Familiar Faces Return to MSG with Tampa Bay Looking to Stick It to Rangers

When the New York Rangers take the ice Monday evening at Madison Square Garden, there will be at least two familiar faces standing on the opposite blue line while John Amirante (or another designated singer) bellows the national anthem.

One player was the face of the Rangers’ farm system for a number of years, and the other was the poster child of general manager Glen Sather’s penchant for taking on reclamation projects.

Those two players are Ryan Callahan and Anton Stralman, and neither has missed a beat since departing Manhattan for scenic and sunny Tampa Bay, Florida. Both players made sizable contributions to the Rangers, but we will get to Stralman later since his tenure was significantly shorter than Callahan’s.

Callahan was dealt for Martin St. Louis at the 2014 NHL trade deadline, and it was a move that brought mixed results. 

Some fans were inconsolable because “the Captain,” a fan favorite, was dealt. Others were ecstatic that Callahan was gone because it brought an elite scorer in St. Louis to the team, and it guaranteed that Sather was not going to break out the Brinks trucks to re-sign a good, rugged player that provides secondary offense at best.

When St. Louis struggled early on, it seemed like every fan was a bit ticked off, especially when Callahan scored six goals and added 11 points in 20 games after tallying only 11 goals and 25 points in 45 games as a Ranger.

St. Louis would win over the fans with his playoff heroics, and the city rallied around him while he dealt with the unexpected death of his mother, France.

The Rangers were a different team after St. Louis made the decision to stay in the lineup even though his mother passed away, and it propelled them all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.

This season, St. Louis has scored six goals and tallied 13 points in 17 games, and he's looked a lot more comfortable than during his first stint on Broadway. Callahan has 13 points in 13 games, although he’s benefited greatly playing alongside Steven Stamkos.

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Callahan deserves some credit, though, because not every player has what it takes to keep up with elite players like Stamkos. If you don’t believe that, just ask all the wingers the Pittsburgh Penguins tried out with Sidney Crosby.

The return of the Rochester, New York, native to Madison Square Garden will most likely include a video montage of sorts on the mammoth GardenVision, and he certainly deserves whatever recognition is thrown his way.

Make no mistake about it, Callahan exceeded expectations during his time with the Rangers, and he simply outgrew the team.

Alain Vigneault's style of coaching places an emphasis on skilled players who can score and skate well with the puck. Callahan wasn't the best fit, although he was the embodiment of John Tortorella when Tortorella was coaching the Rangers. 

When Torts was fired, it seemed almost like Callahan could be the next major part of the past regime to move on, and that's how the cards played out.

He was not worth the money he was asking for—approximately between $6.25 million and $6.5 million a year, according to Katie Strang of ESPNNewYork.com— but no one can fault a player for trying to make as much as possible.

He plays a very physical, up-in-your-face style that could lead to an early retirement, and situations like Marc Savard’s and Nathan Horton's illustrate the need for financial stability and peace of mind.

Fans who appreciated Callahan during his tenure in New York should not feel sick to their stomach that he’s having a great season with Tampa, and they shouldn't be wishing the Rangers had kept him. The Rangers made the right move, and they got a very good player in return for him.

Instead, fans should look Monday night at where Callahan started after he was drafted out of Canadian juniors to where he finished up with the Rangers. The results are just night and day, and Callahan's hard work made himself a better player.

No one though Callahan would push for 30 goals because he was known to be a spark-plug player who could provide offense when needed. He grew with the Hartford Wolf Pack, he developed under the tutelage of coaches Tom Renney and John Tortorella, and he made his exit at the right time and capitalized financially.

The situation with Anton Stralman is a more complex one, and it still is something that annoys most fans. The Rangers took a shot on Stralman when he couldn't hack it with the New Jersey Devils. 

He participated in the Devils’ training camp and preseason in 2011-12 but ultimately was cut. Sather decided to take a chance on him, and on November 3, 2011, he was signed to a contract.

Slowly but surely, he developed into a quality shutdown defender under Tortorella, and he signed a two-year deal worth $1.7 million a year to remain a Blueshirt. That deal still remains one of Sather’s better quality signings over the past few years, and it looked like Stralman was on the track to becoming another diamond in the rough on Broadway.

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During his tenure with the Rangers, Stralman went from being an extra No. 7 defender to being a quality No. 2 or No. 3 defenseman. The Rangers realized this, but the two sides couldn’t agree on a number.

That led to Sather signing Dan Boyle, a quality offensive defender ten years older than Stralman, for two years at $4.5 million per year. Stralman signed a longer deal in Tampa for just about the same annual rate, although the lack of state income tax made it more lucrative.

A month into the season, it is abundantly clear that the Rangers made a mistake not re-signing him, as Stralman has looked amazing for a Victor Hedman-less Tampa squad. Jon Cooper, the Lightning's bench boss, has had nothing but good things to say about him thus far.

Via Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times, Cooper said: "Anton Stralman is an outstanding defenseman. It's funny. Stats are stats. You people (media) can read into them whatever you want. But it's a 7-2 game (against the Wild) and you find a way to come out a plus-1, that's pretty impressive. And he plays 20 minutes. It's not like he plays one shift a period."

Based on his play this season, it is clear that he would have been worth $5 million a year for four years, but for whatever reason, the Rangers couldn't strike a deal to keep him in New York. With Tampa Bay, he has 10 points in 18 games and a plus-13 rating, and his advanced metrics remain solid. For context, in 81 games, Stralman tallied 13 points with the Rangers in 2013-14.

With the Rangers’ current state of affairs on the blue line, it is fair to say that the team is wishing he was currently still on its side, and it may regret letting him go if he shuts down Rick Nash, Chris Kreider, Mats Zuccarello and others Monday night.

The last (but certainly not least) Ranger alum who is returning to MSG is Brian Boyle. For the most part, Boyle had a love-hate relationship with the fans of New York. In many ways, he did himself no favors by having an amazing breakout 21-goal season, as it elevated expectations for the rest of his time with the Rangers.

Others were disappointed that he didn’t always use his 6'7", 244-pound frame, and it was sometimes easy to get frustrated watching him waste his natural talents.

He spent 355 regular-season games with New York, and he averaged a quarter of a point per game. He was a top-notch penalty killer, faceoff ace and defensive player. He also had a knack for scoring in the playoffs, and 19 points in 58 games as a fourth-liner is simply astounding.

To describe Boyle’s time in New York best, I will say that fans were preoccupied with what he wasn’t instead of appreciating what he was. His absence in the Rangers’ current lineup certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed as faceoffs and the penalty kill are areas the Rangers still need to improve upon.

No matter how you slice it, the Rangers did lose some good players to the Lightning. Adding St. Louis while subtracting Callahan is a push, the loss of Stralman ultimately will loom large because he will still be playing once Dan Boyle retires, and the loss of Brian Boyle also hurts a bit.

A few months from now, this will be an interesting situation to look at. The Rangers are still a bit of a work in progress.

The only thing that is abundantly clear at this point is that Callahan, Stralman and Boyle will look to make some noise when they step onto the ice for their first shifts Monday night.

Stats via NHL.com and Hockey-Reference.