Your posts are interesting to read but are full of unrealistic hypotheticals. The Rangers aren't forcing Trouba to move if he's in the top 4 and the team is contending and if they trade him when he's 32 with 8M left for a couple of years the return is going to have salary coming back, only so much that is buryable. All that savings you thought you had that can go to the youngsters is partially eaten up in addition to a roster spot taken away.
They're not giving Lindgren away either to save a million or two by placing an inexperienced player on their top pairings if the team is in the contending window.
Reaves isn't "retiring" to help the Rangers.
The biggest fantasy is the "reworking" of the Kreider deal, which has to be illegal in the CBA. I mean, I guess you can convince him to retire and give up 20 or so million, offer him a front office job for a year and then he can return and recoup that 20 mill over a longer term but better cap hit.
Your dream of having a contending team for fifteen years relies on all these major contributors willingly riding off or being traded in order to help the elc players seamlessly pick up and make the exact same contribution at a cheaper rate until their elc expires. No drop-off, no seasons of adjustment everything is all unicorns galloping across rainbows with multiple Stanley Cups at the end.
The Rangers will be the only team in the NHL that forces their young star players to take short-term, less money bridge deals before they're eligible to be offer-sheeted in order to make this happen.
It's an interesting take, I'll say that.
Dispute the bold.
Trouba. We can't force him to anything but he can do us no favors and then post career, what goes around comes around. He can require us to eat him full 2 seasons more, but after that we get to deal. He is a quality RD in his prime, we will get signif offers and those which help us w/cap will up value of such offers. If an expiring loser is included, we can flip that loser to a bottom dweller for a pick/prospect, or buy him out. The other scenario is he sees the cap yields to no one, and with it the handwriting on the wall, and agree to an early deal which we will bend over backwards to be to the location(s) of his preference. Obv, when he signed his deal, there was no Fox, no Nils L, no Schneider. It was not clear Zib would be extended at this # with nmc protection. It is obv they can't afford him full term of his deal MUST deal him early to plug Scheneid to 2RD and Nils into 3RD. Faster he realizes there is no hope of him staying here beyond 2 years max, faster he realizes he can get something more from NY post career, and that could be worth early relocation.
Lindgren - they want to keep him, and he is at a reasonable #, but the finite amount of team cap available + lack of cap going up has constrained to pt where they have no other choice if they want to keep LaF/Kakko, etc, other than to deal Lindy, esp since Robertson, who finished runner up to Schenider in some D ranking and can be available soon, to have his elc plug in to 3LD. And that is not counting Jones or Nils L who are already here, both of who play either side.
Reaves - read somewhere -- unofficial spitballing speculation, don't remember where -- that if push comes to shove, they deal or buy him out. The cap crunch will be that bad. What I propped is an alternative, where he stays w/NY, gets paid, and then can return in 2 years or maybe less depending on Trouba. There are rules about to what extent that is kosher, but they do allow for players who retire to come back.
Kreider - you completely got wrong. Not offering him a desk job, that was Reaves only. Idea is if he trusts us -- and we would have to trust him as well b'c for all of a nanosecond he'd be a FA -- if he tears up his deal at 6+ for X years we would give him a deal at 5, 5.25, or 5.5, something like that for MORE [X +] years. We would also unofficially owe him a favor post career. Kreider could say 'hey, not my prob" or he could give them 1-ish 1+ cap relief at a critical time that won't' break him. Might be willing to do that to optimize team position.
My "dream" is not "15 years". It is a realistic 6-7 instead of a stupid short term 1-2, MAYBE 3 if we shoot ourselves in the foot by blowing a wad of elc talent and taking on cap problems just to add a star or 2.
Now, again, your position is totally disingenuous as you admit yourself to be an Islander fan. You have a right to your opinion, but let's not pretend it is in NYR interests, which arguably mine is.
