New York Rangers: Younger, Quicker, But Better?

The New York Rangers have been the NHL's most active team in the first two days of free agency.  While not quite the splash the team made last year, snatching Scott Gomez and Chris Drury on the first day, the Rangers will have a whole new look next season.

Entering free agency on July 1st the Rangers knew major changes were in the offing. With a free agent crop that included Jaromir Jagr, Sean Avery, Brendan Shanahan and Michal Rozsival tough decisions would have to be made. 

In just the last two days the Rangers have added Marcus Naslund, Wade Redden, Nikolai Zherdev, and several others while subtracting Jagr and Avery.  As for Michal Rozsival, he's still here and very well paid.

The key question that must be asked is: Are the Rangers better today than they were on June 30?  Unfortunately the answer is we don't know yet.

Let's start in chronological order.  The Rangers first big move of free agency was the signing of Wade Redden to a 6 year, $39 million dollar deal.  Redden it is hoped will be an asset on the powerplay and provide veteran leadership to the young guys. 

Redden's problem, like too many Rangers defensemen, is his reputation for being a tad soft.  But he's consistently been a defenseman who's plus/minus always favors the plus side and who will be an upgrade at the point on the powerplay.  The biggest problem with the deal is the length for the long-term.  It's hard to imagine that Redden will still be a $6.5 million a year defenseman at 37.

As for Rozsival, the one free agent many Rangers fans wouldn't have been upset to see go, he will probably be the only one back.  Rozsival re-upped with the club for a borderline obscene $5 million per year over four years.  Say what you will about Rozsival.  He's a good offensive defenseman.  But he's nowhere near worth that type of money. Granted the defense market was all out of whack when a guy like Jeff Finger gets $3.5 million a year from Toronto. 

The biggest problem with Rozsival, aside from the contract, is that he isn't necessary if you sign Wade Redden.  You've now committed $11.5 million in cap space to two defenseman with similar games.  Simply put you didn't need both.  Either sign Redden or sign Rozsival and then committ the rest of that space to a big bruising defender. 

Without that big bruising shut-down defenseman the Rangers are still gonna struggle to shut down elite players.  That's even with the natural development we all expect from Staal and Girardi. 

Dmitri Kalinin is here just to provide depth.

Letting Sean Avery sign with Dallas was by far the most unpopular move of the off-season.  Avery, whose agitating style often got under people's skin, was the most popular player on the team and a catalyst.  You simply can't argue with the fact that with Avery in the lineup the Rangers were a .700 hockey team and under .500 without him. 

Is Avery worth the $4 million a season he'll get in Dallas?  Maybe not.  But Glen Sather's complete unwillingness to even move off his $2.75 figure and negotiate was a mistake.  Sometimes a guy is worth more to a particular team than he might be on the open market.  They add something that might not be shown in the stats but is vital to your team's success.  Sean Avery was that player for the Rangers and they'll miss him.

The best move of the off-season thus far was the acquisition of Nikolai Zherdev and Dan Fritsche from Columbus for Fedor Tyutin and Christian Backman.  In reality the only piece the Rangers gave up in this deal was Tyutin.  Backman didn't fit into their plays for next season anyway.

Zherdev is an enigmatic winger who Tom Renney will be tasked with turning into an elite scoring threat.  He certainly has the talent with 26 goals last season but many people question his attitude and work-ethic.  The reward here is that he turns into that elite scoring winger that the team badly needs.  The risk is that the Columbus Blue Jackets turn out right and he'll be a career under-achiever and a malcontent. 

GM Glen Sather is really hitching his wagon to this kid to provide scoring punch for an otherwise unproven group of wingers.  This is not to say that Dawsie and Callahan won't develop their games further.  Just that neither has proven themselves able to consistently light the lamp in this league. 

In a two-fold move, one that signaled the end of the Jaromir Jagr era and the beginning of a new one, the Rangers added Markus Naslund.  At two years, $8 million dollars many will consider this a steal.  Not so if you look at the reality.

Now I'm not gonna go on some long rant about the necessity of bringing Jagr back.  If you wanted to go in another direction that's fine.  If you wanted to commit the money to Marion Hossa that's fine.  If you wanted to make a big money push for Mats Sundin, which I disagreed with, I can at least understand that logic.  But its hard to argue that the Rangers will be a better hockey team next year with Markus Naslund than they would've been with Jaromir Jagr.

The Rangers reluctance to committ two years to Jagr revolved around his age, salary demands and his declining productivity.  Granted the Rangers are paying Naslund for two seasons about what it would've cost for one of Jagr.  But on the other issues the players stack up similarly.

Jagr is 36.  Naslund will be 35 at the end of the month.  Jagr had one of the worst offensive seasons of his career last year scoring 71 points.  Ditto Naslund who tallied just 55 points.  The thing with Naslund is that his scoring has been on a consistent and procipitous decline since his monster 2002 season. 

In 2002 Naslund racked up a career high 104 points.  And then decline set in and it was steep.  Down to 84 points in 2003, 79 in 2005, 60 in 2006 and then a low of 55 in 2007.

So we're willing to commit two years to a player who we don't fear is on the decline, we know he's on the decline. Again this isn't mean simply as a we should've kept Jagr rant.  It's an I'm troubled that this is our best alternative rant.

The truth is that Glen Sather will be judged by the fans harshly if this crop doesn't pan out in a big way.  If the Rangers stumble out of the gate and Zherdev, Redden and Naslund don't perform it's gonna be an ugly season at the Garden.