Salary Cap, or not? the era of Glen Sather hasn?t changed the NY Rangers one bit. Scott Gomez, and Chris Drury, Wade Redden, Henrik Ludqvist, Markus Naslund, and Michal Rozival are taking down a whopping $42.8 million. That?s (6) players that collect almost 76%… leaving $13.9 million left for the remaining players.
That comes out to approximately $800k each for the 17 other roster players. It?s gets worse when you start to include player like Nikolai Zherdev in the equation because then the money left over for 16 players is around $669k each.
The reason for presenting that is that the Penguins (not considering our present situation) are managed a lot better than that. For example, Crosby, Malkin, Fluery, Gonchar, Whitney, Orpik, Staal, and Fluery is at?$27 million? or 47% of the CAP. Although this will rise next season to be $39.4 million? the difference can be seen between these players and the high priced losers some other teams carry.? ?Malkin, Crosby, Staal, Gonchar, Whitney, Orpik, and Fleury are the core players of this team. The supporting cast (based on this year?s Salary Cap) would average to be around $1 million each.
Fluery?s salary next season doesn?t break into the goalies TOP-10 from this season.? Gonchar?s salary isn?t in the TOP-10 defensemen from this season. Crosby is?the same as?Ovechkin and Malkin will be there next season? but even at that they are only $1 million above players like Gomez and Daniel Briere of Philadelphia – who also, like Sather haven’t yet?learned how to budget their payroll. Maybe it was?lessons learned from our three bankruptcies but the Penguins have put together a solid core of players worthy of the fan support even though this season could be down the drain because of massive turnover and Maid-Marian Hossa deciding to go with who he thought might be the NY Yankees of hockey.? We’ll all be rooting for him, eh!
With money available from Satan, Fedotenko, Sykora (yes, Sykora), Gill, and Boucher there is approximately $12.9 million in replacement salary available for new players.? Even for Sykora if he’s deemed the best available on the FA market.
Depending where the new Salary Cap line is drawn I don?t think we are in that bad of shape compared to teams with long term contracts and players no where close to the same potential.? I see Boston in a make or break year similar to what we went through last season and Philadelphia if and when Briere returns could be in CAP trouble this season.
It might be smart for the Pens to be early sellers depending on how the next few games go. Not only does trading a few players (even for draft picks) help build the prospect base but doing it now could reap the highest rewards.
More on that later.
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This is DR Hook? carry on
I’d like to take back what I siad about Jordan Staal. Ray Shero is a lot smarter than I am!
If there is to be a trade this season it’s not likely going to be Sykora but it most likely will be Jordan Staal. Staal is a third line center who could be traded for a major upgrade on the wing where we need it. For this year OR NEXT YEAR.
If we lose to the Flyers and Capitals and it appears the playoffs are NOT going to happen I think for sure that a trade will be made at the deadline.
One of the team’s looking for centers is Columbus. They are desperate to make the playoffs for the first time. They lost a prospect center, Bassard, and are playing Malhotra, Umberger, Williams and Peca at center. Their need is a center and right-hand shooting defenseman and the trade could be Staal and Whitney. In return I would think (going young wings here) they would look at a combo something like Nikita Filatov and Jakub Voracek in return. I think they will attempt to re-sign Sykora unless the salary cap next season forces things that we don’t know yet.
Thought I’d toss my 2 cents in… If we get rid of Sykora won’t we then need two Sykora’s one for Malkin and one for Crosby??
What’s with Jordan Staal being a core player is that the kid’s 20 years old. This kid stands to be a monster. Personally, I think he’ll develop into a premier power forward and he’s earning his keep on the penalty kill.
Suppose we took Jonathan Toews or Niklas Backstrom in that draft where do you think they’d be playing right now?
I hear what you saying about Whitney and Staal for Kovalchuk… but this isn’t EA sports, is it. It’s nice talk but most every one of those rumors turn out to be nothing but fabrication.
As to Horton… it probably would depend if Florida would be sellers but right now that’s very much in doubt.
Kovalev??? Please, not another retread. Didn’t we do that with Recchi! Kovalev is done, and has some attitude problems in Montreal. Whether it’s him or his coach, it doesn’t matter. The Rangers and Montreal are in a slide but there’s only one puck to go around and he’s more of a puck hog than Malkin or Crosby.
As to those “core” players what’s with Jordan Staal being one of them? Staal’s signed and apparently can’t play the wing. That’s too much money for a third line center and PK player. The Pens screwed up in that draft by opting for Staal instead of Jonathan Toews, or Niklas Backstrom both of them centers also. Staal has major trade value right now same as Whitney who you also list as a core player. Did you miss Staal blowing another MT almost MT netter on the pass from Kennedy? That happens too often. Whitney and Staal is another $7m which coincidently happens to be close to the salary of Illya Kovalchuk and Gabork ($7.5). A lot less than Nathan Horton ($3.5). If we could negotiate and get an agreement with Marian Gaborik (ahead of time) either of these would be major IMPACT for next season. A lot more than keeping Whitney and Staal.
Could Alex Kovalev be in the picture here? Montreal has him under “house arrest” they taken off on a road trip and left him home alone. Strange move for sure. Especially for a team like the Rangers who are a hope to slide down the ladder if we do put together a win streak.