New York Rangers Reload With New Look

After signing Chris Drury and Scott Gomez last year, the New York Rangers have been busy again this free agency. In the past week, they signed Wade Redden, Markus Naslund, Dmitri Kalinin, and Patrick Rissmiller. 

They also traded for Nikolai Zherdev and Dan Fritsche from the Columbus Blue Jackets.  They also resigned  Michal Rozsival and Stephen Valiquette.  They did however lose Sean Avery to the Stars, which will be a big lost amongst fans. 

With all these signings and trades, it leaves to see if Jagr, Shanahan or Straka will even be on this team next year.

I must say as a huge Ranger fan, I am mostly glad over the moves the front office has done.  Believe me it hurts to see Sean Avery leave, but at least he will be in the Western Conference. So the Rangers will only have to see him two times a year max. 

The Redden signing is huge. I know it's a lot of years and money tied into him, but he will make this team automatically better offensively.  He is one of the elite passers from the game, and will get the puck to our young guns to put in the back of the net.

Getting Naslund and Kalinin are great moves too, Naslund might be 35, but he can still play and is a great leader on and off the ice.  If the Rangers don't bring back Shanny and Jagr, Naslund will step right in as one of the leaders on this team. 

Kalinin has had a couple injuries in his career and is starting to be labeled as an injury prone player.  If he can stay healthy, he can be that big defensemen the Rangers have lacked to protect Lundqvist. 

They have tried in the past with Malik, Mara, and Backman but all wanted to get points rather do the dirty work they were brought to do.

Lastly, getting Nikolai Zherdev was a steal in my honest opinion.  I understand sometimes he floats and doesn't get back to his defensive end a lot, but Jagr did the same thing. 

Zheredev is a young player with an upside through the roof.  He already has scored 27 goals a year. Now put him with a skater and playmaker like Gomez and the Rangers might have a 35 goal sharpshooter on their team that they got for nothing.

The Rangers seem to have a great mix of veterans and young guys now, along with some third and fourth line players with a lot of grit and toughness.  They have most likely the best defense in the Eastern Conference along with an outstanding goaltender. And now maybe an offense that will be faster and hopefully score more next year. 

There is no reason for Ranger fans not to be excited, and to actually start thinking about a Stanley Cup run.  This team might have enough offense, the great defense, and the goaltender to rival the young great Penguins.  All Ranger fans want to know is, who will be the captain to lead us to glory?