Let’s continue the discussion about Jimmy Vesey and his chances of earning a roster spot/contract out of training camp following No. 26’s impressive performance in Monday’s 4-1 opening exhibition victory over the Islanders at the Garden.
It will, as the world already recognizes, be a numbers game when the hierarchy sifts through the fourth-line candidacies of Vesey, Ryan Carpenter and Dryden Hunt. The immediate number of interest is not the $82.5 million salary cap limit, but instead the roster being set at either 22 or 23.
Hunt carries a cap hit of $762,500. Carpenter is in at $750,000. Vesey can be expected to come in for a similar amount if he is signed off his PTO. Let’s hypothetically assign him a salary of the same $800,000 for which he worked last year for the Devils.
If the Rangers keep two of the three while cutting down to 22 and thus keeping one spare forward (and one spare defenseman), the team would open with just under $1 million of cap space. Theoretically, management could defer the decision and provide chairs for all three candidates to fill when the music stops. The Blueshirts then would open with about $200,000 of space.
