There's been alot of talk about the lack of offense coming out of a pretty well pedigreed Rangers group of forwards. The team is still mired in dead last in the NHL in terms of goal production. Many of them seem too gun shy to pull the trigger in prime shooting positions. Is it a lack of skill? I don't think so. Is it a lack of chances? I don't think so.
The biggest problem with the Rangers, offensively right now is the inability to get to the front of the net and create screens and rebound opportunities. There does not seem to be a soul amongst the corps that has any willingness to camp out in front and take the punishment that is distributed while trying to score the "Dirty" goal. The only player on the Rangers that even attempts to "Get Dirty" is the all 4'3" 67lbs of Peter Prucha. And we all know he pays a hefty price when he tries to play like a big boy.
It's not like this team doesn't have a bit of size on it. There are guys, Marcel Hossa 6'3" 220 lbs, Bredan Shanahan 6'3" 220, Jaromir Jagr 6'3" 245lbs, Brandon Dubinsky 6'1" 224lbs and, Blair Betts 6'3" 210lbs, all have the size and save for Betts, the ability to pop home a lose puck in front. So why don't they do it? Let's put aside for a minute that they don't camp out in front in 5 on 5 situations. Why in the hell don't they park someone there on the Power Play? The only players that we see in front of the net, in either situation, are Peter Prucha, Sean Avery and, Chris Drury, all of which are undersized and can't withstand the punishment that is given out for trying to score from the Dirty Zone.
I hear a phrase "The Pussification of America" every now and then. Well I think somehow it has gone from the suburban soccer fields of the U.S. and now I declare that with the lack of cajones shown by the Rangers forwards it is in fact the Pussification of the New York Rangers.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Premature ECapulation
In the Wonderful world of the salary capped NHL fans can always point to the future and speculate at what types of decisions management will make because they want to. They can also try to decipher what moves will be made because they have to.
I decided to delve into the New York Rangers cap situation regarding what we may see on the ice in the 2008-2009 season, just for some amusement. As I kept looking over things my mood got even better. The Rangers are in a pretty tight spot this season. However, with a decent amount of largerish contracts coming off of the books, along with an abundance of young talent coming up the ranks, the Rangers cap situation for next season is nowhere near as dire as it is this season.
This may get a bit long winded but well, that's the way cap talk goes.
Forwards under contract for 2008-2009 and their salary cap hit
Scott Gomez, 7.37 million
Chris Drury, 7.05 million
Jaromir Jagr, 4.9 million
Peter Prucha, 1.6 million
Dubinsky, 630 thousand
Blair Betts, 610 thousand
Ryan Callahan, 600 thousand
Colton Orr, 500 thousand
Ryan Hollweg, 500 thousand
Forwards that are Restricted Free Agents for 2008-2009
Marcel Hossa and Nigel Dawes
I'd have to say that with the young forwards with offensive potential in the Rangers system I'd have to say goodbye to Hossa. Hossa aside from the odd shootout goal hasn't shown enough to warrant keeping him on the roster and keeping more talented wingers in the minors. Yes he's been a decent penalty killer, there are other guys in the system that can kill penalties. Hossa has been given so many chances to shine alongside Jagr, and has come up relatively empty. Re-sign Nigel Dawes for 2 years at about 1.25 million. He'd still be arbitration elligible after that contract.
Forwards that are Unrestricted Free Agents for 2008-2009
Sean Avery
Love him or hate him, he brings alot to the table. The Rangers record when he is healthy and in the lineup says all there is to say. He seems to be the straw that stirs the drink. Hopefully another year to mature will help make him realize that being loved in New York is a situation that could only benefit his career. If he can curtail the pregame shenanigans and continue to play his game at a high level there is nothing stopping this guy from becoming a very important building block for the post Jagr Rangers. I'd like to see him re-signed for 3.oo per year for three years.
Forwards rundown: With the players under contract and re-signing Dawes and Avery that would leave the Rangers with 11 forwards on the NHL roster for a total of 28.01 million dollars worth of the cap hit.
Defensemen Under Contract for 2008-2009
Marc Staal, 765 thousand
Thomas Pock, 685 thousand
Defensemen that are Restricted Free Agents for 2008-2009
Fedor Tyutin, Dan Girardi. I'd re-sign them both. And here the Rangers are in a great position. Neither player would get a huge award in arbitration due to limited offensive stats, yet both are very good young defensemen.They would each get a significant raise. I'd give each a three year deal, for Tyutin 2.5 million and for Girardi 1.25 million.
Defensemen that are Unrestricted Free Agents for 2008-2009
Michael Roszival, Marek Malik, Paul Mara, Jason Strudwick. I'd resign Roszival for four years at 4.00 million per year. It should be enough to keep him but it's not so high or long of a contract that he couldn't be traded two years down the road when younger talent is ready to push him aside. As of right now, and not knowing how ready the minor leaguers are, I'd keep Strudwick on a contract just like the current one he is on. 500 thousand for one year. I think it's pretty much safe to say that Malik and Mara will both be shown the door.
Defense Rundown: by re-signing Tyutin, Girardi, Roszival and Strudwick that leaves the Rangers with five legit NHL defensemen and Strudwick as a possible sixth but more likely a seventh Defenseman. The total cap hit for this batch would be a whopping 9.7 million. That would bring the total so far up to 37.71 million dollars.
The Goaltending Situation
Henrik Lundqvist signed a one year 4.5 million dollar deal in the off season. It is expected that he will be resigned long term after January 1,2008. I would think he will get a deal worth, for arguement's sake 6.5 million for 4 or 5 years. As for the backup, well Stephen Valiquette is a true NHL backup. He's good enough to play 8-10 games per season, he's a good locker room guy and he gets along well with Lundqvist. Might as well re-sign him. Two years at 650 thousand or so should get that done. The goaltenders would then count for 7.15 million dollars towards the cap.
If all of that happens: The Rangers would be looking at a cap hit of 44.86 million dollars toward the cap. If the cap doesn't go up again this year from just over 50 million, not likely by the way, the Rangers would have a little over 5 million bucks in cap room to spend. Or keep. They would still need a forward. The answer there could very well come from within in either Artem Anisimov, Alexei Cherepanov, Dane Byers, or Greg Moore. They would also need another defenseman that could also come from within in either Michael Sauer, Bobby Sanguinetti (more likely to be in Hartford though), David Liffiton or Ivan Baranka.
Final thoughts: The firesale of 2004 will have a major imprint on the Rangers for the next few years. The fruits of those trades and draft picks are beginning to ripen. It's very possible that the Rangers average age heading into the 2008-2009 season could be a little under 26 years old. And just think back to when it was a rarity that the Rangers even had a player under the age of 26 on the roster.
The big contracts that Glen Sather shelled out for Chris Drury and Scott Gomez may look like an 800lb gorilla in the room, but by the time those contracts are at their midway point $7million for a center will not be out of the ordinary. True it might be tough to keep all of the younger talent as these kids come into new contracts, but it is a much better situation than it used to be.
Really the main glaring question that pops into my head regarding the future of the Rangers is, "When does Al Montoya get traded?"
I decided to delve into the New York Rangers cap situation regarding what we may see on the ice in the 2008-2009 season, just for some amusement. As I kept looking over things my mood got even better. The Rangers are in a pretty tight spot this season. However, with a decent amount of largerish contracts coming off of the books, along with an abundance of young talent coming up the ranks, the Rangers cap situation for next season is nowhere near as dire as it is this season.
This may get a bit long winded but well, that's the way cap talk goes.
Forwards under contract for 2008-2009 and their salary cap hit
Scott Gomez, 7.37 million
Chris Drury, 7.05 million
Jaromir Jagr, 4.9 million
Peter Prucha, 1.6 million
Dubinsky, 630 thousand
Blair Betts, 610 thousand
Ryan Callahan, 600 thousand
Colton Orr, 500 thousand
Ryan Hollweg, 500 thousand
Forwards that are Restricted Free Agents for 2008-2009
Marcel Hossa and Nigel Dawes
I'd have to say that with the young forwards with offensive potential in the Rangers system I'd have to say goodbye to Hossa. Hossa aside from the odd shootout goal hasn't shown enough to warrant keeping him on the roster and keeping more talented wingers in the minors. Yes he's been a decent penalty killer, there are other guys in the system that can kill penalties. Hossa has been given so many chances to shine alongside Jagr, and has come up relatively empty. Re-sign Nigel Dawes for 2 years at about 1.25 million. He'd still be arbitration elligible after that contract.
Forwards that are Unrestricted Free Agents for 2008-2009
Sean Avery
Love him or hate him, he brings alot to the table. The Rangers record when he is healthy and in the lineup says all there is to say. He seems to be the straw that stirs the drink. Hopefully another year to mature will help make him realize that being loved in New York is a situation that could only benefit his career. If he can curtail the pregame shenanigans and continue to play his game at a high level there is nothing stopping this guy from becoming a very important building block for the post Jagr Rangers. I'd like to see him re-signed for 3.oo per year for three years.
Forwards rundown: With the players under contract and re-signing Dawes and Avery that would leave the Rangers with 11 forwards on the NHL roster for a total of 28.01 million dollars worth of the cap hit.
Defensemen Under Contract for 2008-2009
Marc Staal, 765 thousand
Thomas Pock, 685 thousand
Defensemen that are Restricted Free Agents for 2008-2009
Fedor Tyutin, Dan Girardi. I'd re-sign them both. And here the Rangers are in a great position. Neither player would get a huge award in arbitration due to limited offensive stats, yet both are very good young defensemen.They would each get a significant raise. I'd give each a three year deal, for Tyutin 2.5 million and for Girardi 1.25 million.
Defensemen that are Unrestricted Free Agents for 2008-2009
Michael Roszival, Marek Malik, Paul Mara, Jason Strudwick. I'd resign Roszival for four years at 4.00 million per year. It should be enough to keep him but it's not so high or long of a contract that he couldn't be traded two years down the road when younger talent is ready to push him aside. As of right now, and not knowing how ready the minor leaguers are, I'd keep Strudwick on a contract just like the current one he is on. 500 thousand for one year. I think it's pretty much safe to say that Malik and Mara will both be shown the door.
Defense Rundown: by re-signing Tyutin, Girardi, Roszival and Strudwick that leaves the Rangers with five legit NHL defensemen and Strudwick as a possible sixth but more likely a seventh Defenseman. The total cap hit for this batch would be a whopping 9.7 million. That would bring the total so far up to 37.71 million dollars.
The Goaltending Situation
Henrik Lundqvist signed a one year 4.5 million dollar deal in the off season. It is expected that he will be resigned long term after January 1,2008. I would think he will get a deal worth, for arguement's sake 6.5 million for 4 or 5 years. As for the backup, well Stephen Valiquette is a true NHL backup. He's good enough to play 8-10 games per season, he's a good locker room guy and he gets along well with Lundqvist. Might as well re-sign him. Two years at 650 thousand or so should get that done. The goaltenders would then count for 7.15 million dollars towards the cap.
If all of that happens: The Rangers would be looking at a cap hit of 44.86 million dollars toward the cap. If the cap doesn't go up again this year from just over 50 million, not likely by the way, the Rangers would have a little over 5 million bucks in cap room to spend. Or keep. They would still need a forward. The answer there could very well come from within in either Artem Anisimov, Alexei Cherepanov, Dane Byers, or Greg Moore. They would also need another defenseman that could also come from within in either Michael Sauer, Bobby Sanguinetti (more likely to be in Hartford though), David Liffiton or Ivan Baranka.
Final thoughts: The firesale of 2004 will have a major imprint on the Rangers for the next few years. The fruits of those trades and draft picks are beginning to ripen. It's very possible that the Rangers average age heading into the 2008-2009 season could be a little under 26 years old. And just think back to when it was a rarity that the Rangers even had a player under the age of 26 on the roster.
The big contracts that Glen Sather shelled out for Chris Drury and Scott Gomez may look like an 800lb gorilla in the room, but by the time those contracts are at their midway point $7million for a center will not be out of the ordinary. True it might be tough to keep all of the younger talent as these kids come into new contracts, but it is a much better situation than it used to be.
Really the main glaring question that pops into my head regarding the future of the Rangers is, "When does Al Montoya get traded?"
Sunday, November 11, 2007
The Backup Puts Up a "W"
After over a month of picking up dry cleaning, fetching coffee, and baby-sitting his teamate's offspring, Stephen Valiquette finally got a chance to actually have to add a cup to his gamenight attire on Saturday night in Toronto. Usually one would think that a backup goaltender for the New York Rangers would be getting the short end of the stick by having his only appearence of the first quarter of the season being away from the storied "World's Most Famous Arena". That was not the case for this game.
Valiquette, who last started a non pre-season game on March 3rd, was thrust into the spotlight of his hometown. A Saturday night, Hockey Night In Canada, on Hall of Fame Weekend is indeed a big spot to any hockey player from Canada. The game started a bit late due to a combined ceremony honoring this year's Hall of Fame inductees, along with a Remembrance Day ceremony honoring Canada's fallen soldiers.
So after having a little bit of extra time to soak in the atmosphere how did Valiquette perform between the pipes? I'd say he did pretty well. He stopped 32 of 34 shots and then stopped Nik Antropov and Mats Sundin in a shootout while both Ranger's shooters, Brendan Shanahan and Marcel Hossa, were succesful in their attempts.
Having Valiquette start tonight's game allows Tom Renney to give Henrik Lundqvist a full five days off between starts. With the season that Lundqvist is having, barring injury, these nights for Valiquette will be few and far between. Not that that is a bad thing, providing Lundqvist can keep up his performance there is no reason not to have him get the playing time that he has earned. The only numbers that Lundqvist has put up that are not incredible (W-L) are due to the other members of the team who are still in dead last in goals scored.
Perhaps this win could give Tom Renney a bit of confidence in Valiquette if he notices fatigue creeping into Lundqvist's game. One thing about sports though is that to win you need to have your best players playing. And that is certainly true in the Rangers' case. While the rest of the team takes it's sweet time trying to figure themselves out the one constant so far in the early going is that the Rangers have excellent goaltending. And tonight they got it from their backup.
Sidenote: Sean Avery had himself quite an active first 23 minutes to Saturday night's game in Toronto. He had 7 minutes in penalties in the first period, 2 for getting slapped around by three Maple Leafs, and 5 for having a decent fight with Darcy Tucker. In the second period, in one shift, he set up Brendan Shanahan's goal to make the score 1-0, with a beautiful backhand pass to the slot. 42 seconds later Avery made the score 2-0 with Shanahan getting the assist.
This is all great news, but Avery was a bit invisible after that. Maybe he wore himself out during warmups where he began his agitating of Darcy Tucker, which set off a bit of stick jabbing, pushing and shoving matches between players from both sides.
Valiquette, who last started a non pre-season game on March 3rd, was thrust into the spotlight of his hometown. A Saturday night, Hockey Night In Canada, on Hall of Fame Weekend is indeed a big spot to any hockey player from Canada. The game started a bit late due to a combined ceremony honoring this year's Hall of Fame inductees, along with a Remembrance Day ceremony honoring Canada's fallen soldiers.
So after having a little bit of extra time to soak in the atmosphere how did Valiquette perform between the pipes? I'd say he did pretty well. He stopped 32 of 34 shots and then stopped Nik Antropov and Mats Sundin in a shootout while both Ranger's shooters, Brendan Shanahan and Marcel Hossa, were succesful in their attempts.
Having Valiquette start tonight's game allows Tom Renney to give Henrik Lundqvist a full five days off between starts. With the season that Lundqvist is having, barring injury, these nights for Valiquette will be few and far between. Not that that is a bad thing, providing Lundqvist can keep up his performance there is no reason not to have him get the playing time that he has earned. The only numbers that Lundqvist has put up that are not incredible (W-L) are due to the other members of the team who are still in dead last in goals scored.
Perhaps this win could give Tom Renney a bit of confidence in Valiquette if he notices fatigue creeping into Lundqvist's game. One thing about sports though is that to win you need to have your best players playing. And that is certainly true in the Rangers' case. While the rest of the team takes it's sweet time trying to figure themselves out the one constant so far in the early going is that the Rangers have excellent goaltending. And tonight they got it from their backup.
Sidenote: Sean Avery had himself quite an active first 23 minutes to Saturday night's game in Toronto. He had 7 minutes in penalties in the first period, 2 for getting slapped around by three Maple Leafs, and 5 for having a decent fight with Darcy Tucker. In the second period, in one shift, he set up Brendan Shanahan's goal to make the score 1-0, with a beautiful backhand pass to the slot. 42 seconds later Avery made the score 2-0 with Shanahan getting the assist.
This is all great news, but Avery was a bit invisible after that. Maybe he wore himself out during warmups where he began his agitating of Darcy Tucker, which set off a bit of stick jabbing, pushing and shoving matches between players from both sides.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
