Brashear Asks for Trade...

Excuse me, because it's 4:55 a.m. and I just got home from work/bar and I am just reading up on the hockey news of the day, but did Donald Brashear ask for a trade?

To who? Hartford? Charlotte? Oh, no, wait, the Charlotte Checkers won't be the Rangers ECHL affiliate next year.

Looks like Hartford it is. I hear the Rangers will trade Brashear and his $1.4M contract this season and the next for $1.4M in cap space.

Bringing up the question, why was he signed in the first place?

And why was Colton Orr let go?


Now, I know it's probably tough to be an NHL General Manager, and I'm not saying I'm qualified. Hell, I'm just a lowly restaurant manager.

But I watch the games. I have known for years that Brashear has offered nothing to any team he's been on - Philadelphia, Washington, now the Rangers - and that Orr has graduated into one of the best fighters in the league.

Odd choices, Mr. Sather. Odd choices.

Scouts?...

Being an NHL scout has to be one of the easier jobs in the world. I admit, a minor league hockey scout probably has a tough job - traveling to obscure cities in Oklahoma, Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Texas; low pay; lots of hours; writing reports on people that no one knows.

But a pro scout? Isn't that why there are TVs? That's why the NHL has highlights of every game on its website. We are all basically pro scouts. We watch TV, we see replays, we decide if a player is good or bad.

So what exactly is it that the scouts for the Calgary Flames do?

I can understand the executives in Calgary wanting to trade Dion Phaneuf. He was a disease in the locker room, and even with him in the lineup they had only 1 win in the past 9 games. It was time for a change for him, so they traded him for a bunch of players. Matt Stajan is pretty good, Nik Hagman is skilled, Jamal Mayers is tough, and Ian White is a decently high-scoring D-man (though he's no Phaneuf).

Still, they lost out big time on that trade. A top-6 forward, to bottom-6 forwards, and a 2nd- or 3rd-pair defenseman does not make up for losing a huge talent like Phaneuf (like him or not, and I don't, he's good) and a great penalty killer in Freddy Sjostrom.

So how does Calgary follow up? By trading for Ales Kotalik and Chris Higgins. Really? Olli Jokinen and Chris Higgins are both going to be unrestricted free agents after this season, so it wasn't a salary dump (Higgins' + Kotalik's salary = Jokinen's). Wouldn't you rather have Jokinen then Higgins? I would, because I watch the games, though I don't get paid.

And how could they have possibly wanted Kotalik? Don't get me wrong, I liked Kotalik as a Ranger and think he could've been good here, but he's sat out 8 of 9 games. The one game he played? Against Carolina where the Rangers lost 5-1 and he was a rusty screwdriver out there.

How could a paid individual go, "That guy who hasn't played for 7 games, played horrible in his 1 game, then got benched again. We want him. What, he has a no-trade clause to Calgary? That's fine. We want to pay him for the next 2 years also." This has buy-out written all over it.

(I can see a team wanting Higgins. He's a tough guy who has scored in the past but was awful in NY. Maybe they see him as a reclamation project who they can dump in the offseason if it fails.)

The only way it makes sense for Calgary is if it's the first of a few moves (well, second of a few moves, I guess) to land a big fish.

It reminds me of when the Canadiens took Scott Gomez off of our hands, as I'm sure it reminds you as well. Remember how they then couldn't afford to make a run at Marian Gaborik?

Thank you, Canadian teams.

Hey, is Vancouver looking to trade the Sedin twins for Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival?

Good Players...

You know who was good? Olli Jokinen from 2005 through 2007.

You know who isn't that good anymore? Olli Jokinen.

Of course, if the rumors are true, and Olli Jokinen is about to be a Ranger (along with Brandon Prust for Chris Higgins and Ales Kotalik), then he becomes the 3rd highest-scoring Ranger, behind Marian Gaborik and Vaclav Prospal.

And yes, he is a 1st-line center who can play with Prospal at left wing and Gaborik at right wing.

But the big thing is that Kotalik is making $3M for not only this year but the next 2 seasons as well. Jokinen's cap hit is $5.25M, and he is an unrestricted free agent this summer. So the Rangers effectively clear $3M off the books for the next two seasons.

(Higgins is making $2.25M this year, but that's unrelated because he'd be a UFA after this season, and the Rangers probably weren't inviting him back for another campaign. The only thing that his salary has to do with this is that it's an even exchange, just over $5M for just over $5M. Prust is making $500,000 only.)

Maybe Jokinen isn't as good as his two seasons when he averaged over a point per game, but to add more offense this year while clearing $3M for the next two years is a good move.

Keep in mind that this doesn't address the real problems of the Rangers cap issues - that would involve moving any combination of Wade Redden, Chris Drury, and Michal Rozsival. But the moves are going to have to be made before the Olympic break because there is only 1 game before the March 3 trade deadline.

Rangers Fill Their Quota of Players Named "Vaclav"...

No, his real name isn't Vincent. He isn't Italian; he's Czech.

With the signing of Vaclav "Vinny" Prospal, the Rangers have added one more 3rd/4th line player, to join Artem Anisimov, Tyler Arnason, Donald Brashear, Enver Lisin, Aaron Voros, Brian Boyle, and anyone who might join the team from Hartford, namely Dane Byers, Pat Rissmiller, and P.A. Parenteau.

That's a lot of people for 6 or 7 roster spots. The Rangers also have 7 players for the top 2 lines: Drury, Higgins, Gaborik, Callahan, Dubinsky, Avery, Kotalik.

What am I saying? I'm saying something's got to be up, unless Sather forgot what happened last year.

Last year, he traded away Ryan Hollweg for a draft pick. Excellent move, especially when Hollweg got suspended during the preseason for checking from behind. To replace him, he signed Voros and Rissmiller with Colton Orr, Lauri Korpikoski, and Freddy Sjostrom already on the team. Bad move. That resulted in a salary cap ordeal, with Rissmiller being sent to the AHL and Voros riding pine until he was needed as an injury replacement for Drury and Blair Betts.

This year, there are a lot of forwards again. As the players keep signing and there is only 1 real scoring threat - Gaborik, obviously - the mind gets going.

Trade?

Probably something is in the works.

I'm not going to say that Dany Heatley will be a Ranger in the next 48 hours. I don't even know if I want that or if it's going to happen. But there is a glut of forwards for 13 or 14 roster spots, and that doesn't include a surprise that might happen, like Dale Weise or Brodie Dupont.

I am saying that this situation does lend itself nicely to a trade. It would appear Sather is stocking up forwards to package a few to get a superstar. Maybe not even a superstar, but a first-line center to feed Gaborik the puck, or a second-line sniper to take the defensive pressure off the first-line to free up ice for Gaborik. Of course, we can never underestimate the fact that this is Glen Sather we're talking about, and he might have no actual clue of what he's doing.

Of course, Dubinsky is the name that will be floated around, but don't be surprised if a Voros, Boyle, or Anisimov is included in the mix.

* * *

On Prospal: Prospal himself isn't a bad player, despite being bought out by Tampa Bay. He would've been great as a Ranger in 2005-06 as one of the Czech Mates, when he scored 80 points in 81 games. But since that is not an option, you have to assume that John Tortorella knows enough about him from their time in Tampa that he thinks he can contribute in New York.

He didn't score much last year - 19 goals, 45 points - but he does come at a discount. He had a 4 year, $14M deal with Tampa Bay ($3.5M/year) and since he was bought out, he is still getting $1.67M for the next 6 years, so him being a Ranger at $1.1M for one-year really isn't bad at all for either party.

On Ryan Callahan & Lauri Korpikoski...

I am happy with both news items that came out of Madison Square Garden yesterday.

First, Ryan Callahan re-ups for 2 years at an average of $2.3M per year. Considering Callahan had 40 points last year (22 G, 18 A) and earned his raise. Yet, if he was a veteran, he would be making a boatload of more money. For comparison, Ales Kotalik had 43 points in each of the past 2 seasons, and he got paid $3M. Chris Drury had the same number of goals (but 18 assists more) and is making over $7M. Scott Gomez had 58 points total and was making $7.357M. So would you rather have 3 Callahan's scoring 40 points each and playing hard every shift, or 1 Gomez scoring under 60 points while coasting through life?

As for Lauri Korpikoski being traded for Enver Lisin: Good riddance! I had nothing in particular against Korpikoski, except for the fact that he wasn't that good. You would think that 5 years after being drafted 19th overall in 2004 (1 spot before Travis Zajac and 10 before Mike Green), he'd start to fill in already. Some might call him a "late bloomer" and some might say he was "mis-used by Tom Renney and John Tortorella." But if you want the truth, he never was primed to be a top-line player.

Is Lisin going to be? Probably not. But he had 21 points in only 48 games last year, and he is blazing fast. He is so quick with the puck that he fits in perfectly with Tortorella, as opposed to the slower Korpikoski.

Korpikoski averaged less than a shot per game (63 shots, 68 games) while Lisin averages over two. For those who love Phil Esposito, you might remember that he always said that you can't score if you can't shoot.

Plus, he will be cheaper than Korpikoski to re-sign, if only by $100-200K. Still, every little bit of Cap room helps the Rangers.

Was Korpikoski mis-used? Not really, atleast not to the extent that Petr Prucha was while he was here. Korpikoski is an adequate checking-forward and penalty-killer, but he didn't have much more in his bag o' tricks.

While I'm not saying Lisin will be the Restricted Free Agent Who Saved the Franchise, atleast he's an upgrade over Korpikoski. Lisin has Nik Zherdev's potential, even though he might never use it. Korpikoski had Nigel Dawes's potential, even though he might never achieve such grand heights.

Plus, it's nice to see Glen Sather using the same game plan he had in the Summer of '08 - get as many 3rd and 4th line players under contract if necessary.