Two questions for the mailbag this week. Like last week’s I got these questions a while ago but held them so I could have content while I am away. As always, use the widget on the right to submit your questions for the mailbag.
Rangers West asks: What would the cap implications be if someone like Marc Staal or Henrik Lundqvist decided to retire?
Starting with why this question comes up: Cap recapture was a new thing added to the CBA after the 2012-2013 lockout. Cap recapture basically penalizes a team for all those front loaded contracts handed out. Both Staal and Lundqvist have front loaded deals, but not to the extent of the Marian Hossa type deals. So the short answer here is that if either retires, the cap hit is gone entirely. No penalties. Nothing. The only contract that the Rangers gave out that would have qualified was the Brad Richards deal. He was a compliance buyout and thus recapture was never an issue.
NYR4EVR asks: We attributed the Islanders’ 2018 success to goaltending. What is their success due to this year?
Looking at the Isles, they don’t have good shot metrics and are pretty rough in terms of shots against. Yet again they are getting stellar goaltending, close to the best in the league at even strength. That’s in terms of quantity. For expected-goals, the Isles play a rather dull style, so the quality of shot attempts against isn’t there. This can likely be attributed to Barry Trotz and his coaching style, limiting quality against. They still get caved in quantity though, and are the second-worst in overall shot share to the Rangers. So yea, it’s still the goaltending.
*All of this info comes from the Saturday 11/9 Daily Thread from Sean Tierney. There’s a chance some of this may have changed in the week since I drafted this post.
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