NHL analyst fears the Rangers are the verge of a huge mistake.

The New York Rangers currently find themselves well over the salary cap ceiling of $81.5 million that has been set out for the 2019 - 2020 National Hockey League regular season and it is quite clear to everyone that they must make a move. 

Although no one truly knows how Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton will address the issue there has been a common theme when it comes to pundits covering the Rangers, a buyout of veteran defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk. Since suffering a devastating knee injury in 2017 Shattenkirk has been a shadow of his former self, unfortunately for the Rangers however he still comes in at the cost of $6.65 million per season. In a recent article for the New York Post Rangers insider Larry Brooks stated he expected Shattenkirk gone by Wednesday.

From Brooks:

The Rangers have made two trades this offseason and both were for right-hand defensemen who play the power play. So what does that tell you about Kevin Shattenkirk’s future on Broadway?

That, plus the cap fix into which management willingly leaped by signing Artemi Panarin and Jacob Trouba for a combined $19.654 million-plus, tells me Shattenkirk’s tenure as Blueshirt will be over by the close of the team’s second buyout window Wednesday at 5 p.m.

That being said though some fear that general manager Jeff Gorton would be making a big mistake by buying out Shattenkirk, one that could cost the Rangers the most in years in which their new core would be expected to contend. In a recent article for Yahoo Sports NHL analyst Ryan Lambert laid out a case for why Marc Staal, and not Shattenkirk, should be the man to be bought out of his contract.

From Lambert:

A bought-out Shattenkirk would cost the Rangers less than a bought-out Staal this season (by about $1.4 million), but the ongoing cost is actually higher in the following three seasons, and in 2020-21 — when the Rangers should be powering out of their rebuild in earnest — that cost will be almost $3.6 million higher. Yup, Gorton would be paying more than $6 million two seasons from now for a Shattenkirk buyout, versus just $3.7 million for Staal.

Additionally Lambert argues that a even a much lesser version of Kevin Shattenkirk provides more to the team than a shut down defenseman in Marc Stall that, according to Lambert, can no longer shut down his opposition. Whether or not that is actually the case is certainly debatable, but what is not up for debat is the long term ramifications a Shattenkirk buyout would have for the Rangers. 

Would you take the short term route as Brooks suggests? Or would you use the long term approach proposed by Ryan Lambert?