Signing Brendan Shanahan Is Ideal for the NY Rangers

While Mats Sundin has been on the mind of New York Rangers management and fans, there is one opportunity that the Rangers simply missed out on last offseason: re-signing Brendan Shanahan.

While Sundin certainly could give a boost to the team, his heart isn't in the same place that Brendan's is. Shanahan simply wants to become a Ranger once again; He practiced and even made it clear that he wanted back. While Brendan Shanahan should be coming back as captain of the Rangers, GM Glen Sather has had other ideas. 

The idea of re-signing a 600-goal scorer and future Hall of Famer at a discount was not good enough for Slats, and he stayed away, not even telling Shanahan that he wasn't interested in signing him.

While Sundin has had some great seasons, outscoring Shanahan the last two years, you cannot blame Shanahan on that one. The system the Rangers employ has even brought down the season totals of Jaromir Jagr, who scored 54 goals two years ago before dipping to 30 goals last year. 

Considering that, would Sundin be able to outperform Shanahan without causing the Rangers to cripple the team by forcing drastic moves? While Sundin may sign cheaper than his current contract, I really believe he'll still ask for at least $4 million.

Now lets look at our roster of forwards. The Rangers have a great corps of centers in Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, Brandon Dubinsky, and Blair Betts, as well as a great corps of center prospects in Artem Anisimov and Evgeni Grachev. To sign Sundin means shaking all that up. 

Shanahan can fill a void on the wings. Shanahan has played well with Drury and Gomez previously and would definitely be a good linemate for Dubinsky as well.

As a part of the Rangers for the last two years, Shanahan has been looked up to by his teammates and other members of the NHL. Perhaps the best example of that was when the Rangers acquired Sean Avery. Shanahan was instrumental in making Sean Avery into more than just an agitator. 

Shanahan made sure the Sean Avery trade would work by practically being his mentor.  Avery was not hated by his Rangers teammates and never crossed the line when it came to dirty hitting and talking to the media.

Avery also had a slight offensive upside as a Ranger, which could be attributed to the help of playing with Shanahan. This year, Avery's numbers have gone down. Certainly Shanahan made Avery a better player.

The Rangers' cap numbers must not be ignored. With only $1.365 million worth of cap space, some moves must be made if Shanahan wants to be a Ranger and is willing to take a low salary.

If Sundin wants to come here, he possibly could be asking for a major salary that requires multiple moves. In fact, most Sundin rumors include the Rangers making a move to fit him in including:

1. Trading Gomez: Gomez is a part of the Rangers' future plan. Trading a player for just a year or two for a player here as part of the future is absurd.
2. Trading Michal Roszival: Fans need to get off of his back and realize that getting rid of him just to get Sundin does not mean we fill up a hole on the team, but open up a huge hole on defense. We don't have a veteran defenseman like Jason Strudwick to fall back on like we did last year. Corey Potter could be good, but giving responsibility to him now may not be the best idea.
3. Trading Wade Redden: I'd love to move Redden, but with his trade clause and long, expensive contract that's not going to happen. Only thing to do is hope that Redden can break out and play like he's worth what he's getting paid.
4. Trading Nikolai Zherdev: This would be the dumbest move Sather could make and I wonder if anyone got paid to make this up. Zherdev has big potential, and I really think his potential can be reached as a Ranger. We could have Zherdev performing seven years from now. You can't say the same about Sundin.

To get Shanahan, on the other hand, we could see tiny moves such as:

1. Trading or waiving Petr Prucha: Sadly, it doesn't look like he's going to repeat his rookie season performance and with a $1.5 cap hit, moving Prucha would give ample cap room for Shanahan to sign with enough to sign him for $2.5 million or less.
   
2. Trading or waiving Dan Fritsche: I'm not crazy about Fritsche. He hasn't been performing that great on line three. Clearing Fritsche from the books gives us $2 million, which would cover a $1.5 million contract if Shanny wanted to accept a lower contract.
   
3. Calling down Lauri Korpikoski: If Shanahan was to come here Korpedo may have to spend more time in Hartford to develop, with a cap hit slightly below $1 million we also get plenty of space for a contract that Shanahan could accept.

In the cap era, there is no better choice than to sign Shanahan over Sundin. While Shanahan has expressed interest in the Rangers, Sundin has never said where he wanted to go.

Shanahan also never set a deadline for when he is going to make a decision, while Sundin has made them several times and changed his mind on the deadline several times. 

Shanahan has never broken his promise. He gave the Rangers time to sign him last year without hearing offers from other teams. Shanahan guaranteed to sign with the Rangers after the 2007 playoffs and kept that promise as well. 

Shanahan would bring the Rangers the goals they're looking for and the leadership not many players can bring. Shanahan is not only the more likely to come here over Sundin, but the better choice.