New York Rangers: A Realistic Evaluation

(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The New York Rangers of recent years have been an amalgam of very talented players, high reputation players that haven't lived up to expectations, your average player, and very promising youngsters.   

This year's Rangers, I reckon, have taken a step forward.  Now, I am a Rangers fan but will be first to admit that they aren't and haven't been cup contenders for years.  The team has been hyped up way too much and was therefore bound to be open for scrutiny. 

The team have the building blocks for success for sure though.  Henrik Lundqvist is truly a world class goaltender who has kept the Rangers in countless games and is the keystone of the franchise. 

The defence has a very quickly maturing Marc Staal, who will be one day one of the top shut down defenders, Dan Girardi who is a very underated but reliable and can provide some offence and three prospects who are all rated as top four d-men in the form of Bobby Sanguinetti, Michael Del Zotto, and the newly acquired Ryan McDonagh. 

The offence has Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan who although won't be leading the league in points, but do provide good numbers and more importantly the intangibles.  One of these two will be captain after Drury if they remain Rangers. 

Evgeny Grachev and Artem Anisimov have good futures ahead of them and both have a shot at training camp with Anisimov likely to get the fourth line role. 

The Rangers have a good crop of veterans to help the youngsters progress, however, unfortunately many of them have been sorely overpaid and that has hurt the team.  Chris Drury, Wade Redden, Michal Rozsival and the now departed Scott Gomez are seriously overpaid. 

That doesn't take away the fact though that they are good players, but expectations were set far too high.  The Redden deal is probably the worst here simply because of the length and the the fact that his skills and points production were declining way to quickly to warrant that deal, but hey we do have Glen Sather running the team. 

But Drury and Rozsival are not bad players and to a lesser extent Redden.  The problem is they are second/third line players being paid like superstars.

Now getting rid of Gomer was a great deal, particularly because we acquired a Rangers fan in Higgins who is a solid second line player and the highly rated McDonagh who was taken 12th back in 2007. 

I actually cheered with delight when I saw that because it freed up the cap space we desperately needed.  My instant thought when reading it was we're going after either Marian Gaborik or Vinny Lecavalier. 

The Gaborik deal as it turned out, five years $7.5 million a year, is a high risk deal but also a high reward deal.  If, and that's a monumental if no matter what doctors and Gaborik himself say, he stays healthy is a top player in the league and can be the player we've needed since Jaromir Jagr. 

He has put up very good numbers, 219 goals and 437 points in 502 games.  The problem is the games played statistic.  Brad Richards debuted the same year as Gaborik and his statistics are 548 points in 620 games. 

That's 118 games that Gaborik has missed.  Richards is an incredibly durable player, he only missed a maximum of two games each of his seasons until this year, but that's still more than a season that Gaborik has missed through not just a recurring injury but more worryingly several injuries. 

He has had a dodgy groin, a back injury and most recently a bum hip which limited him to 17 games last season.  Having said all of that I hope and cross my fingers that he finally can have a clean bill of health and put up some big numbers, if he does I'm sure he'll quickly become a fan favourite and I'll certainly be getting a Gaborik No. 10 jersey. 

If not, we have another tough contract to deal with.

Unless we make a blockbuster trade to acquire a first line center, such as Richards or Lecavalier; something that I can't see happening and would mean we would have to give up a great deal in talent like Dubinsky and one of the three defensive prospects or Staal and if that's the case, then I'd rather stick with what we've got; Dubinsky will probably be the man to go to. 

Drury is a long shot particularly now that Kotalik has signed and they had good chemistry in Buffalo.  I'm all for that.  Dubinsky will either step up in a big way or the most likely event he will continue his progress and growth as a player. 

Zherdev is all but gone, which I'm sorry about.  He is infuriating but he does have a great talent, he for some reason can't be bothered.  If we could bring him back for the same money then I'd take that but any more and we should let him go, its a shame we'll get nothing for him though if he does go.

I can imagine there being a team out there willing to take a chance on him, maybe the Panthers or Oilers.

Its a shame that Paul Mara, Freddie Sjostrom and Blair Betts, as of this moment, have left but I'm sure players will step up in to the gaps left.  Chris Chelios and Brendan Shanahan have been linked recently and I've read a great deal anti any such moves.  I would actually like those two on the roster. 

Chelios would be a perfect seventh d-man who can play 40 games, but more importantly he is a brilliant influence and leader to have on the team, something we lacked last year.   With these young d-men coming through he would be a great mentor. 

Shanny was one of my favourite Rangers and if we can get him cheaply lets have him.  Again hes a good influence and leader and would be beneficial to the club.

So really the Rangers are a very different looking team this year and I doubt they'll win the cup but they should make the playoffs. 

With the roster now fairly shored up for the next few years the team should and hopefully start to gel and the youngsters can come through and take some of the strain and hopefully shine.  But heck, with Sather in charge the team might look completely different in a month.

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