How to Fix the New York Rangers: A Realistic Approach

Hey everyone, I haven't written on here in a while since I've been back in school and busy doing my work and going to the hospital for clincals. Although I did not watch the massacre of the Rangers last night courtesy of the Dallas Stars, it has been obvious to me for a while that this team has major problems that need to be addressed. However, you can say that the Rangers need a scoring winger more than anything, but thanks to our good 'ol buddy Glen Sather signing Gomez, Drury, Redden, and Rozsival to lucrative, long term deals, the Rangers front office is facing the challenge of having no cap room to work with mostly in part to giving the above players over-inflated contracts.

Upon reading HFBoards when I turned in for the evening early this morning, everyone makes mention that changes need to be made, but no one offers a concrete solution to the Rangers' cap woes. Without further delay, I contructed a long, thought out proposition of how to fix this mess and, believe it or not, remain competitive for a playoff spot. Enjoy, and be sure to leave a word or two of your thoughts on the subject.

Current Cap Hit: 55.3 million
Cap Space: 600 K

Players that are safe:
Staal
Drury
Lundqvist
Dubinsky
Rozsival
Girardi
Zherdev
Korpikoski
Mara
Orr
Callahan

Players That Will Go Via Trade/Free Agency:
Gomez
Redden
Naslund (2010 deadline)
Voros
Prucha
Sjostrom
Betts
Kalinin
Dawes

Trades:
Gomez to MTL for Higgins, Plekanec, 3rd 2010 (2009 offseason)

Redden to DAL for Daley, rights to Avery) (-2.3 million)

Voros to anywhere for a bag of pucks (Seriously, a 3rd or 4th rounder, -1 million)

Prucha to LA for 3rd 2009 (-1.6 million)

Dawes to NSH for Cody Franson

After 2008-2009 Trades:
Cap Hit: 50.5 million
Cap Space: 5.7 million

Offseason:
Betts let go during free agency (-615K)
Kalinin let go via free agency (-2.1 million)
Zherdev re-signed: 4 years, 16 million (+4 million)
Korpikoski resigned: 1 year, 800K (arbitration, -300K)
Sjostrom not tendered an offer (-840K)
Dubinsky re-signed: 3 years, 4.5 million (+867K)
Callahan re-signed: 2 years, 2 million (+425 K)
Orr re-signed: 1 year, 650 K (+100K)
Mara re-signed: 3 years, 7 million (+433K)

After Signings:
Cap Hit: 54.5 million

Fallout of Gomez trade:
Gomez traded (-7.3 million)
Higgins re-signed: 3 years, 10 million (+3.33 million)
Plekanec re-signed: 2 years, 7.5 million (+3.75 million)

Cap Hit: 54.2 million
Anticipated cap rise to 58 million
Cap Space: 3.8 million

2009-2010 Opening Night Roster:
Naslund-Plekanec-Zherdev
Avery-Drury-Higgins
Dubinsky-Anisimov-Korpikoski
Callahan-Moore-Orr

Staal-Rozsival
Daley-Girardi
Mara-Sanguinetti
Potter

Lundqvist
Wiikman



NOTE: Don’t forget, Grachev, Kveton (?), Byers, Del Zotto, Sauer, Stepan are all waiting in the wings; all will most likely be NHL ready within 3 years