Regardless of the identity of the Rangers’ next head coach, the cap issues confronting GM Chris Drury remain daunting.
The math did not change when Gerard Gallant and the organization cut ties following the seven-game first-round defeat to the Devils that, in retrospect, has actually turned out to be one of the least surprising outcomes of the tournament.
So working off The Post’s 14-man shadow roster including eight forwards (Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko, Jimmy Vesey, Barclay Goodrow), five defensemen (Ryan Lindgren, Adam Fox, Jacob Trouba, Braden Schneider, Ben Harpur) and one goaltender (Igor Shesterkin), the Blueshirts will have just under $11.763 million to fill eight roster spots if indeed the cap increases only $1 million to $83.5 million as anticipated.
The cap is tentatively scheduled to increase to between $87.5 million and $88 million for 2024-25 and to approximately $92 million in 2025-26, but that does not make this summer any less challenging or tricky for Drury, who has both K’Andre Miller and Alexis Lafreniere coming up as restricted free agents without arbitration rights.
