Why leave so much cap space? Sign a big name or two to short-term deals.

You have to have room to cover for bonuses.

bonuses take a penalty and next there are a lot of expiring contracts for guys who are getting big raises

No until the bonuses are paid, no? And we can always put someone on LTIR to get back some of the cap space. In other words, I don't think there is a hard cap for Rangers at Salary plus Bonus.

Caps don't need another LHD and wouldn't trade a 3rd for Hajek. They need their picks and that's the kind of player you sign in free agency for pretty cheap.

LTIR doesn’t help accrue cap space, it just stops you from going over the cap.

That’s not how that works. And you can’t just put someone on LTIR, they actually have to be hurt and out for a while.

That’s absolutely something that should be considered, but you still have quite a bit of wiggle room. Unless one of Kakko or Lafrenière win a major award (which is very unlikely) you have about $4 million in extra room there.

not really specific to the caps, just any team looking for a young d man with potential

yeah but there isnt a ton that the rangers need that can be addressed with that, our biggest need is a 1C and 4 mil doesnt get you that

Yeah. Maybe they’ll find a player whose price has dropped and can sign them to a 1 year deal later on in free agency. (Like Hoffman last year) But they can’t sign anyone to longer than one year, because the Rangers sure are in for one hell of a cap crunch in 22-23.

Do bonuses count against the Salary Cap?

But allows us to go over our cap+bonus cushion and can adjust during season.



Tell that to the 17 teams using LTIR and 50+ players on LTIR (more than twice as many as last year). I understand what LTIR is, but it is being used as cap relief for many teams and widely accepted. Why shouldn't Rangers do that?

You can’t save in performance bonuses via LTIR unless you have someone with performance bonuses on there. And even then, you’re still looking at significant overages.

That’s because those players are injured.

Yes, but they can be deferred a year if they exceed the cap. However the Rangers should not in any circumstances defer them, because they have way more cap space in 21-22 than 22-23.

If we put a higher salary player on LTIR, like Trouba, we will be fine.

Everything your stating about LTIR is wrong. You can't just put someone on LTIR they actually have to be injured & that doesn't negate the need to account for Performance Bonus dollars.

The performance bonus issue isn't that big of a deal in this scenario, teams are allowed to exceed the cap by 7.5 % so 6,112,500 to accommodate performance Bonuses, so NYR would have to allocate for that difference of 2,287,5000 in real cap dollars.

I am not saying put the player earning the bonus money on LTIR. I am saying we do not have to hold our cap to {SALARY + 100% of BONUS}. We can go higher and if we need to adjust during the season we can always put a high salary player on LTIR. For instance, Kreider and Trouba are now hurt and missing games. One of them could be put on LTIR.

8.4m (bonuses here) - 6.15m ish (max allowed) = 2.3m needed in available cap space to be compliant to START season, here 9.2m av cap space, an extra 6.9m in cap.
That was just to start season, now forget all that, what we'll need for bonuses at year end is completely separate, looks like 4m max ish. So 9.2m - 4m = 5.2m extra here...

Thank you

if you go over a certain limit

A player needs to be on LTIR for 10 NHL games and 24 days, Trouba & Kreider being out have nothing to do with next season, LTIR will let you exceed the CAP but its formulaic, you don't just get the full freight of the player on LTIR on an in season injury. Accruable Cap Space Limits ...

I know all this. Have probably read all the same stuff you have.

My point is Rangers have plenty of cap space for now. In a couple of years when some of these young guys reach RFA, different story. But for now, they have plenty of flexibility to sign 1-2 year deals.

But who that the rangers need would sign such a short deal? I signed John Merril as a good Depth Defensive Defenseman but besides I cant think of anyone they need who would sign a 1-2 year deal