The hometown kid is in search of another team after the New York Rangers bought out Kevin Shattenkirk’s contract on Wednesday.
Per a report from Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post, the New York Rangers have bought out the contract of defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk.
The 30-year-old defenseman signed a four-year, $26.6 million contract as a free agent in 2017. The New Rochelle, NY native never reached his potential with the Rangers. A knee injury required surgery in his first season and an outright struggle on both ends of the ice last season sealed Shattenkirk’s fate.
The final straw in the decision seems to have come when the Rangers re-signed Pavel Buchnevich to a two-year, $6 million deal on Friday.
The Rangers are approximately $4.15 million over the $81.5 million salary cap. The team has not been able to make a trade to ease their salary cap woes aside from the Jimmy Vesey trade in late June.
The Shattenkirk buyout will cover the next four seasons and now gives the Rangers approximately $5 million in cap relief immediately.
His AAV against the cap, broken down by year (via PuckPedia):
2019-20 $1,483,333
2020-21 $6,083,333
2021-22 $1,433,333
2022-23 $1,433,333
Buyouts of a contract are a good, short-term solution, but in the Rangers’ case, the financial burden always seems to be hovering around. Dan Girardi was bought out in 2017 and in the upcoming season, he will be paid $3.6 million by New York.
Girardi is currently an unsigned UFA.
Including this year’s cap hit for Shattenkirk and former Rangers Ryan Spooner (cap hit of $300,00), the Rangers will have over $5.83 million in dead cap space.
This is a short-term fix for this season that will have implications down the line.
