When the Rangers’ roster is established for Friday’s opener in Pittsburgh against the banner-raising Stanley Cup champion Penguins, Sean Avery is doubtful.
“If Sean comes back, another winger will go down,” head coach John Tortorella said following yesterday’s detail-oriented drill session that lasted for more than an hour.
That winger will not be Enver Lisin, the talented 23-year-old whom Rangers acquired from Phoenix for Lauri Korpikoski in a deal that seems to have a much higher ceiling for the Blueshirts than the Coyotes.
Lisin will be here. The question is whether he will be both productive enough and responsible enough defensively — he looked foolish on Alexander Semin’s second-period goal on Thursday — to merit top-six minutes or fourth-line duty with sporadic action on the power play mixed into the regimen.
“The puck follows him, he has excellent offensive instincts, but we have some work to do,” Tortorella said. “He can skate, but he doesn’t have a clue away from the puck, not a clue.
“So we have to teach him. That’s our job as coaches. It’s the coaches’ responsibility to get the other side of the puck down. But there’s an upside there.”
And it will be in the NHL.
In addition to health and waiver considerations shaping the opening night roster, Tortorella and general manager Glen Sather face cap restraints.
Let’s stipulate that Henrik Lundqvist and Steve Valiquette have spots in goal; that Wade Redden, Michal Rozsival, Marc Staal, Dan Girardi and Matt Gilroy have five spots on defense; that Brandon Dubinsky, Vinny Prospal and Chris Drury have three spots at center; and that Avery, Lisin, Marian Gaborik, Ryan Callahan, Christopher Higgins, Ales Kotalik and Donald Brashear have seven spots on the wing.
Those 17 players account for approximately $52.455 million under the $56.8 million cap.
Michael Del Zotto is in for a $1,087,500 cap charge, including Entry Level bonuses. Teams theoretically could exceed the cap by up to $4.26 million by deferring bonuses into next year, but no team intends to do that. If Alexei Semenov signs, it likely will be for approximately $550,000.
Thus, adding Del Zotto and Semenov would increase the cap number to $54.092 million.
Evgeni Grachev carries a $933,333 cap charge, and Artem Anisimov’s is $821,666, with both including Entry Level bonuses. If Avery is out, it’s likely Tortorella would prefer both be on the roster. That would increase the cap number to $55.847 million.
And that would leave no room for Aaron Voros, who has a cap charge of $1 million, and might create a temporary spot as 12th forward (minus Avery) for Brian Boyle, whose number is $525,000.
But Voros would have to clear waivers to go down and re-entry to come back up. It’s unlikely the Rangers would risk a recall that would cost $500,000 or dead cap space this year and next. So if Voros goes to Hartford, he almost certainly stays there for the duration.
The Rangers could manage to defer the decision by postponing signing Semenov to a contract until Avery is ready to play. Or they could accept an overage in bonuses that would bite them in 2010-11.