Well, I'm a lot happier today than on July 1, 2008, when the Rangers signed Wade Redden and I started ripping apart my girlfriend's house in anger. By the way, she was mad.
Let's put it this way. If I had told you 3 days ago that the Rangers were going to trade Scott Gomez and his $7.357M Cap hit over the next 5 years for Marian Gaborik and his $7.5M Cap hit over 5 years, would you? And as an added bonus, Long Island-native Chris Higgins would be on board, adding grit, passion, energy, and a few goals. Sounds like a good deal, right?
Indeed it is. Glen Sather got it right - get Gaborik and his frail body for just money, and ignore Dany Heatley and his mind games when it would have cost money AND a few players.
Donald Brashear... whatever. It's going to be very hard to root for him, but he'll protect Gaborik, Ryan Callahan, Chris Drury, and whatever Russian named Nik ends up on the team.
I would like to wish a fond farewell to Freddy Sjostrom, though, who is off to Calgary, where he will no doubt be beneficial to their defense-first movement and can also play first-line winger with Jarome Iginla, if need be. Better him than Jamie Lundmark with Iginla, no?
And while I'm upset that Mike Cammellari signed in Montreal, he did get a very high deal from them. $6M for him is too much I think. If he signed in New York for $5M, okay, but not that much.
I also think Gomez and Cammellari, if teamed up, should do very well. If nothing else, a power play with Gomez dishing to Cammellari and his old buddy Brian Gionta will be spectacular. With Andrei Markov and possibly Alexei Kovalev on the ice then also, that could be killer.
Oh, and about the Hossa deal. It's not 12 years. It's 8 years. Well, it's 12 years, but it's a fake 4 years at the end. He'll be making the league-minimum for a player over 35 then, and he might not even play. Either him or Chicago probably said, "Ok, 8 years for 7 million each year." "No, better idea, higher amount, 4 longer years, $5.2 million Cap hit. Detroit did it, why can't we!"
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So this is how the Rangers roster shapes up, as of now. Don't pay any attention to lines or positions, and keep in mind trades can still happen. Last year, if you remember, Ryan Hollweg was traded to Toronto on like July 14th.
Avery - Dubinsky - Gaborik
Higgins - Drury - Callahan
Voros - Anisimov - Boyle
Korpikoski - Brashear - Zherdev
That's 12 forwards, but we don't know about Zherdev. Brashear and Voros won't be everyday players, and who knows about Boyle. We also don't know about Hartford and who might make the team (P.A. Parenteau? Mark Bell? Jordan Owens? Dale Weise?) So we have 8 forwards to play everyday, possibly 10, but there still is a need.
Expect atleast one or two more forwards, hopefully a puck-carrying, first-line center, if there are any available. Not everything happens on July 1, remember. Markus Naslund was signed July 3 last year. Uh, so was Dmitri Kalinin.
On D...
Redden - Rozsival
Staal - Girardi
Potter - Gilroy - Sanguenetti - Del Zotto
No room for a big D really, especially since the money should be spent on offense instead. Mike Komisarek would've been excellent, but maybe Rob Scuderi can be signed on the cheap.
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Should make for an interesting Day 2. I would definitely expect 2 forwards to be signed, and maybe a veteran 7th D so that there aren't too many rookies on the backline. Hey, maybe Paul Mara will take another discount to play here.
I distinctly recall you saying you were becoming an Islanders fan after the Rangers signed Redden, then the Islanders signed Streit hours later for half the money. You were probably wise to back off that one.
ReplyDeleteI'd hesitate to call Gaborik's deal a fair one - it's a lot of years for a guy who's been hurt quite often. But he was going to get that money and those years from someone, and the Rangers should feel fortunate to even have the opportunity to sign him.
P.S. I remember two years ago, when all the Rangers fans were gloating about getting Drury AND Gomez, and I said Gomez would be bought out within three years. Close enough.
Gomez was a good player, but he couldn't finish. He's a very good 2nd line center, and him with Gionta will be good again. But he got lucky by becoming a free agent at the right time, when it was him, Briere, and Drury only. If he was a free agent with Hossa and Gaborik, he'd have gotten under $6M probably.
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