An Intelligent Analysis Of The Rangers Salary Cap Dilemma

Talk about problems; the Rangers have a ton-and-half. It's all about making the team better and it starts and ends with the Salary Cap.

Since I only received a "C" grade in Arithmetic at P.S. 54 – teacher Miss Yearwood was being kind – I'm  turning this issue over to my Salary Cap captain Jess Rubenstein. His deluxe, expert opinion follows:

"First," Jess offers, "thanks to the folks at Puckpedia.com." 

Rubenstein's head of steam follows:  "If the Salary Cap rises to $95 million as they expect it to, then the Rangers are once again suffering a Cap nightmare. 

"Before they can even talk about their Restricted Free Agents, they have committed to $87,077,858 for 19 players for next season.

That leaves $8,422,142 in cap space. I would say that it seals Chris Kreider’s fate as a Ranger as they need to move his $6.5 million salary even if they must retain at least a third ($2.167 million) to free up an additional $4,333,333 in cap space. 

"If I was Chris Drury, I would pass on offering qualifying offers to either Kaliyev or Robertson. Neither has done anything to earn one nor do you want to risk having to go to arbitration with either player."Before I go on, I want to show how Drury extending Juuso Parssinen will come back to haunt him and the Rangers. Parssinen is going to go from $775,000 to $1,250,000 despite not playing well enough to warrant the raise. Which raises a key question:

"How does the GM explain not giving Adam Edstrom, Matt Rempe, or even Zac Jones the same raise? 

"Edstrom? Maybe Drury uses his injury against him, but he still offered more than Parssinen. He has arbitration rights.

"Rempe? They hold his suspensions against him, but he too offers more than Parssinen. He does not have arbitration rights.

"Jones? Drury might say that he has not made a top six job his own. Still, he offers more than both Parssinen or Miller. He too has arbitration rights. More vexing questions:

"How does the GM not give Will Cuylle a bigger raise than Parssinen? In every statistical argument, Cuylle did more than Parssinen. He may not have arbitration, but he'll be twice the player that Parssinen will ever be."

Rubenstein calls a brief time-out for some math work. He we go: "Let's give Edstrom, Jones, and Rempe the same as Parssinen of $1.25 million, which adds up to $3.75 million. 

"Give Cuylle $1.6 million and that adds up to $5.35 million – subtract that from $8.4 million and you have just $3.05 million which you can’t pay K'Andre Miller with unless you've traded Kreider. 

"Even if you do trade Kreider, that leaves you around $7.38 million which is not worth spending on Miller. Therefore, Miller has to go and be replaced."

Comparisons prove; so, Jess, what does this all tell you about the Rangers and Panthers? "The Panthers are in the Eastern Conference Finals as the defending Cup Champions and the winners of two straight playoff games against the Hurricanes. 5-2 and 5-0!" Rubenstein concludes.

The Blueshirts are playing golf! Or, at least trying their best at this very challenging sport.