Of Course Brad Richards Will be Amnestied

I guess people feel like they have to write something.  Why else would some of them spend column space trying to figure out whether or not the Rangers will use their second and final amnesty buyout on Brad Richards?   There has never been a bigger no-brainer.  Of course they are.   First, if they keep him and he gets hurt, they can't use the buyout.  Second,  if he would then get hurt so badly he retires, the Rangers would bear a cap penalty (salary recapture provision) for the years that would remain on his original deal.   Finally, both Derek Stepan and Derrick Brassard are much better than he is at this point, and it's bad business to be paying your 3rd or 4th best player at a position more than your first and second best players.    Anyway, it takes no special insights to realize the Rangers have no choice but to buyout Richards.   The more interesting question is will they buyout anyone else?  I'm not sure and it would probably depend on the cap consequences.   In any event, they will buyout Richards, and will be 20M under the cap (barring other moves) when FA opens on July 5.

DEFENSE, DEFENSE

The biggest questions on what was once a deep, young defensive core revolve around health.   Specifically will Marc Staal ever again be the difference maker he was before the head injuries?   Anton Stralman is also banged up right now, and of course Michael Sauer didn't play all year and his career may be over.

On the positive side. Ryan McDonagh is turning into a rock and John Moore looked like the first rounder he once was with the Rangers.   Both of these guys are still young and can really skate.   Moore also won his only fight.   Presumably, Dan Girardi has a few seasons left, though he has been ridden too hard by Torts over the past few years.   I don't know why, but I feel like Michael Del Zotto will be traded for a pick or a young player around draft time.  Emminger could be back, and Gilroy will probably be gone - his failure to develop, along with the Staal and Sauer injuries have really hurt the Rangers' depth on D.

In the system, the Rangers have 2 prospects who might be ready when camp opens.  The first is Dylan McIlrath, the big, shutdown D with the nasty disposition and punishing hands.   The other is Mikhail Pashnin, who has been screwing around in the KHL for the last two years, but his contract could be up and we'll probably see him over in America.   He's 24 and if he wants to have a meaningful NHL career he's got to get it going.  Pashnin is not as big as Dylan, but he is just as physical and has better puck skills.   This Spring, the Rangers also added two more amateur D's Connor Allen and Tommy Hughes both have good size, and both have been compared to our own Dan Girardi.   So they could also be in the mix with good camps or impressive starts in the AHL.

Sam Noreau is another big, punishing man, who scored some big goals in his finally year in juniors.  He almost certainly will get signed, while Peter Ceresnak, a big, sort of skillsy guy probably will not.

Last year's first rounder, Brady Skjei is sort of the third in the McDonagh/Moore study of defensemen who can skate like the wind.   He had a weird season and Minnesota and there were some rumors that he will switch to juniors this year.   That bears watching.    Meanwhile Calle Andersson is still over in Sweden doing his thing.  We'll probably see him in a few years.

So that's basically the player and prospect map for D.   I wouldn't be surprised if we make a trade for an NHL D, or a high end D prospect (like McDonagh was when we got him) and spend some more picks on D once the draft starts.   We're just not quite there yet.   I guess I'll look at the offense in the next few days.