oscar lindberg

Lindberg (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Rangers have a pretty long shopping list this summer with the defensive (let’s call it) overhaul and all the restricted free agents needing signing (amongst other to do’s). Complicating things for Jeff Gorton and co. will almost certainly be Oscar Lindberg’s injury and the fall-out it will cause.

Lindberg’s season came to a very disappointing end. After a truly surprising start (that include Calder whispers in October) where he was a major reason for the Rangers’ own fast start, Lindberg eventually slipped and stayed out of the line-up. In retrospect it’s now fair to assume that his hip issues influenced the disappointing culmination to his season.

Lindberg grabbed 28 points in the regular season largely due to his start but it’s reasonable to believe he could/would have flirted with 40 points if he was fully healthy all year. All things considered, even factoring in ‘just’ the 28 point haul, Lindberg was a bargain for the Rangers given he made a relatively paltry 600k (cap hit of 650k). That’s the kind of cap bargain and flexible roster piece the Rangers need more not less of.

The Rangers were surely banking on Lindberg – unless he was being considered as a trade asset – being a cost effective bottom six player next season but they’ll need to replace him in the short term as well as address the other, more pressing needs.

With the Rangers pressed up against the cap every penny saved will have been crucial. We saw the difficulties the team had with call-ups in the second half of the season just gone. The way the team openly acknowledged the dollar conscious use of call-ups, the blatant cost saving measures, it all showed how hard pressed they were financially.

With Antti Raanta getting a minor, albeit well deserved raise ($250k), and Brady –getting better with every game – Skjei ($925k) surely counting for an additional $1.175m in combined salary on the roster, before the real ‘changes’ even get considered, it’s fair to say the Rangers cannot afford to also replace Lindberg and his salary in the short or mid term.

What complicates Lindberg’s situation is the lack of viable replacements internally. Maybe Marek Hrivik gets retained and he is used on the wing in Lindberg’s absence but even then the Rangers are adding another NHL body and an another NHL salary to an already tight cap situation. Beyond Hrivik – he himself an RFA and no sure thing to be retained despite a solid first impression – it’s hard to see where help is coming from.

Kids such as Adam Tambellini are simply not NHL ready or suitable for a bottom six role and there’s precious else ready in Hartford. Future saviour Pavel Buchnevich may eventually be pencilled in and could start in a third line capacity but he’s also going to bring a problematic salary to the mix (figure between 650 – 900k) and with Buchnevich likely on the roster for the duration (let’s be optimistic for a second here folks – if he comes, he stays?) then the Rangers have another body to move around. As you can see, without delving deep into the subject at hand there are a lot of if’s and but’s.

Complicating matters really is the inability to use Lindberg in trade discussions this summer. No team is trading for a player that is on the shelf for the next six months even one with a cap friendly salary (assuming the Rangers were even considering dangling Lindberg). Eventually the Rangers will need to reactivate Lindberg and count his cap charge against the cap. Do they spend the money now and worry about his return closer to the time or do they factor in his eventual return in their summer plans? A difficult decision for Gorton.

The Rangers may eventually move a lot of salary this summer (Glass, Girardi, Boyle maybe even Staal amongst others) but Lindberg’s injury and the need to fill his roster spot as well as all those other moving parts is one more headache Jeff Gorton could have done without as the Rangers enter their most critical summer in a generation.

 

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