The Rangers And The Cap
It has taken nine months of posturing and several weeks of hard negotiating, but it appears that a new NHL CBA is just around the corner. Though much is yet to be revealed, the one thing that is apparent is that the NHL will likely start the 2005-06 season with a salary cap of around 36-38 million . The introduction of a salary cap will greatly change the NHL landscape, creating greater player turnover, reducing the number of Europeans in the league and providing the third and fourth liners of the league ample opportunity to switch teams from year to year. Teams who take on long term contracts and defer payments will go through long periods of mediocrity as they deal with the bad decisions of the past, while those organizations who take gambles by letting fan favorites go in order to stay under the cap will be chastised and analyzed like never before. For the New York Rangers, the new structure presents a substantial challenge.
Already mired in a seven year slump highlighted by poor personnel decision making both in terms of players and coaches, the Rangers must now find a way to build a team while avoiding getting mired in undesirable contracts and salary cap restrictions. Players will be harder to attract to New York without the premiums previously offered, and while I have the utmost respect for Tom Renney, there are probably few players out there who will be attracted by the opportunity to play under him as a coach. In Europe, prospects like Petr Prucha, Jarkko Immonen and Jan Marek will be just a little harder to attract to North America, while others like Maxim Kondratiev may find they can make more money in their homeland in a place where they’re familiar with the language and culture. The added pressure from the New York media and fans for instant success and loyalty to players past their prime will just add to the difficulties faced by Glen Sather going forward.