The New York Rangers announced today that they will walk away from enigmatic forward Nikolai Zherdev after an arbitrator awarded Zherdev $3.9 million in last week's ruling.

Rangers General Manager Glen Sather announced, "Following the arbitration process and subsequent award given, we feel it is in our best interest to walk away and continue to explore all available options to improve our roster."

To say that this marks a new direction in the Rangers' philosophy might be an understatement as the Rangers have traditionally spent like drunken sailors using the old model of "throwing money" at every problem

In this off season the Rangers have already shed Scott Gomez' $7.4 million cap hit and currently find themselves almost $9 million under the cap as we enter August

Zherdev now becomes an unrestricted free agent, and given his offensive gifts is likely to draw considerable interest from around the NHL and KHL.