Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Will The Rangers Buyout Wojtek Wolski This Summer?


When the New York Rangers acquired Wojtek Wolski for Michal Rozsival back in January the word no-brainer was used by anyone and everyone around as the move brought New York a young player with offensive upside, save the team cap space and opened up a defensive spot for Ryan McDonagh to play at this level.  Over the course of his 32 games with the Rangers he has amassed only 16 points (5-11) and has been brilliant in some games and healthy scratched for one as well.  The move is still the right one, but the questions have to start becoming more concrete about just how long Wolski’s stay in New York will last. 

With a cap hit of 3.8 million dollars next season and the Rangers in need of relief to sign their own restricted free agents and possibly chase the likes of Brad Richards the team will need to find the money from somewhere and Wolski could be part of that process.  According to Capgeek the buyout for Wolski this summer would only cost the Rangers 466,667 against the cap next season and 666,667 which would create over 3.3 million in cap space for the team this summer which would provide significant breathing room and options for the organization.

The lure of Wolski’s skill could entice the Rangers to keep him around, but if he keeps going like he has been where he is scoreless in his last seven games and providing little to nothing else on the ice then one would have to think that they would consider cutting bait on him whether it be trying to deal him or just walking away for pennies and taking the cap space with the roster spot.  It will be up to Wolski to go back to how he was playing when he was first brought to New York which was a dangerous offensive game with defensive effort and grinding play along the way or he will be on his fourth NHL team to start the 2011-12 season.