It’s well known by fans that a lot of past Rangers seem to always end up on the Tampa Bay Lightning. From ex-captains Ryan Callahan and Ryan McDonagh, Anton Stralman, JT Miller, and many more it seems that Tampa Bay’s team is filled with ex-Rangers.
That list has grown with Kevin Shattenkirk joining the Lightening after the New York Rangers bought out his contract. Shattenkirk did not have an exciting season with the Rangers. With only a total of 7 goals and 19 assists during his time on the team, fans were not impressed.
The Rangers needed to buy out a contract, more specifically from the defenseman. Either Marc Staal, Kevin Shattenkirk, Brendan Smith, or Ryan Strome were potential players to be bought out. Those defensemen have also not had stood out seasons recently.
It was announced last week that the Lightning would sign Shattenkirk to a one-year, $1.75 million contract. Shattenkirk stated that the Lightning was one of six or seven teams that wanted to sign him.
This lets the Rangers save on their cap salary. The team will be saving $5,166,667 against the cap this upcoming season. This buyout will spread over four seasons meaning the Rangers will be paying him $6,083,333 in 2020-2021 and $1,483,333 in 2022-2023.
Although some wish to see Shattenkirk to redeem himself, the Rangers seem to have a good lineup of young defensemen. With the addition of Jacob Trouba and Adam Fox, and having Tony D’Angelo and Brady Skjei the defense seems to be stacked. The absence of Shattenkirk won’t be huge then since there are plenty of younger defensemen that will make the lineup.
This allows Shattenkirk to join a strong team with the potential of winning a Stanley Cup and allows the Rangers to grow their younger players and save up on cap space.
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