First, the good. Remember when Nigel Dawes and Ryan Callahan struggled last season? For Dawes, it was his defense. For Callahan, he never regained his confidence and scoring touch after his knee injury. Both spent stints playing for Hartford in the AHL, and came back better than when they went down.
Korpikoski struggled in the NHL after having a great preseason. Maybe scoring 6 points in 4 games would help his confidence and he can play like we know he can. (Admittedly, our reference point isn't huge - one playoff goal in one playoff game last season and a solid preseason.)
Now, the bad.
For the first handful of games up until Korpikoski was sent to Hartford, there were 3 healthy scratches per game, all on offense. Petr Prucha, Pat Rissmiller, and Dan Fritsche. Since Korpkoski went down, Prucha and Fritsche have been splitting time while Rissmiller was placed on waivers.
Okay. Rissmiller was placed on waivers but not assigned to Hartford. That means a) he can be placed back in the lineup without going again through waivers and b) the Rangers wanted someone to pick him up so they could pay half his salary and wipe their hands of him. Doesn't bode well for Rissmiller, who actually did play well with San Jose last year but hasn't been given half a chance in New York. For Pete's sake, he has under 18 minutes of ice time this season.
So he appears to be out of the question, but he could eventually be put into the lineup.
But now, the Rangers are back to 3 extra healthy forwards. Does this mean a move is imminent? I am not claiming to know anything, and I'm just playing Devil's Advocate here (not the movie, I hated that movie). However, I do know the Rangers tried hard to move Prucha. His $1.6M salary and lack of production last/this season hampered that, so Korpikoski was sent to the minor league and Prucha was put back on the ice.
It's a valid question at this point: Are the Rangers planning a move? My unofficial guess would be that no, they are not trying hard to make a move, but if someone offers something for a forward, they would seriously consider it.
They were saying on NHL Live today that the Rangers might consider packaging Rissmiller and Prucha for Martin Havlat, provided they were willing to take on his $5 million salary. I'd probably do it - trade a problem for a problem, and the worst case scenario is that you have a more expensive problem. Hey, if they're going to pay Redden $6 million, they may as well pay Havlat $5 million.
ReplyDeleteThere's no room for Havlat even without Prucha's 1.6M and Rissmiller's 1M.
ReplyDeleteThat said, he gets paid 5M and plays in 50 games a year. Not worth it. His character is injured more than Sam Jackson's character in Unbreakable.