The Return Of Mr. Avery?

We conveniently avoid a discussion of the 10-2 drubbing the Rangers received at the hands of the Dallas Stars tonight. Zach talked a little bit about it in the post just below this one. I'm sure you won't want to hear much more about it than that if you're a Rangers fan. You also might not want to hear about Sean Avery, but that's life. Because this post is about Sean Avery.

Here's a simple question. What do the Rangers have to lose by bringing back Sean Avery?

The team is in shambles. They play the most boring style of hockey in the NHL; they make the Devils look like the Oilers of the 1980s. They're fundamentally flawed and stand at least a decent chance of missing out on the playoffs at the expense of the Florida Panthers, for Christ's sake. Their coach just tried to bag skate the mediocrity out of his team on Wednesday, only to backfire horrifically on this night. Clearly, the Rangers are missing SOMETHING.

Is Avery the answer? Maybe. Maybe not. But we all recall the argument for re-signing him this past off-season. And that argument was based around the fact that the Rangers won a crapload of games when Avery played for the team and lost a crapload of games when he didn't. Now, this is a very different situation than the one the Rangers were faced with on July 1. Avery himself is a different person and may end up being a different player; after washing out of Dallas, he has undergone "sensitivity training", whatever that is, and might have lost a bit of his edge. Besides, we all know Avery has ambitions outside of hockey. Lastly, this isn't Jaromir Jagr's locker room anymore. Can Chris Drury control Sean Avery the way Jagr did? Tough question, one nobody can really answer right now.

For Avery to become Rangers property, he'd have to clear waivers. And as all of us Islanders fans know, the waiver order is determined by point totals; namely, the fewer points you have, the better chance you have of nabbing a player off waivers. The Rangers, for all of their troubles lately, have the ninth-best point total in the NHL. That means 20 other teams (Dallas doesn't count) have to pass on Avery in order for the Rangers to submit their claim. Don't dismiss the possibility of another team claiming Avery and trying to get a draft pick out of the Rangers. No matter where Avery ends up, whichever team claims him will end up paying him half the value of his contract (approximately $2 million per year), and if that team wants Avery for the playoffs, the deal has to be done by the trade deadline.

So, if I'm Glen Sather, here's what I do. I try to bring in Avery. It's good publicity, and it might actually work. I declare Tom Renney as safe until the end of the season; after all, it's easier to bring in one player than to fire a coach at this point in the season. If it doesn't work out, it's okay; after all, Renney is coaching his way out of his job anyway, and there's no way we're beating Washington, New Jersey, Boston, Montreal, or Philadelphia in a seven-game series without Avery, and we're probably not winning these series with him, either. But why not go for broke? It beats trading prospects at the deadline for what will inevitably be a sour postseason.

Having said all of that... one last thing to consider regarding Avery. They're 17-7-3 since Avery's suspension. Make no mistake about it, Avery can cure the Rangers or outright kill them. It'll be interesting to see what happens if he ends up with the Blueshirts once again.