With the Stanley Cup all wrapped up, we move into the offseason and the NHL free-agent market will be opening on July 28. For the general manager in the league, this is an opportunity to strengthen and reshape their rosters.
On Friday, the first buyout window opened to the NHL teams and it will stay open till July 27th, which is a day before the free-agent frenzy. And we all know that with buyout windows opened, there will be many rumours and speculations being made regardless of the source.
Now, there is speculation that the New York Rangers will buyout Tony DeAngelo almost immediately, but this might not be the case, according to best usa online casino.
The Rangers were reported to have planned to try and trade the offensive defenseman last season, but when the teams made inquiries and found out they would not be retaining the salary, the interests cooled off.
The Rangers’ general manager Chris Drury now plans to use the first buyout window on DeAngelo, as it would make some sense to first expose the 25-year-old defenseman to Seattle in the Expansion draft before buying him out.
The 25-year-old defenseman currently has one year remaining at $4.5 million next season and his buyout is only one-third of his deal due to his age. So there only be a cap charge worth $383,333 in 2021/22 and $833,333 in 2022/23. And the buyout will be adding $4,416,666 to the New York Rangers cap to bring their free space to about $27 million.
According to the rules of the expansion draft, the New York Rangers will have to expose at least one defenseman that matches the following criteria. The player must have a contract for next season and has either played over 40 games last season or over 70 games altogether in the last two seasons.
Two Rangers defenseman meet this criterion; Anthony Bitetto and DeAngelo. They are also reported, via real money pokies, to be working on re-signing Libor Hajek and they can protect the player.
Although the Rangers have to expose Bitetto, they may also want to see if Ron Francis and Seattle Kraken will take DeAngelo on July 21st. It will be handing the Rangers cap space worth an extra $900k. But the New York Rangers are not in any rush as they could still buyout DeAngelo on July 22nd.
In other news, the New York Rangers begin their offseason adventure on Friday morning as they announce the signing of restricted free agent Brett Howden, which is considered as a strategic move that could improve their options ahead of the Seattle Kraken expansion draft.