What To Do With Aaron Voros

With the acquisitions of Brandon Prust and Jody Shelley, and the likelihood that at least one will be resigned, it appears that Aaron Voros may have run his course on Broadway. The majority will remember “The People’s Champ” for his $1 million salary for a fringe player, but some will remember that he always gave 100% when he played. Giving it your all every game is something that we as fans expect, but rarely see from a good portion of the Rangers.

Management’s options for Voros are a lot more abundant than their options with some of the high priced veterans. Voros has one year at $900k left on his contract ($1 million cap hit). Teams operating with an ownership cap might find the slight discount to be appealing. It is possible that a team would trade a lower pick (something to the equivalent of what the Rangers gave for Shelley) for Voros’ services. He is a short term commitment, which is something a lot of teams are looking for.

The Rangers also seem to have no problem waiving the winger, as he has been waived at the trade deadline each of the past two years to make room for any potential deals that might come their way. Waiving Voros and putting him in the minors seems to be an option that ownership is willing to accept as well.

Then there’s the curious case of buying him out. Voros has one year at $900k remaining. Voros’ buyout cap hit would be $400k for the 2010-2011 season and $300k for the 2011-2012 (for an explanation of how this is calculated, view the Understanding the Cap page).

The buyout amount is actually a little steep considering they can just keep him for next season and then have the cap hit eliminated for good. The most beneficial move for the Rangers to make would be to trade Voros and try to recoup that late pick they gave up for Jody Shelley. With the Rangers in a bad salary cap situation, Voros may be one of the first cap casualties of the 2010 offseason.