Balance Of Trade
The NHL trade deadline (February 27th – 3pm Eastern) is just over a month away and there’s been only limited movement to date. Of course the NHL salary cap has been largely singled out as the culprit for the lack of player movement, after all there are a number of General Managers in the league who gave themselves very little room to accommodate additional salary, and may instead be forced to “make do” with what they had. But it’s not the only reason for the lack of movement, there’s also the small matter of the trade deadline being moved up a couple of weeks from where it used to be.
This in effect means that the number of teams “selling” players has decreased, while those still considering themselves in the playoff race will increase. Net result, it’s even more a seller’s market than ever.
The New York Rangers have, with the exception of the 2004 deadline, never really considered themselves to be sellers and the same appears to be applicable this year as they sit in the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference, with just 40 days to go before the halt to trading is made official.
For their part, New York does have some room to move, with the ability to take on maybe as much as 3-4 million of additional salary for this year (pro-rated of course). They can also afford to take on a little salary for next season, with the likes of Kevin Weekes ($2M) , Sandis Ozolinsh ($2.5), Karel Rachunek ($1.8), Brendan Shanahan ($4.0), Michael Nylander ($2.3) and a bunch of sub-million dollar salaries dropping off the roster. There’s also the expected $4M increase in the salary cap to factor in.
Bottom line: While dollars are always going to be a concern for teams under the salary cap, the Rangers do have some flexibility when it comes to making deals this trade deadline.
What is likely to be of more concern is which players the Rangers will likely have to give up in order to make any of the deals they might be contemplating. The old adage “you have to give up something to get something” is very much applicable to the Rangers this season. Yes it would be nice if the Rangers could unload players like Marek Malik, Darius Kasparaitis, Sandis Ozolinsh, Kevin Weekes, Marcel Hossa, Jason Ward, Adam Hall etc, but unless a team actually wants those guys, then it’s going to be hard to make a deal, not to mention having to find players that fill the positions that you’ve just traded away.
Another area of concern is the number of players the Rangers already have under contract. There is a limit of 50 players for each NHL team under contract at any one time. The Blueshirts currently have 48 (plus two that don’t count against that limit this year in Marc Staal and Michael Sauer) and have several players they will need to make decisions on before June 1st, or risk losing their rights.