Navigating the salary cap and expansion draft with a weak prospect pool will be a tall task

The spring cleaning began in earnest for the Rangers yesterday with the firing of Hartford coach Ken Gernander and reassignments of Chris Drury and Jim Schoenfeld. The work will only get harder from here for the team’s front office.

Unlike last season when the Blueshirts considered a wholesale makeover but chose to mainly stand pat, GM Jeff Gorton and coach Alain Vigneault have been candid in the wake of the latest playoff ouster that major roster changes will be made this summer.

But that will be easier said than done.

For starters, the Blueshirts remain in a salary cap bind and will need to make the difficult decision to swallow salary or make uneven swaps to be able to add most players of significance. The favored modus operandi – signing big name free agents or trading picks/prospects for disgruntled veterans – would be near impossible given the current cap situation. Factor in New York’s barren pipeline and those trades become even harder to facilitate.

Then there’s the added complication of the Vegas expansion draft. While the Rangers are concerned about losing one of Jesper Fast, Oscar Lindberg, Michael Grabner, or Antti Raanta, many other teams have very similar concerns of their own. And no organization wants to trade for a player it can’t protect, nor does New York want to acquire a player it could lose in a month. Of course there’s some maneuvering that can be done with the Knights, but there’s likely to be a lot of uncertainty at least until the entry draft.

A cursory glance at New York’s existing roster reveals more obstacles. Dan Girardi, Marc Staal and Rick Nash all possess some level of no-movement clauses and Derek Stepan’s no-trade clause goes into effect on July 1. Those limitations aren’t necessarily deal breakers, but they certainly complicate things.

The cost-controlled young assets like Fast, Lindberg, Mika Zibanejad, Kevin Hayes, JT Miller, Jimmy Vesey, Pavel Buchnevich and Brady Skjei are obviously the most attractive to prospective trade partners and could fetch value in return, but it’s hard to fathom why New York would move any given the aforementioned cap situation, expansion exemptions and general importance of each to the future of the club.

That leaves Grabner, Mats Zuccarello and Chris Kreider as potential trade bait, but each is important to the Blueshirts’ recipe for success and expansion eligible.

Frequently discussed trade partners Anaheim and Minnesota have similar issues. While each may need to move a defenseman or two before the expansion draft – or bribe George McPhee – neither the Ducks nor Wild is in position to absorb salary or additional expansion eligible players. Acquiring Matt Dumba or Sami Vatanen sounds great in theory, but finding an equitable deal that works for both teams under the cap and is safe from Vegas poaching is another issue entirely. And dealing an attractive youngster like Josh Manson, Brandon Montour or Shea Theodore makes little sense from Anaheim’s point of view for the same reasons as the cost-controlled, expansion exempt list of young Blueshirts.

There’s no easy answer to this complicated puzzle at this junction. There will be some more clarity as the Knights’ plan unfolds, but until then the front office has little choice but to work the phones and map out chain reactions A Beautiful Mind style.

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