Buyout Period Begins, Who are the Candidates?

Today marks Day One of the 15 day buyout period for NHL contracts. Teams have until June 30 to decide if they will buy players out. Spector at FOX Sports looks at each teams’ buyout candidates, and mentions Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival as potential candidates for the Rangers. Unfortunately, it is very unlikely that Redden will be bought out, and this has been discussed ad nauseam here and around the Rangers community.

While buying out Rozsival has only been discussed once, it’s far less restrictive than buying out Redden. With a cap hit of $2 million or less for three of the four buyout years (a cap hit of $3 million for the other year), this is a far more likely scenario from a monetary standpoint. However, the coaching staff and management are happy with Rozsival, and it was shown by giving him the ‘A’ when Ryan Callahan was out of the lineup at the end of the season. While buying out Redden is unlikely from a monetary standpoint, buying out Rozsival is equally unlikely from a coaching/management standpoint.

When looking at the buyout period realistically, the only candidate that could or would be bought out would be Aaron Voros. Of course, buying out Voros doesn’t provide much cap relief, just $600,000 in extra space this season ($400,000 cap hit), and a $300,000 cap hit for next season, when Voros’ contract will have expired. This doesn’t really offer much of anything for the Rangers, so expect them to be quiet from a buyout perspective. There just simply aren’t any players that can be bought out that make sense fiscally and for the betterment of the team.