Okay. When it was approaching noon on July 1st, I was in a cold sweat. Did the Rangers’ GM Glen Slather have a plan!?
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And as the dust seems to have settled enough to see a plan, here’s what I think.
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First off, letting Sean Avery go to Dallas is not fun. AT ALL. That was like ushering the winning record right out the door. But Avery is no stupid man. In Texas there is no income tax, so he can keep all of that $4 million per year he gets. He also had a connection to Stars GM Brett Hull, playing on the Detroit Red Wings team in his rookie year. Though Detroit won the Stanley Cup that year, he was 4 games short of the minimum 40 games needed to play to get his name on the Cup. The only good thing about this is that we’ll see him once a year. (my worst nightmare was to see him in a Flyers jersey.) Best to Sean in Dallas, with the other Lundqvist.
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Secondly, the Rangers now have one of the best defensive corps in the NHL. Marc Staal, Dan Girardi, Michal Rozsival, Dimitri Kalinin, Paul Mara, and most importantly, Wade Redden. With any combination of these successful and fairly young defenseman (Staal is the youngest at 21, Redden the oldest at 31.)the possibilities seem endless. I’m very glad Christian Backman is out the door. Now seeing as both he and Malik are gone, I thought of this which might make another Rangers fan cringe: how badly would things have gone if Malik and Backman were a defensive pair?
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Next, (why so I sound like I’m writing a school essay!?) Markus Naslund; Jaromir Jagr’s predecessor. Nazzy, Nazzy, Nazzy. What’s there to say about former ‘Nucks captain? Yes his numbers have gone down over the last few years, but I think there is reasoning to that. There’s always a reason. His problem before was more the Canucks’ style of play (defense more than offense, they’d try to win games 1-0 or 2-1, not like they’re trying to throw pucks at the net.) I think he can be helpful and productive in the Rangers blue, especially with a guy like Gomez, Drury or even Dubinsky centering him, he’d be back in the scoring groove. Acceptional move by Slather.
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Jaromir Jagr. Jags, Jammy, Mario Jr. Holder of the New York Rangers single season scoring record with 54 goals and 69 assists for 123 points, beating Adam Graves’ old record of 52 goals. Gone from the NHL. Glen gave him best wishes as he was told he was no longer part of the Rangers’ organization. Jaromir has signed a 2-year, $35 million dollar contract with Avengard Omsk, where he played during the lockout. No NHL team could afford to pay him $17.5 million dollars a year. Not even the Canucks.
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Other noteworthies not-so-covered:
Assistant captain Marty Straka is indeed playing for his hometown Plzen (which I was overly corrected with pronunciation from my dad: “It’s Pilzen not Plezin!”) team. Other assistant captain Brendan Shanahan is still marked with a big question mark. The 39-year-old will probably retire so he will not have to move out of his Park Avenue residence. Marik Malik is gone. (to this I cheer out: Hip-Hip-Huet!) The only two things worth remembering in his foot-note career as a Ranger will be winning a game with a 15 round shootout goal against the Capitals Oli the Goalie and the fist-fight he got in with Sean Avery after he was a jerk and didn’t shake a coaches hand. (Avery was simply doing what was on every other player’s mind. He should be glad it was Avery and not Orr.)
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Other players who are new to Rangers blue:
Aaron Voros (only thing notable about this guy is his 141 penalty minutes), Nikolai Zherdev (named the Columbus Blue Jackets comeback player by The Hockey News.), and Dan Fritsche (packaged in a trade with Zherdev to NY for defensemen Christain Backman and Fedor Tyutin.)
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Rangers re-signings:
Nigel Dawes (shootout master), Freddy Sjostrom (amazing speed & potential), Steven Valiquette (the ever-reliable backup to Lundqvist), Michal Rozsival (put up more good offensive numbers again for a defenseman), Paul Mara (good on the back end) amongst others.

Let’s see how this all goes. I think we had our best shot at winning the Cup last season since 1994. (though ‘97 with Gretzky was impressive.)
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Now to my final point: Captaincy. With both our captian and two assistants gone, who will get the honour of the ‘C’ or ‘A’ on their jersey come our season opener?
Most likely: Chris Drury as the captain. He had excellent experience as captain in Buffalo, leads by example, and has been a champion at every level, be it Little League World Series or the NHL. Though he is not as vocal as Jags was, he is an excellent fit.
1st assistant captian: Markus Naslund. Nazzy was Canuck Captain after Messier left to go back to the Rangers. He seems to be excited to be a Ranger, and is suitable for this role and seems willing to help rookies find their niche.
2nd assistant captian: Scott Gomez. Though Gomer was a Devil for the 1st 7 years of his career, NJ never gave him the honour of assistant captian. He was usually quiet during games and just played his game. Coming to New York, he has been more vocal and motivational. Though it might be his 1st experience with this high regard, it might make him play better knowing his responsibilities.
and wating in the wings:
Brandon Dubinsky & Marc Staal. Staal was the captain of the Sudbury Wolves for 2 of the 4 years with them in his OHL career.
Dubinsky can be called Jagr’s protégé. Being his centre for about half of his rookie season has to have an extreme positive impact..
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And last but not least, what grinds my gears. What’s ticking me off this time is that the Rangers are playing their season opener against Tampa Bay in Prague, Czech Republic. I have nothing against opening up the season abroad, going to Prague, or playing Tampa Bay. My problem is that the Penguins are having their season opener in Stockholm, Sweden. (and I have nothing against Sweden, and only a little something against the Pens). But here’s the simple fact: Pittsburgh has no Swedish players. The Rangers had 5 Czech players, 3 of which have gone to play elsewhere. Why would the Rangers be a bigger hit in Stockholm? Let’s take a little flashback to the winter of 2006, in a lovely town called Torino in Italy; and for added dramatic affect, let’s add Rangers’ 7th round pick, 205th overall, a 24-year-old by the name Henrik Lundqvist. To cut down on writing a story I’ll cut to the chase and ruin the ending: Lundqvist, a man in his 20s who had never played a minute in the majors, helped Team Sweden win the Gold Medal in Men’s Ice Hockey. So here’s something someone should have told Bettman flat out in his own language:
Rangers + Sweden = $$$
But hey, a day late and a dollar short, right?