Ryan Strome contract far from done…
Larry Brooks of the New York Post: The feeling that the Ryan Strome contract could be resolved quickly has faded. The qualifying offer has been tendered. However, that is just a placeholder. If Strome heads to arbitration, he can easily get $4.5 million plus. His numbers dictate top-six pay with much ease.
New York remains far from convinced that Strome is the long term solution for their second-line center role. Though he complimented Artemi Panarin masterfully, the feeling is a regression is coming. Some will agree to disagree there. On the other hand, New York was looking to improve actively via trade before circling back on a qualifying offer. That speaks volumes.
A couple of offers were kind of close but nothing concrete. Therefore, New York went back to Strome one more time and ultimately they may not walk away from arbitration if the market dictates itself. Teams know that New York has little leverage here. Lastly, free agency offers few hopes as well.
The Rangers’ cap space is less than it appears
Larry Brooks of the New York Post: Math and overages plague the New York Rangers this offseason. Their overage amount comes out to just about $4.8 million. This reduces New York’s cap space further down to just $18.3 million.
John Davidson touched on the bonuses here.
“So there’s a lot of bonuses from young players in particular that also are part of your numbers when you look at the cap number, where you are in conjunction with the cap, which is not only flat this year, but two more years after that.”
Again, that three-year flat cap will hurt many teams because of bonuses. The only time performance bonuses are removed is when the player is moved off the roster or if that bonus becomes mathematically impossible to reach. Praying for lousy seasons from their top prospects and players is not practical (see Ryan Strome). Therefore, New York just has to spend wisely and elsewhere if necessary.