Shanahan Signs with Rangers

Brendan Shanahan has signed a deal this afternoon that will keep him with the New York Rangers. Terms have not yet been released but it is likely a one-year contract and the rumour is that it will be an incentive laden deal with a discounted salary. It is confirmed that the deal is for $2.5M with an additional $2.8M bonus structure. The first $2M bonus is for playing in at least 10 games this coming season and the rest are related to playoff performance.

The Rangers already made a huge splash in signing both Chris Drury and Scott Gomez. With Shanahan on board, the Rangers will have two excellent offensive lines this upcoming season since, in case you didn't know, they have Jaromir Jagr as their franchise wingman.

The only question is how close to the Cap the Rangers end up being after this signing. Since Shanahan signed for $2.5M, that leaves them with $5.6M in cap space. At the moment they only have 10 forwards signed according to nhlnumbers.com and of course have yet to re-sign #1 goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and uber-pest Sean Avery.

I think it's a safe bet that Henrik alone could take up most of that remaining cap space leaving $1M or $2M to fill out the roster. So what will the Rangers do?