Buyouts are a last resort for any team, including the New York Rangers. They don’t make sense unless there is no alternative. Before this season, the Rangers have executed buyouts only four times in team history. Two were compliance buyouts, granted to teams when the salary cap was not increased during the lockout of 2012-13 and had to be used within two years.
The first year they used their first compliance buyout on Wade Redden who had signed a six-year, $39 million contract in 2008. In their final compliance buyout, the Rangers got out from under Brad Richard’s nine-year, $60 million contract in 2014.