You want the cigar? You gotta put in the work.

One of the silver linings to the Rangers’ season ending in slightly premature fashion is that we have opportunity to bring back the BSB Off-Season Plan Contest. We first launched this little exercise in the summer of 2013 and it was a tremendous success. Since there are so many moving parts up in the air this summer, there should be ample opportunity for creative maneuverings.

The rules are fairly simple. You, the wonderful BSB community, will submit an off-season proposal to the writing staff. You will have all of the existing cap space and assets of the organization at your disposal to sign players, make trades, call up young players and re-sign/extend current players. Your plan should be a comprehensive outline detailing your goals and plan of attack for the roster, taking us from draft day to the start of training camp.

The BSB staff will read all the submissions and decide on a Top-3. The top submissions will be run as guest posts, and then you, the community, will vote for the best overall plan. The winner will have the distinguished honor of penning a guest post for Blue Seat Blogs. For reference, TommyT won our last contest, and his submission can be found here.

Here are a list of assumptions that are to be made:

  • All conditions exist as of June 3, 2015. Currently, the Rangers have $59.5 million committed to 15 roster spots. The salary cap, as previously disclosed will be $71.5 million. That gives the team $12 million in cap flexibility, barring trades.
  • Your notable RFA’s are: Derek Stepan, Carl Hagelin, JT Miller, Jesper Fast, Connor Allen, Dylan McIlrath and Oscar Lindberg.
  • Your notable UFA’s are: Martin St. Louis, James Sheppard, Matt Hunwick, and Danny Kristo.
  • Keith Yandle and Cam Talbot are notable players entering their contract years. All contract information can be found at General Fanager.

So, how do we approach this little exercise? First of all, try to be as realistic as possible with your trades and singings. Remember, your trade proposal sucks. Before you pull the trigger on a move, at least try to consider whether your fictional opposing GM would actually be comfortable with the return.

Obviously, the Draft has yet to happen, and how to handle that is completely up to you. Prospect Guru? Tell us who the Rangers will use their precious few mid-round picks on. Don’t care about the Draft? Concentrate on the trade aspects, then.

Also, remember to take market forces into account. This year’s free agent crop is pretty brutal. Chances are Mike Green won’t be available for 1/$4m.

You can put as much or as little research into the project as you want. Obviously, putting more research in will likely give you a better chance of winning, but the point is for it to be fun.  There’s no minimum or maximum length for the post, but analysis is looked upon favorably. Resources like General Fanager, hockeydb, behindthenet.ca, war-on-ice, etc. are invaluable resources to you in a task like this. Also, Armchair GM can help keep you organized.

It doesn’t matter whether you think the Rangers would actually make the moves you are proposing.  You, as honorary GM, can make Vigneault implement whatever new system you want, and should concentrate your moves on being consistent with your own philosophy.

Be sure to make this thing post-worthy.  Check your spelling. If you want to add pictures or other visual media (charts, graphs, etc.), attach them in the email.  A couple of typo’s are ok, but if we need to make significant edits before it can run, we’ll probably just pick someone else’s.

Make sure to include all six BSB writers on your submission (Email addresses can be found on the sidebar), and use the subject “BSB Off-season Plan Contest”. All submissions are due by midnight on the eve of the Draft, June 24. This gives you three solid weeks to get everything done.

We’re all disappointed that the Rangers will not have the opportunity to compete for the Cup this summer. Hopefully this will be a cathartic experience, but the goal is to have fun with it. Be creative. Make small tweaks, tear it all down. We are really excited to see what you guys (and gals) come up with. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments or shoot me an email.

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