As the successor to Glen Sather, I would like to take the opportunity to thank him and the organization for giving me the chance to lead this great team. The most important aspect of this job is to keep the long standing history of the New York Rangers intact. My goal is to bring The Stanley Cup back to NY; we will not wait 54 years again! This team is built to win, with some of the best core talent in the league as well as the “The King” himself Mr. Henrik Lundqvist. Now lets’ get down to business…
The toughest task I will be facing as the new GM of this team is the retention or compliance buyout of Mr. Brad Richards. As a new comer to the organization, I have to look deeper into the future and what it may hold for us. That is why I have decided to use my final compliance buyout of Brad Richards. This decision has not come easy for anyone within the organization. We have felt that this option would be the best way to keep intact our core young players as well as some veteran guys heading to Unrestricted Free Agency in the coming years. This organization would like to take the time to thank Mr. Richards for his tenure and leadership that he has brought to this team. His personality and demeanor has been nothing but first class and professional during his stay in NY. The New York Rangers would like to wish Mr. Richards all the best of luck in the future.
My next order of business is to lock up all of our restricted free agents, which include the following players: Ryan McDonagh, Carl Hagelin, Derek Stepan, Mats Zuccarello, Steve Eminger. All of these players will be resigned by the New York Rangers. Their contracts and explanation will be written in detail. We feel that these negotiations will be a little difficult to manage with the drop in salary cap. After the buyout of Richards the team is left with just a shade under 21million dollars in cap space. To resign all RFA, and make some plays in the trade and UFA markets.
Ryan Mcdonagh – Signed a 5 years 20 million dollar contract for an average of 4 million per year. We felt as an organization that this works well for both parties. Ryan has played exceptionally well for this organization and we value his services. He has now become the highest paid defenseman in the organization.
Derek Stepan – Signed a 5 years 30 million dollar contract for an average of 6 million per year. Derek is the number one center man on the team; we love his style of play and want him here for a very long time.
Carl Hagelin – Signed a 2 year 4.5 million dollar contract for an average of 2.25 million per year. Carl is a special player within our organization; his speed sets his apart from almost every other player in the league. This contract is being used to judge the future of Carl; we consider this a stepping stone, to see if his entire game can become more rounded. We look forward to watching his development and seeing his game grow.
Mats Zuccarello – Signed a 2 year 3.5 million dollar contract for an average of 1.75 million per year. Mats has shown his desire to return to the NHL. After a very impressive return and playoff run this deal was a must. Mats vision and Hockey IQ are what sets him apart from most; he has also shown a willingness to get into the dirty areas to make plays despite being under sized. We love his offensive ability and compete level and we look forward to seeing Mats gain confidence every season.
Steve Eminger – Signed a 1 year 750,000 dollar contract. Steve has shown that he can be one of the most capable 7th defenseman in the league. No matter when his services are called on Steve has perform admirably. We have seen him play bottom pair and second pair minutes and we look forward to having him on the team this upcoming season.
I have a tough reputation and history to live up to as the new GM of this team. Mr. Sather has done a miraculous job at negotiating trades with other teams. I am sure we can all think back to some of the great trades that have been made over the past few years. This offseason I will be addressing the issue of our power play first and foremost, our team has been missing a true quarterback for the PP.
I would like to announce a trade between the New York Rangers and Winnipeg Jets:
New York sends (D) Marc Staal, (F) Christian Thomas, (F) Taylor Pyatt and 2nd round pick in 2014 to Winnipeg In exchange for (D) Dustin Byfuglien and a 3rd round pick in 2015
This trade was a very difficult one to make, but one that I felt was a necessity. The addition of Byfuglien now gives us the PP QB we have been looking for as well as a hard hitting solid defenseman. Dustin’s offensive game is second in point production over the past few season are second to only Erik Karlsson of the Senators. This was just one of the many reasons we felt Dustin would be a solid fit and great addition to this organization.
Our organization is going to be built around our core young talents for the foreseeable future. Below is the breakdown of the roster and line combinations that will be the 2013-2014 New York Rangers. This team is built to roll through the lines, with depth and skill in each line. We also have left ourselves plenty of cap space to make any additions that we may need come the deadline.
FORWARDS
Chris Kreider ($1.325m) / Derek Stepan ($6.000m) / Rick Nash ($7.800m)
Carl Hagelin ($2.250m) / Derick Brassard ($3.200m) / Ryan Callahan ($4.275m)
Mats Zuccarello ($1.750m) / Oscar Lindberg ($0.760m) / J.T. Miller ($1.244m)
Derek Dorsett ($1.633m) / Brian Boyle ($1.700m) / Arron Asham ($1.000m)
Darroll Powe ($1.067m) /
DEFENSEMEN
Ryan McDonagh ($4.000m) / Dan Girardi ($3.325m)
Michael Del Zotto ($2.550m) / Anton Stralman ($1.700m)
John Moore ($0.965m) / Dustin Byfuglien ($5.200m)
Steve Eminger ($0.750m) /
GOALTENDERS
Henrik Lundqvist ($6.875m)
Martin Biron ($1.300m)
OTHER
Buyout: Brad Richards ($0.000m)
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CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled with the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $60,669,167; BONUSES: $1,362,500
CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $4,993,333
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