Building the future Rangers: Do big cap hits automatically mean big problems?

Should Jeff Gorton follow the Chicago model?

Dan Girardi, Marc Staal, hell even Derek Stepan and Rick Nash. Right now the Rangers have a handful of contracts that – to varying degrees – aren’t offering full value and ‘value’ is über critical in the cap era NHL. However, the fact that the Rangers have a handful of big contracts on their books shouldn’t make them shy away from adding more. On the contrary. If a player is worth the investment, it’s the Rangers duty to upgrade their talent base. After that, well that is when the Rangers need to get creative, but spending big shouldn’t be a concern.

People think that salary needs to be spread out around the roster: a spread the wealth approach as it were. However, the best team in the league right now, and arguably for the past half decade, has been the Chicago Blackhawks. The Hawks have taken a significantly top heavy financial approach to staffing their roster, one that many people would have thought would lead to major depth issues yet year after year the Hawks are in contention.

The Hawks are currently the model franchise for many reasons in the NHL one of which is their talent pool. Their core is arguably the best in the NHL. Patrick Kane, Jon Toews, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and yes, even Corey Crawford combine to make arguably the best fivesome in the league. They also take up 31.38m of the Hawks cap space which equates to over 53% of the Hawks cap. At first glance this appears to be a ridiculous amount in just five players but have those players earned it? Absolutely. The Hawks then make up their active roster with 11 players that eat up under 1 million dollars each in cap space. Indeed, only another four players account for over 2m cap space each.

The Hawks get creative. They fill out their roster with cost controlled players, they go out and actively recruit NCAA or European based players to accommodate for the lack of quality draft picks they have (due to their poor draft position) and they develop players who can make a quick impact in support roles. One key to Chicago’s success is having as much financial control over their roster as possible at any one time despite the huge deals they often give out. They are also not afraid to move on from a player if he is not deemed essential (think Dustin Byfuglien).

(According to NHL Numbers) The Hawks only have two players that at the conclusion of this season are unrestricted and those are ex Rangers Brandon Mashinter and Michael Rozsival. I think you will agree that neither player would be considered irreplaceable. The list of RFA’s is bigger with seven players RFA this summer but are any of those players critical to the Hawks? Not really. From those seven only Marcus Kruger and Andrew Shaw would be considered part of the extended core. Here’s the crazy thing: The Hawks have one of the best groups of prospects in the league and can easily move on from players such as Shaw. Replenishment and development. Sensible financial commitments and a lack of ‘long termism’ outside of the core.

Having big contracts on your roster is not the problem. The key is constant organisational development, replenishing your system. Last summer, Chicago was seemingly linked to every prized college free agent or European up and comer (See Panerin, Artemi). It was further proof that Chicago never stops looking to develop their roster. The Rangers shouldn’t be afraid to add another big ticket or two. They just need to be able to backfill the organisation and find the next wave of players in the short term.

Chicago has won two Stanley Cups on the back of efficient and ruthless organisational development (although drafting Patrick Kane and Jon Toews never hurts). They’re not afraid to move on from players who they can afford to move on from. This is maybe the lesson the Rangers have so far failed to learn. It’s fair to question whether Chicago would have rewarded (loyal) defensemen such as Marc Staal and Dan Girardi the way the Rangers have.

Chicago’s roster may be top heavy in dollars spent but most teams would gladly swap squads. The Hawks have taken a relatively uncommon approach to building their roster financially but no one can argue it’s not working. The Rangers shouldn’t be afraid to spend when the time comes, they just need to keep one eye on the future at the same time.