Rangers Are Hot, Chris Drury Is Not. How Patient Can The Rangers Be?

Boy do the Rangers look good to start the season. They have a 6-2-1 record to start the season, Brandon Dubinsky is looking better with every game that goes by, pre-season signing Aaron Voros who was pegged as a perennial 4th line player to start the season was at one point the league points leader. Like that's not strange enough, the once overly criticized Nicolai Zherdev is back-checking.

Everyone on the team seems to be clicking, all except veteran leaders Chris Drury and Marcus Naslund. As bad as Naslund has been at least hes scoring with 2 goals and 3 assists. But what is really frustrating is watching Chris Drury right now. The Captain, the second highest player on the team making more than $7 million dollars a season, only has 1 assist. But we all know Drury wasn't brought in as just a sniper, but because of his all-around play in playing great defensive hockey, and his knack for scoring timely goals when needed. Not only that he is considered a consummate leader in the NHL.

So hes not producing right now despite receiving golden opportunities in the slot to do so. That would be fine except for the fact hes a team worse -5 and witnessing his defensive play there is not much to defend about it. His worst lapse yet was last Wednesdays game against the Sabres when the rangers were on a power play and Chris Drury was caught watching a 2 on 1 develop with an uninspiring back-check that ended with Thomas Vanek picking up the short handed goal.

Its early in the season and most fans are tempted to rather see if Drury can get his game together than criticize the new captain. But at this point everyone has to come to the realization that he is not an all-star that is getting paid like one. And what if Drury doesn't find his game as the season goes along.

Brandon Dubinsky is emerging as a bonafide top 2 line center and the Rangers are up against the cap. Those two facts are important and interconnected. With a struggling economy and the weakening of the Canadian dollar the forecast is that the cap limit will sink for the first time since it was implemented after the lockout. Dubinsky along with Zherdev are expected to get big pay raises and where the Rangers will get the space for this is hard to find.

When do the Rangers start contemplating trading Captain Clutch. And the argument becomes even more interesting when The Star-Tribune has mentioned that the Rangers are interested in the often injured super-star Marian Gaborik that is being shopped around and likely to be on another team soon. And packaging Drury for the much needed game breaker would still strain the the rangers cap for next season. If such a deal were to go down, Naslund or Roszival who both have questionable contracts could be placed in a tough spot next off-season.

The real question is if Drury does get traded, does Marian Gaborik, the game-breaking player the rangers desperately need and would ideally fit the Rangers new uptempo system the focuses at speed, make the Rangers a true contender? And as you think about that, putting the big time goal scorer with an equally as fast Scott Gomez is an exciting line to dream. Will the Rangers make that dream a reality? That seems to be in Drury's hands at the moment.