Drury's Final Year Bought Out By Rangers

When the New York Rangers dealt Scott Gomez to the Montreal Canadiens two years ago, general manager Glen Sather was able to rid the organization of one of the two disastrous contracts he saddled the team with during the summer of 2007. On Wednesday, he was finally able to get rid of the other.

Chris Drury will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 following the Rangers' buyout of the final year of his five-year, $35.25 million contract. He was slated to earn $5 million in salary next season, but would have counted as a $7.05 million cap hit against New York's payroll. Bought out contracts still count against a team's cap, but at two-thirds of the remaining money owed divided over double the amount of years remaining. The Rangers will therefore owe Drury $3.77 million at a rate of $1.66 million against the team's cap in each of the next two seasons.

“Chris is a consummate professional, a tremendous competitor and an even better person,” stated Sather. “He gave his heart and soul to the Rangers organization in his time here and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

The need to end Drury's tenure with the Rangers was esssentially two-fold. First, he had failed to live up to his expectations since signing with the team four years ago. He came from Buffalo known as a 30-goal scorer with tremendous leadership qualities and a knack for coming up in the clutch. While the leadership part enabled him to be a captain during his entire tenure with the organization, he never scored more than 25 goals in a season with New York and barely ever came up big in the heat of the moment.

With the free agent market set to open at noon on July 1, there was also a need for more financially flexibility to sign somebody like Brad Richards and start throwing out offers to pending RFAs Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan. The $5.39 million saved in cap space by dropping the largely ineffective Drury will go a long way in accomplishing those tasks.

Drury, to his credit, handled the matter with the class and dignity he has exhibited during his entire 12-year career in the NHL.

"It was a great honor and privilege to be a New York Ranger for the past four years, and I will always be grateful for the opportunity to fulfill that childhood dream," Drury told The New York Post. "The Rangers are a first-class organization with great people in the hockey, public relations, team services and community relations departments."

"I would also like to thank Ranger fans. They always inspired me to do the best I could in whatever role I was asked to play. Playing before them in the Garden was a thrill of a lifetime. I wish all the fans and the entire Ranger organization the best of luck in the future."

With a relatively weak free agent class this summer, Drury should not find it too difficult to find work - albeit at a much lower pricetag than the past four years. Drury still possesses strong leadership skills and remains a good two-way player, face-off specialist and penalty killing asset. For a team in need of a third line center, Drury could be a welcomed, cost-efficient option.