Puck Pedia: 38-year old Henrik Lundqvist has one-year left on his deal at a $8.5 million salary cap hit.
A buyout would carry a $5.5 million cap hit next season and $1.5 million in 2021-22.
The Rangers already have $7.5 million in dead cap space next year – Kevin Shattenkirk at $6.08 million, Dan Girardi at $1.1 million and Ryan Spooner at $300,000.
Puck Pedia: The Rangers have $67.1 million in projected salary cap space for 15 players. With the dead cap space, they’ll have about $14.4 million in cap space.
RFAs – Alexandar Georgiev, Anthony DeAngelo, Phil Di Giuseppe, Ryan Strome and Brendan Lemieux.
UFAs – Jesper Fast, Greg McKegg, Micheal Haley, and Matt Beleskey.
Larry Brooks of the NY Post: New York Rangers Henrik Lundqvist started two playoff games while Igor Shesterkirk was unfit to play. That could be the end of the road for Lundqvist with the Rangers as they look towards a Shesterkin-Alex Georgiev tandem.
The Rangers didn’t get any significant trade offers for Georgiev before the trade deadline.
It’s not known if Lundqvist would be happy being a backup goalie next year. Don’t see a team willing to trade for Lundqvist even if the Rangers retain 50 percent of his salary.
The buyout period opens on September 25th or on the first day of the Stanley Cup Final. The period closes on October 8th or six days after the end of the season.
Any salary cap savings of a Lundqvist buyout would go towards a new deal for Georgiev.
Lundqvist could decide to retire from the NHL and he may want to finish his career playing Frolunda, where his brother is the team captain. If he retires he’d be walking away from his $5.5 million salary and the $8.5 million cap hit would come off the books.
Larry Brooks of the NY Post: The New York Rangers will need to add some depth this offseason and improve their bottom-six. Jesper Fast could likely leave via free agency this offseason.
Restricted free agent Ryan Stome didn’t have a good play-in round and improve his case for a long-term deal. Do the Rangers offer him a one-year deal in the $5 million range or do they give Filip Chytil a shot as their No. 2 center, or do they look at the free agent/trade market to see what is available?
Defenseman Anthony DeAngelo is a RFA and was playing through a hamstring injury. DeAngelo is arbitration-eligible.
Defensive prospect Nils Lundkvist will stay in Sweden next season so it doesn’t give the Rangers the option of trading the right-handed DeAngelo for a center. If they traded DeAngelo anyways, they would need to move one of their left-handed kids over to the right side, or try to sign a veteran free agent to a one-year deal.
The Rangers best option may be to try and re-sign DeAngelo to a one-year deal.
If the Rangers buyout Henrik Lundqvist they’ll have about $17.4 million to sign a goaltender, two defensemen and six forwards. If Lundqvist retires they’ll have about $21 million to play with.
