New details confirm the New York Rangers will buyout their captains contract

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Hunter Bowman
June 17, 2024 (12:49)

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According to a new report today from The Athletic, the New York Rangers are very likely to buyout Jacob Trouba's contract.

The window to buyout contracts in the NHL will open up 48 hours after the winner of the Stanley Cup Finals is announced.

Many teams throughout the NHL will get the opportunity to part way with contracts that have seem to be no longer useful for their teams.

Unfortunately among those players and contracts one that sticks out the most is the New York Rangers captain, Jacob Trouba.

At least, that's what Thomas Drance and Harman Dayal of The Athletic seem to believe:

"Normally, a team might take the patient approach and give a respected leader and longtime core player like Trouba another shot to bounce back. But with Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, and Vincent Trocheck all on the wrong side of 30, there's extra urgency for the Rangers to win a Cup before their window closes. New York can't afford to waste any chances.

Finding a trade partner for Trouba would be the ideal scenario, even if it requires retaining a bit of salary. That might be complicated, though, because he has a full no-movement clause that transitions into a 15-team no-trade list as of July 1.

If a trade isn't possible, could the Rangers consider a buyout? It's clearly a long shot, but the math is palatable. Buying Trouba out would create $4 million of cap relief for each of the next two seasons at the expense of a $2 million dead cap charge for 2026-27 and 2027-28."

During the 2023-24 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Jacob Trouba had proven he's a liability for his team, even if many believe he's a great captain on or off the ice.

Buying out Trouba's contract probably wouldn't be the best-case scenario. However the Rangers would prefer to trade him to avoid penalties of a contract buyout on the salary cap.