I honestly don't see how this team remains in tact with all 3 of Nash, Girardi, and Staal on the roster.
Players that the Rangers will have that are in some way shape or form free agents next offseason:
Hayes, Kreider, Moore, Hagelin (if he signs a 1 year bridge deal), Stepan (if he signs a 1 year bridge deal), Yandle, Boyle, Talbot.
Boyle walks, Talbot is traded, Stepan resigns long term. That still leaves 5 key players that the Rangers will need to give significant raises to next year with 1 significant contract coming off the books: Dan Boyle.
We've already discussed that Boyle's contract is likely to go to Yandle. Which leaves Hagelin, Kreider, Hayes, and Moore. And let's say that Moore isn't kept. 3 promising young players that can all see very significant increases with really no space. If we are saying that Kreider commands 4-4.5, Hagelin 3.3-3.8, and Hayes 3.5-4.5 (Depending on how he does next year), that's about 5-6.5 million we'd need to account for.
The brutal reality of it, is that one of these 3 will have to go, at the very least, to keep the majority of guys in tact.
Girardi is probably not worth trading. There is so much polarity with how he is appraised, it would be tough to get back a fair value return for him.
Staal just signed long term here, and I can't imagine them flipping him 1 year into a 6 year extension, especially when he has about another 1.75 years left of a NMC.
Nash. When else will we get this much value for him? And he is paid the most of the bunch. All signs point to trading this guy first. Otherwise we'll be in the toughest cap situation we've been in for the past decade. And what is to say that he will have more value then than now? I'd argue he will have less value, actually.
