I am serious in one way, Howden will be a non arbitration eligible RFA, his qualifier will be like ~875K, I don't see the reason why the Rangers don't end up with him signed to that or even a little more this off-season.
Then it will come down to who coaching picks to make the team, and Howden can PK, whether good at it or not, plus the coach being familiar with him gives him a pretty good chance to make the roster again next year.
The next issue I see, Tanner Glass for example was costing ~2.1% against the cap at the time when he was with the Rangers, he produced a total of 19 pts including in the playoffs for the Rangers in a total of 141 games.
And they had Lemieux at ~1.9% of the current cap who produced 31 pts in 110 games, yet here we are with people who defended the Rangers keeping and using Glass in those years who are peeing on what Lemieux has done as a Ranger.
Disclaimer: I disliked Glass the player, not the person, and did not understand the push back I and others would get from voicing any displeasure of the Rangers signing and using him. Nor do I really care about the loss of Lemieux, it's going to be the next move they make to add toughness to the roster which I believe will not make any sense, yet will likely be defended as a good idea after the Rangers do it.