from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

Mumps and “flu-like symptoms” are not just taking a toll on the Rangers’ lineup, but the illnesses affecting Tanner Glass and Dan Boyle, respectively, are exacerbating the club’s salary cap issues.

Down these two players, the Blueshirts are carrying the league maximum 23-man roster through these five days off between Monday’s Garden defeat to the Lightning and Saturday’s match in Detroit. This includes seven defensemen (six healthy) and 14 forwards (13 healthy).

This glut, combined with the previous use of long-term exemptions on both Derek Stepan and Boyle, has created a situation in which the Rangers currently have just over $65,500 in available cap space, according to calculations by both The Post and capgeek.com....

More importantly, however, the string of injuries and illnesses has created the scenario under which the Rangers are projected to have a mere $211,650 available at the trade deadline. This doesn’t exactly leave much in the way of maneuverability for general manager Glen Sather, who essentially will have to to go dollar-for-dollar to improve his team.

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