Staal Remaining On Broadway Blueline With New Five-Year Deal

Glen Sather is mostly criticized for taking a proud big-market franchise and leaving its fans to simply hope for a playoff berth ever year. His outlandish free agency spending on the wrong kind of players while quibbling over deals for young internal talent has led to much frustration among fans of the New York Rangers. But every once in a while, the general manager does something right and deserves a pat on the back.

One of those should come his way thanks to finally inking a new deal with 23-year old restricted free agent defenseman Marc Staal. TSN’s esteemed hockey analyst Bob McKenzie broke the news via Twitter that a new five-year, $19.875 million deal was agreed upon for the star defensive defenseman. While on Broadway, Staal will count as an average annual cap hit of $3.975 million – or less than two-thirds of what Wade Redden will cost at about four times the talent.

ESPN’s E.J. Hradek broke down the deal year-by-year with these annual salaries:

2010-11: $3.1 million
2011-12: $3.675 million
2012-13: $3.775 million
2013-14: $3.875 million
2014-15: $5.45 million

Additionally, Hradek points out that Staal did not receive a no-trade or no-movement clause in the contract.

This is a tremendous re-signing for the Rangers, who wanted to avoid another Brandon Dubinsky situation. Last year, Dubinsky and Sather played chicken all the way through the beginning of training camp and preseason play, thus leaving Dubinsky slightly unprepared for the season ahead when he did finally ink a two-year deal. Head coach John Tortorella considered it a bad mistake on Dubinsky's end while calling his agent stupid.

Luckily for Staal, this whole situation was worked out a few days ahead of training camp on Friday. There was speculation that Staal was seeking $4.5 million per season on a short term deal so that he could retain his free agency years, according to The Record's Andrew Gross. Sather managed to bring him back on what the league now considers a long-term contract while paying him a sub-$4 million cap hit. Staal will only lose one year of unrestricted free agency, which can be made longer if the parties agree to an extension four years down the road.

According to CapGeek, the Rangers currently have the highest payroll in the NHL at a whopping $65,621,667 - $2,162,500 of which is in bonuses, therefore leaving the team $4,059,167 over the $59.4 million maximum allowable payroll. This almost guarantees Redden and his $6.5 million salary will be dumped in the minors when the season begins. That move would place the Rangers about $2.44 million beneath the cap and help to scratch a name off the list of players battling for a roster spot on the


blueline in the coming week. Aside from Redden, the seven available defensive opening will go to any combination of Staal, Michal Rozsival, Dan Girardi, Michael Del Zotto, Matt Gilroy, Steve Eminger, Ryan McDonagh, Pavel Valentenko and Mike Sauer.

While whoever ends up winning those lower positions is currently up in the air, the Rangers know they now have their most important defensive player (not sporting the crease) back in the fold. Staal has steadily developed into a premier defensive defenseman in the NHL. He is counted on to play big minutes (he averaged over 23 a game last season) and is always looked toward to shut down some of the best forwards across the league, most notably Alexander Ovechkin. It should be much of the same from him over the next five years on Madison Square Garden ice.