Ryan O’Rielly and the Buffalo Sabers have ruined New York Rangers plan for Derek Stepan’s next contract, so a roster shakeup is needed.
By Steven Cifuentes
The Twitter-world of the New York Rangers exploded like a Jason Pierre-Paul firework last week when the Buffalo Sabres signed Ryan O’Reilly to a 7-year, $52.5 million contract extension. Rangers fans everywhere wondered, and rightfully so, what does this do to the Rangers chances of signing Restricted Free Agent Derek Stepan?
The Rangers currently sit at $10.8 million dollars under the current salary cap and have restricted free agents Derek Stepan, Emerson Etem, JT Miller and Jasper Fast to sign.
With the new bar set by the Buffalo Sabres for 50-60 point centermen, Stepan is looking to take up most of that $10.8 million in cap space.
Stepan is superior to Ryan O’Reilly in almost every category. Throw in Stepan’s solid playoff history and you can see why the Rangers are in cap hell.
Jeff Gorton’s first task as Rangers GM is a daunting one. He has to make some moves to free up cap space so the Rangers can get their top center signed and field a full roster.
Here’s the rest of the task-list Gorton needs to meet:
