Sidney Crosby is operating under the most club-accommodating contract in the NHL at $8.7 million per season for 12 years, when he could have commanded a max hit of around $14 million annually had he so chosen instead of signing an extension without getting a raise before the 2012-13 season.
Second on the list is John Tavares, entering the final season of his six-year deal at $5.5 million per season as he contemplates the prospect of continuing to hide in plain sight as an Islander.
Right behind that pair is Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh, who has two seasons remaining on the six-year extension worth $4.7 million per he signed upon the expiration of his entry-level deal in 2013.
That means next summer the Blueshirts will be in the same position as the Islanders now are with their captain … and that McDonagh will hold the same sway over his organization as Tavares does over his.
It won’t be a matter of McDonagh trying to decide whether the Rangers will do what is necessary to surround him with enough talent to compete for a Stanley Cup. That has been asked and answered annually in the affirmative (even if it has not yet come to fruition).
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But it will be up to McDonagh, who will be 30 at the start of his next contract in 2019-20, to decide whether he wants to play his entire career in New York. Perhaps he might feel the tug of home in Minnesota, where the Wild surely will have the cap space with which to entice the state’s Mr. Hockey of 2007 as a senior at Saint Paul’s Cretin-Derham Hall High School.
Just as it will be up to the Rangers to decide whether to commit what you would have to figure would be at least $7.5 million per for eight years or whether to deal McDonagh next summer.
There has been speculation about what McDonagh will be able to do as a partner for Kevin Shattenkirk. But it will be just as intriguing to evaluate the impact on McDonagh of having the offensively gifted and possession-driving Shattenkirk, rather than Dan Girardi, on his right.
McDonagh will be able to name his price if he ever gets to the open market. He will have his pick of upper-echelon teams. Just as surely, he will not reach free agency as a Ranger. The sound is faint, but the clock has begun to tick, one year after Tavares’ countdown commenced.
We’re told that though the Rangers fell out quickly on Patrick Marleau (three years at $6.25 million per with Toronto) once it became apparent that the winger’s term and price had escalated beyond management’s parameters, the Blueshirts did have extended, productive talks with Joe Thornton before the center decided on a San Jose encore.
If the Maple Leafs’ addition of Marleau prompts the club to solicit offers for Tyler Bozak, the 31-year-old center whose average ice time has declined from 20:57 to 16:26 over the past four seasons, expect the Rangers to be among the interested parties.
Nick Holden likely would be the opening ante to get in on Bozak, a one-year right-handed rental at $4.2 million who habitually has excelled at the dots (56.7 last year, 53.6 for his eight-year career), is capable offensively (18 goals, 37 assists, 55 points last season) and would slot into the middle two or three with Kevin Hayes behind Mika Zibanejad.
Bozak, of course, would have to go if the Leafs were to join a potential Tavares trade derby this season. Next year? Toronto loses Bozak as well as James Van Riemsdyk’s $4.25 million and Leo Komarov’s $2.95 million, while William Nylander becomes a restricted free agent.
But there is no doubt the addition of Marleau makes it more difficult for Toronto to add Tavares.
Does anyone honestly believe it has been Brooks Orpik’s five-year contract at $5.5 million per that has kept the Capitals from winning the franchise’s historically unattainable Stanley Cup?
Wouldn’t the more likely cause of Washington’s premature demise as Presidents’ Trophy winners each of the past two seasons be Alex Ovechkin’s historical inability to raise his game when matched against Crosby, as he failed to do in consecutive second-round matchups against the eventual two-time champion Penguins?
To that point, is this the summer Ovechkin, who always has played at a million miles per hour and will be 32 when next season starts, trains seriously and gets down to prime weight and into prime condition?
Glen Sather’s mid 2013-14 acquisition of Kevin Klein from the Predators in exchange for Michael Del Zotto represented one of the most successful trades of his tenure as Rangers general manager. The addition of Klein, who forfeited the $2.75 million remaining on his contract by announcing his NHL retirement at the age of 32 on Friday, was essential in forming the fabric of the 2014 Cup finalists and 2015 Presidents’ Trophy winners.
Klein was a throwback front-of-the-net defender who displayed a surprising ability to join the rush with an often wicked shot from the top. He was a third-pair pillar for his first two years as Ranger, but he was never quite the same after sustaining a broken left arm when struck by a screaming Ovechkin drive from the neutral zone with 19 seconds remaining in the Blueshirts’ 3-1 victory at Washington on March 11, 2015.
The shot in the final seconds of a match the Rangers had sewn up with their third goal more than two minutes earlier, could not have hit its target more perfectly if it had been aimed.
Alexander Radulov said the Canadiens matched Dallas’ five-year, $31.25 million offer only after he had given his word to the Stars to accept their proposal.
Guess that is what Montreal GM Marc Bergevin meant by “no more negotiations.”
Jaromir Jagr, who scored 16 goals for the Panthers last season, can’t get a contract offer as an unrestricted free agent?
You would think he took a knee during the national anthem, or something.