farmhand Casey Wellman, who was acquired during the season in the Erik Christensen to Minnesota deal, was traded Friday to Florida for a fifth round pick in 2014. Wellman scored 9 goals in 31 games for the Whale and was a point-per-game producer for the Whale in the Calder Cup playoffs.

How close were the Rangers to acquiring Shea Weber?

Breaking: Shea Weber agrees to offer sheet with Philadelphia. 14 years, upwards of $100 mil. Preds have 7 days to match. Wow!!
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) July 19, 2012

I'm trying to go back to bed. More info coming in. Philly, NYR, Detroit and San Jose were big players in Weber trade scenarios.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) July 19, 2012

Let me begin to say that this is full speculation on my end, but three things instantly came to mind when this Shea Weber news broke early Thursday morning. First, the Flyers willingness to extend an offer sheet to Shea Weber tells me that Chris Pronger's NHL career is likely finished. Second, this also tells me that someone was very close to acquiring Shea Weber via trade and because it was Philly (perhaps in a panic move) that extended the offer sheet, this says that the Rangers may have been the front-runners to acquiring Weber. So finally third, who were the Rangers willing to part with? You would have to imagine that one of the Rangers big 3 defensemen in Staal, Girardi and McDonagh were in play. You also might figure a mix of Dubinsky, Anisimov, Hagelin and maybe even Stepan were thrown around too. Throw in next years' first round pick, a decent prospect and Weber becomes a Ranger.

Once Nashville reaches their decision on whether or not to match the offer sheet, the attention will focus right back on Rick Nash and whether or not he even gets moved. Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson has to be viewing this from afar, perhaps upset that Sather and the Rangers were willing to part with a roster player for Weber, that they weren't willing to part with for Nash. Even if the Rangers were the last team to be in on acquiring Nash, I wouldn't expect Howson to give the Rangers even a slight discount now knowing how close the Rangers may have been to acquiring another elite NHL player.

CBA negotiations begin ugly

With news surrounding the Rangers at a stand-still, I'm going to start talking about bigger matters, beginning with the on-going talks between the NHLPA and the NHL on a new collective bargaining agreement. As reported on Friday night, the NHL owners laid out their first somewhat formal proposal and truth be told, I'm not as optimistic now about the season starting on time as I was Friday morning.

The first proposal laid down by the owners is a 54%-46% split in favor of the owners in terms of hockey related revenues. Currently the players enjoy a 57%-43% advantage, a big reason why the salary cap ceiling has sharply risen almost every year since the lockout. Although you have to take into account that this is just a starting point for the owners, you can bet the NHLPA will fight this aggressively as a swing that large will force the players accept a rollback in salaries, in turn dramatically altering the salary cap ceiling downward.

We've all seen recently the absurd contract lengths NHL front offices around the league have offered to un-restricted free agents to wiggle their way around the salary cap and at the same time giving players the money they think they're worth on the open market in the form of heavily front loaded contracts. The second proposal from the owners is limiting contracts to just 5 years with the same salary from year to year to close the loophole teams have enjoyed for the past few seasons. In my opinion, of all the proposals the NHL offered today, this is the one, (perhaps with some fine tuning) that will stick to the wall.

In addition to limiting contracts to just 5 seasons, the owners proposed entry level deals to be extended from 3 to 5 seasons rewarding teams who draft well by keeping their young talent longer.

Speaking of UFA's, players have to accrue 7 seasons before being eligible for unrestricted free agency. The 7 year rule is by far the toughest in the 4 major sports and will be another tough issue with the NHLPA especially since the owners now want to stretch that to 10 years. Personally, I think that 10 years is absurd and will probably be negotiated back down, but at what cost to the players?

It can't be stressed enough that all of the aforementioned proposals are just a jumping off point in negotiations in the days and weeks to come. We all hope cooler heads prevail and hockey is able to avoid another lockout of any duration which will severely hamper the growth of the NHL just as its beginning to become popular again in the mainstream.

NYR FA snooze fest Day 10- Jeff Halpern signs with NYR, more

Apologies for the lack of updates on the blog, but with little NYR related news to write home about, it's to be expected. You can always follow along on twitter here.

There was a Rangers signing last night as a report from CSN- Washington DC stated that center Jeff Halpern agreed to terms with the Rangers on Monday night and was later reported by Canadian sources that the terms of the contract are for 1 year and $700,000. Halpern, last season for the Capitals scored 4 goals for 12 assists and 16 points in 69 games. This is an interesting signing in 2 parts. First, this likely means no JT Miller to start the season. Second, the Rangers now have 5 centers (6 if you count Dubinsky) now on the roster and as I said on twitter last night is that I get the feeling the Rangers are getting closer to making that trade for Rick Nash or whoever else is on their radar. Of course, if anything does go down in the coming days, I'll be here to report on it.

**UPDATE** Sometime Tuesday morning, the Rangers agreed to terms with minor league defenseman Logan Pyett. Pyett's two-way contract is only for 1 year with an AHL salary of $105,000 per capgeek. Pyett was 2-25-27 for the Grand Rapids Griffins, the Detroit Red Wings AHL affiliate.

NYR FA Frenzy Day 3

With basically nothing happening league-wide on Day 2 of free agency, we skip ahead to Day 3, with a signing and other Ranger related news.

Taylor Pyatt: The former Phoenix Coyotes forward signed a 2 year, $3.1 million deal today, in a move that may signal the end of Ruslan Fedotenko. Pyatt scored 9 goals for 19 points in 73 games last season for the Coyotes which included 4 goals in the postseason which helped the Coyotes along to the Conference Finals. Pyatt will be a nice addition to the Rangers, who have kept adding size so far in July. This signing is somewhat significant because with Prust off to Montreal and the unknown situation with Feds, Sather went out and got himself a penalty killer. Good signing.

Anton Stralman: The NY Daily News reported that Stralman is expected to file for arbitration by Thursday. An arbitrator is unlikely to award Stralman an absurd amount of money, so there's a decent chance he does come back.

Jeff Woywitka- Woywitka signed a 1 year, $700k contract with the St. Louis Blues. No further explanation needed.

Jaromir Jagr- The former Ranger and now former Flyer signed a 1 year, $4.5 million contract with the Dallas Stars, who are starting to rack up the old and aging veterans suddenly. I was beginning to think Jagr was gonna try to make his rounds to all of the old Patrick Division teams, but the bankrupt Devils and the hapless Islanders aren't attractive destinations at the moment.

Rick Nash: Same shit, different day.

NYR FA Frenzy: Day 1

Brandon Prust: Prust officially left the Rangers today to sign a 4 year, 10 million dollar contract with the Montreal Canadiens. Obviously the Rangers were no where close to offer Prust the money he received today from Montreal. He told the NY Daily News today that the Rangers "weren't really there or anywhere close to where Montreal was, and it's just Montreal showed just a lot more interest." I guess Prust's tweet last week that irked many Ranger fans, also burned the bridges with Ranger brass.

I wish management wanted me back as much as the fans.. Thanks for the love everyone
— Brandon Prust (@BrandonPrust8) June 23, 2012

John Mitchell: Mitchell also left the Rangers today to sign a 2 year, 2.2 million dollar contract with the Colorado Avalanche. Mitchell will be making nearly double of what his salary was last season in New York. I thought at best Mitchell could have been back with the organization most likely with the Whale, but it seems the Avs see something in Mitchell that the Rangers don't.

Jonathan Audy-Marchessault- This one really stings especially if you are one that is somewhat familiar with the Ranger prospects. JAM signed a 3 year, entry level contract today with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The 21 year old Audy-Marchessault was undrafted and went 24-40-64 in 76 games last season with the Whale. It's safe to say that many within the organization wanted this kid back, however, the Blue Jackets offered more money in his ELC and that's what he went with.

Stu Bickel- In the only bit of good news today was that the Rangers re-signed the oft-unused defenseman to a 2 year, 1.5 million dollar contract. Bickel is a nice option for the Rangers to use as depth but will likely be riding the pine in most situations.

Arron Asham- I'm guessing once Sather learned he was definitely out on Prust, he signed journeyman Arron Asham to a 2 year, 2 million dollar contract. Asham, who played for the Penguins last season, as we all remember cross checked Flyers' Brayden Schenn in the throat that resulted in a 4 game suspension during the playoffs. Asham still has to sit for one more game to serve out that suspension. The signing, which stunned just about everybody, got many Ranger fans in an uproar. Personally, I didn't like the signing either at first, especially because I think he is a dirty player. But in an interview with the Daily News, he stated that his goal is to win a Cup. If Asham is able to keep the dirtiness at a minimum and play the right way, I think Ranger fans will warm to him.

Michael Haley- In what is hopefully a minor league move, the Rangers signed Michael Haley to a two-way contract. Other terms are unknown. Haley, a former Islander, racked up 125 penalty minutes in 51 games last season with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the Islanders' AHL affiliate. If anything he'll be an injury/suspension callup if Rupp or Asham get into trouble next season.

Kris Newbury- In another minor league transaction, Newbury re-signed with the Rangers on a two year, two way contract and will spend next year with the Connecticut Whale. Newbury was 25-39-64 with the Whale last season.

Chad Johnson- The Rangers lost minor league goaltender Chad Johnson to the Phoenix Coyotes today. The Yotes continue to pick off Ranger prospects, thanks to former Rangers Assistant GM and now Coyotes GM Don Maloney. Losing Chad Johnson makes the Rangers goaltending depth pretty slim. It wouldn't surprise me if Sather went looking for a minor league goaltender in the coming days and weeks.

Rick Nash- Again no news on the Nash front. Sources continue to say that the window for him to be traded likely begins when Zach Parise is signed somewhere on the open market. Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson has not budged from his demands that the Rangers include a mixture of Stepan, Kreider, McDonagh, Dubinsky and Del Zotto as well as a pick and prospect somewhere in there too.