Lundqvist Signs One-Year Deal

Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers have agreed to terms on a one-year, $4.25M deal. I know a lot of people were expecting - or hoping - for a $3M deal but you had to know that was a pipe dream. You know what else was a pipe dream? Getting all these guys signed under the cap amount. As it stands, the Rangers sit with ($1.399M) in cap space. Those parentheses...that's accountant speak for "negative".

They currently are over the cap and need to bring themselves under. And did anyone mention that they still don't have a full roster? There are rumours of sending Kasparaitus down to the minors which would free up almost $3M in cap space. That would allow them to sign Avery for about $1.6M and be right at the cap. The only problem there is they still need a couple more forwards to fill out their offense.

EDIT: Ok, so after reading on some other boards it appears the Rangers have more cap space than most people think. If you assume that Kasparaitus goes to the AHL - or gets suspended after refusing the assignment - and they defer Shanahan's bonuses to next season, they have $3.23M available. That should be enough to sign Avery, Hossa and maybe one more depth forward to fill up the roster. It does mean that Shanahan's bonuses will likely count against next years cap which is obviously not ideal but if the cap goes up again, they should be all right.

And they need to hope that Marc Staal is a stud on the blue line this coming season.