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Barclay Goodrow claimed off waivers as originally reported by San Jose |
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Barclay Goodrow, placed on waivers yesterday, was claimed by San Jose today in line with what Mollie Walker of the NY Post reported. A prearranged deal clearly was in place. By waiving and not trading Goodrow - who could have waived his NTC to go to the Sharks, presuming they were one of the 15 teams on his list - the Rangers get off from the entire $3.641 million AAV on his contract for each of the next three years.
The Sharks get a veteran leader who goes back to the place where he started and spent the first six years of his career. New York GM Chris Drury and San Jose GM Mike Grier, the Rangers’ former hockey operations advisor and prior teammates, worked on this transaction. Goodrow will serve as a mentor to Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini as well as William Eklund and Thomas Bordeleau. He brought leadership and a winning culture from Tampa to New York after he was traded to the Rangers and signed a six-year, $21.85 million deal in June 2021.
The advanced metrics were not kind to Goodrow, even with his solid playoffs. His six goals were driven by his 40% shooting percentage, but I still think he brought more to the table than the numbers reflected. Goodrow should have been on the third line, as I wrote Sunday, which was his role in Tampa, rather than buried on the fourth line. Despite what you thought of him, he will be missed on the penalty kill and in the locker room. But the creation of the needed cap space, which looks to be his complete AAV, though I still think something may be coming New York's way, is hard to pass up.
New York has a handful of possible fourth line options but they need to establish an identity and style of play for that trio. The same exists for the third line, Is it a checking/shut down line? Is it a scoring line? Do you want both, which would be optimal? Irrespective of which direction they go, coach Peter Laviolette and Drury need to best determine how to use and deploy Will Cuylle, Matt Rempe and Adam Edstrom as well as possibly Adam Sykora and/or Brett Berard, depending on who is brought in.
Freeing up $3.641 million of salary now leaves the Rangers with $13.7M Projected Cap Space with 17 players on roster, excluding Brennan Othmann, who is projected to make the roster., making it 18, see below The two key RFA to be signed are Braden Schneider and Ryan Lindgren, the latter having arb rights. Kaapo Kakko was signed to a one-year, $2.4 million deal, which either makes him easier to trade or a low-cost first or third line option. Drury still has his work cut out for him with extensions for Igor Shesterkin, Alexis Lafreniere and potentially K'Andre Miller due after this 2024-25 season.
If include Othmann as the 18th player under contract, this is from Vince Mercogliano's column:
Based on that 18-player projection, here is the breakdown of how much money the Rangers have on the books and how much they have left to spend:
- Projected player salaries: $74,655,690
- Performance bonus overage: $512,500 (carried over from 2023-24)
- Total salary cap hit: $75,168,190
- Available cap space: $12,831,810
The NHL Draft, where the Rangers have picks in rounds 1,4,5 and 6, is June 28 and 29 in Las Vegas, Free agency kicks off July 1 but as we have seen already, deals are coming fast and furious, including NJ acquiring Jacob Markstrom and Pierre-Luc Dubois heading to Washington, just in the division. Drury needs to be aggressive in improving the team, putting Goodrow through waivers, despite his playoff play, was certainly an expected move. Where he goes next, buying out Jacob Trouba, trading one of the top-nine, should all be on the table. The Florida series and SCF has highlighted the need to be more effective but also have additional balance throughout the lineup, along with a first - or second - line right winger.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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