With just one more pre-season game to go, their remain a handful of decisions to be made. Do they offer veteran defender Alexei Semenov a contract? Do they keep Michael Del Zotto and his $1M plus contract on the roster? And who out of Aaron Voros, Brian Boyle and Evgeny Grachev do they keep for opening night? Throw in the injury to Sean Avery just to complicate things a little.
One thing does however appear certain. Artem Anisimov and Enver Lisin (who lead the Rangers pre-season with three goals apiece) have done enough to stick for opening night, coach Tortorella said as much yesterday when he told the NY media that they have the inside track.
That’s not necessarily good news for the remaining three forwards who are battling for the final spot (or two spots if Avery can’t go opening night). Aaron Voros carries a hefty $1M salary for each of the next two seasons, and has to clear waivers both going down, and coming up. That could put the Rangers on the hook for $500k this year and next if he was claimed on re-entry waivers.
Center Brian Boyle has less to worry about with his relatively paltry $550K, and looks to be a better chance to stick through sheer economics, and could be a 4th liner center option if the Rangers decide to shift Vaclav Prospal back to the wing to take Avery’s spot, and move Anisimov up to the third line center spot.
Meanwhile 19 year old Russian winger Evgeny Grachev does not have to clear waivers, at at $875K, earns enough to make an impact on the Cap picture. On the face of it, he looks the most logical choice to be sent down.
But even sending down Grachev may not be enough. With 23 players on the roster, and one of those – Semenov – unsigned, the team has around $86K in Cap space. Certainly not enough to offer Alexei Semenov a contract, and not enough to give the team room to make changes later in the season.
This means despite playing hard in the pre-season, Voros could well be destined to spend the year in the AHL. His $1M salary could pro-rate out to the equivalent of around $3-4M by the time the trade deadline comes around.
Another option for the Rangers could be to send Michael Del Zotto down to the OHL. Del Zotto is due $1.0875M this season, and can not be re-assigned to the AHL because he was drafted out of the OHL and has not yet reached the age of 20. Additionally, if he plays ten or more games this year then the he’ll become a UFA at age 26, and his entry level contract will expire in 2012, rather than 2013. If Del Zotto is to prove to be an NHL quality defender, then generally you’d expect that his value to the team would be greater at 26/27 than it is today at 19.
Perhaps the compromise in Del Zotto’s case will be to keep him around for nine games and see how he does.
As it turns out, John Tortorella may just get his wish of having only twenty players on the roster…but it’ll be driven by economics, not necessarily by the coach’s desire.