Sean Avery Sweepstakes Just Days Before NHL Trade Deadline: Rangers Risky Gable

"The Stars are preparing to place Sean Avery on recall waivers Sunday or Monday," according to Steve Zipay, who writes the Ranger News column for Newsday.  In order for a player to be eligible for the playoffs, he must be on an NHL roster Wednesday."

Giving the rest of the league underneath you a shot at him is a risky gamble. A player is on waivers for 24 hours, so if the Dallas Stars place waive Avery on Sunday or Monday, he could report to the claiming team on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Avery's agent, Pat Morris, sounds as if he's hoping the player will be back in the NHL with the Rangers, according to the Toronto Star today.

The New York Rangers are gambling that nobody else claims Sean Avery on re-entry waivers. It's a risky gamble as the Rangers are in 11th place overall; there are 19 teams beneath the Rangers whose waiver claim would trump New York’s.

Many teams may be interested in Avery at half the price that was being asked at the end of his last season with the Rangers, when he proved to be so effective, particularly in the playoffs against the Devils. No one has forgotten how the Avery Rule was invoked after Avery annoyed Devils goalie Martin Brodeur.

Wth the NHL's trade deadline looming, Sather, the Rangers, and the rest of the teams in the NHL interested in Avery have just a few days to decide.

Sean Avery could be trying on the the colours of the New York Islanders, Atlanta Thrashers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Ottawa Senators, Colorado Avalanche, Phoenix Coyotes, Toronto Maple Leafs, St.. Louis Blues, Nashville Predators, Anaheim Ducks, Edmonton Oilers (forget the Dallas Stars), the Minnesota Wild, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Columbus Blue Jackets, Vancouver Canucks, Carolina Hurricanes, or Buffalo Sabres.

The teams just below the Rangers might be most interested in Avery as they try to get into the playoffs. The Penguins are looking for a winger to play with Crosby and add some toughness to the team.

The New York Rangers picked up a former first-round pick for half price when GM Glen Sather claimed Mark Bell off waivers earlier this week. Bell was playing with the Toronto Marlies in the AHL.

Avery is expected to play tonight and tomorrow with the Hartford Wolf Pack and be extra careful not to get hurt before Wednesday's trade deadline.

The deal for Avery  comes with a price tag of $1.9 million US, which is under what the Rangers tried to get him for last summer when Avery's agent was shopping his services in the $4-million range. The Stars and the claiming club would split the remainder of Avery's salary this season (around $950,000 total) and the remaining three years of his deal (about $1.9 million for each club).

Avery has gone from the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks to the Hartford Wolf Pack, via the Red Wings, Kings, Rangers, and Stars.

In six games in the AHL, after being suspended for six games by the NHL and not invited back to the Dallas Stars, playing for the Hartford Wolf Pack, Sean Avery has a game tying goal, an assist on a game winning goal in overtime, and just one penalty.

The PIM statistic is incredible. The first time Avery played in the AHL, he had 304 minutes in penalties. This time, he has two.

The Ranges could ask the Stars to place Avery on recallable waivers right now and have him under contract for the next three years for less money than they were willing to pay him before he went to the Dallas Stars.

The Rangers need Avery, says Larry Brooks of the New York Post and Fox Sports on MSN. "The Rangers need moxie. They need energy. They need personality. They need a hard-edged catalyst who will make opponents think twice."

The Rangers just hired a new coach and now they need is a scorer, a blue-liner, and some spirit. Renney was dismissed in the midst of the Rangers' free fall that has seen the team drop 10 of 12 (2-7-3) and slide into a fifth-place tie in the Eastern Conference.

While Renney preferred a defensive-oriented system that featured four lines and often produced low-scoring games decided after regulation, Tortorella favors an up-tempo, aggressive mentality that pressures the opposition.

The Rangers’ first game under John Tortorella, was a grim 2-1 shootout loss in Toronto to the Maple Leafs, according to the New York Times. The Florida Panthers ruined his debut in New York by winning with the same score.

The Hartford Wolf Pack's next game, Friday against the Manchester Monarchs, will be their seventh with Sean Avery. Hartford is in second place in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the AHL. In 59 games, they have 31 wins, 23 losses, two overtime losses, and three shootout losses, for 67 points.

They are on a four game winning streak—their best string this season so far. The Wolf Pack Thumped the Penguins, 5-1, in their last game. Avery was the second star in the last game and was called the best hockey player on the ice by the Times Leader.
The No. 7 Florida Panthers visit Madison Square Garden tonight.

With 20 games to play, the Rangers (31-23-8) are in sixth place in the Eastern Conference with 70 points, three clear of the ninth-place Hurricanes.

The Panthers (30-22-8) lost to the league-leading Boston Bruins 6-1 in their last game. The Rangers dropped two in a row to the lowly Toronto Maple Leafs.
New York has lost 11 of its last 13 contests (2-7-4). As a result, the Rangers have slipped to sixth place in the Eastern Conference, two points in front of the seventh-place Panthers.

Sean Avery has changed, according to all reports, including his own. He has told reporters a little bit about "the new Avery". The new Avery is an improved version of the old Avery, after anger management, suspension from the NHL, The Avery Rule, the Devils, leading the league in penalties, and playing for the Stars, Rangers, Kings, and Red Wings.

Some say the new Avery sounds like Deepak Chopra on skates. The old Avery sounded like a deleted scene from Slapshot or The Love Guru.

The new Avery hasn't dropped his gloves, yet, in the first four games of his comeback. The old Avery took on the trash talking instigators and enforcers on every team in the NHL, even if they were eight inches taller and twenty pounds heavier, like Dion Phaneuf.
The Old Avery was called Superpest, No. 1 Bad Boy, Top Ten Trash Talker, Most Hated Hockey Player in the NHL, clotheshorse, Vogue intern, et cetera.

The old Avery dated Cuthbert, Hunter, Lake, Klein, and others, was in the New York Post all the time, People magazine called him one of the sexiest men alive, he was guest editor of Men's Vogue.

The Old Avery was called cancer in the locker rooms. Avery 2.0 cured cancer in the locker room, apparently.

The Old Avery sparked a talent-laden but lustreless New York Rangers team to life to beat the Devils in the playoffs. Old Avery played for Renney with Jagr, Shanahan, and Straka. The new Avery might get Tortorella with Gomez, Drury, and Redden.

The Old Avery's story was about an undrafted OHL player who caught on with the Red Wings as the won the Stanley Cup, led the league in penalties for a couple of years with the L.A. Kings, and turned into the spine, the spirit, the spleen of the Rangers.

The new Avery may be one of those sports comeback stories we all love, making him the Rocky of hockey.