NY Rangers' Glen Sather Finding His Way Out of Cap Troubles...Again

New York Rangers General Manager Glen Sather is at it again trading for Olli Jokinen of the Calgary Flames. 

After a very active offseason which saw the Rangers sign Marian Gaborik, Ales Kotalik, Vinny Prospal, and trade for Chris Higgins and Enver Lisin the Rangers continued to flounder. 

Before the trade for Jokinen the Rangers were 25th in NHL in scoring.  Other than Gaborik, who leads the team with 33 goals, the Rangers don't have a player with more than 13 tallies, that being Ryan Callahan.

Sather is heavily criticized by fans of the New York Rangers for his poor signings since taking over as General Manager and rightly so. 

Look back on the past few offseasons and you'll see the horrors of Ranger spending. Chris Drury (five years/35.25 mil), Scott Gomez (seven years/51.5 mil), Wade Redden (six years/39 mil), Michael Rozsival (four years/20 mil), and Ales Kotalik (three years/9 mil).

All are overpaid and under-performing. Yet Sather has found a way to escape some of the dreadful contracts in a salary cap era that you'd think would hinder moving any of these players.

This past summer Sather sent underachieving Scott Gomez to Montreal for Chris Higgins and defensive prospect Ryan McDonagh. This cleared Gomez's remaining five years and close to 7.4 million dollars per season cap hit.  The newly found money was then spent on current Ranger sniper Marian Gaborik who is set to make 7.5 mil for the next four years.  Gaborik is flourishing on Broadway with 33 goals in 54 games while Gomez has just seven.

Now with the Jokinen trade, Sather escapes another two years at three million per for a guy who has regularly found his way to the press box for games.  Jokinen is in his final year of his current deal, so if things don't pan out on Broadway the team can just cut ties with him.

How Sather sells his overpriced garbage to other GM's is beyond me. While a few of his bad signings are still on the books for years to come, don't be surprised if Sather can unload them on another desperate franchise. 

The Rangers still aren't in a great position for the future, but they are one trade away from being able to go after another high ticketed free agent, one that might actually succeed in New York. 

Worst case scenario is that this new star doesn't perform and Sather finds a new home for him in a city near you.