With Dan Fritsche officially waived and probably on his way to Hartford in a few hours, you have to wonder what Sather and company have planned for the extra cap room. Are they going to use it to potentially make a trade for a missing piece? Possibly. I would certainly hope that Sather is at least kicking the tires on Keith Tkachuk, Nik Antropov, Denis Gauthier, and others mentioned here in previous posts. Sather’s most recent trade history has been pretty decent (Zherdev, Avery, Sykora), so let’s hope he can pull a rabbit out of his hat again.
We could also, finally, see a seventh defenseman called up. That defenseman would in all likelihood be Corey Potter. We have long wanted a seventh defenseman here, it will at least light a fire under the under achieving defense. But if Potter gets called up, who sits? There’s the obvious person, Dmitri Kalinin, who forgot how to take the body. The seventh defensemen creates some competition. And competition breeds improvement.
Or maybe both? Would that be too much to ask?
Our beloved Blueshirts are in Carolina tonight in the first of back-to-back games against teams just outside the playoff bubble or just barely in the playoffs, and first of a three game road trip(They are home tonight, oops). The Hurricanes are a relatively streaky team, they won 4 games in a row to start off January, then lost 5 in a row, and won 2 in a row before the All-Star break. They currently sit in the 8 seed in the East, with 51 points and are actually very similar to the Rangers. They are another team with a winning record and currently in the playoffs with a negative goal differential.
The key for the Rangers in the second half is playing consistently, which they unfortunately struggle to do. With yet another new lineup tonight, let’s hope they can play a solid 60 minutes tonight, instead of the solid 40 we are so used to.
Game time is 7pm tonight on MSG.
As per Sam Weinman, the revolving door that is the Rangers lineup is getting tweaked again. The Korpedo is back in tonight in lieu of Dan Fritsche, who was invisible last game. Valliquette is also in tonight, with Hank expected to get the start tomorrow at The Igloo.
As for Prucha, he’s sitting again. I guess Voros’ presence in front of the net is worth 3 minor penalties a game. I don’t know how Prucha can keep his positive attitude while getting benched for no apparent reason. More power to him.
So tonight the Rangers again will have two forwards sitting in the press box, and the same six defensemen playing. Seriously, just waive Fritsche. What does he bring to this lineup?
Update 3:00pm: I guess the Rangers management reads this blog. Fritsche has indeed been waived (Note, this is in French):
Fritsche au ballottage
Les Rangers de New York ont placé le nom de Dan Fritsche au ballottage mardi.
Translation:
New York Rangers have placed? the name of Dan Fritsche to the ballot Tuesday. (Translation coming via Google Translate). Obviously “to the ballot” means “waived”. That should free up some cap room.
Scott Burnside of ESPN ran a piece yesterday discussing what he terms “this year’s most tradable players,” a fan friendly list of a players likely to be moved in the weeks leading up to the deadline. There’s sexy names up and down the list, but for the most part the players either don’t fit any of the Blueshirts’ needs (Manny Fernandez, Vesa Toskala, The Bulinwall) or are just flat out unattainable because of talent/cap reasons (Jay Bouwmeester, Ilya Kovalchuk, Vinny Lecavalier, Marian Gaborik, Jason Spezza), except for one guy: Keith Tkachuk.
It seems like there’s a Tkachuk-to-the-Rangers rumor every year, and just like every other year the soon to be 37 year old would fill two needs: a top six forward and a guy that’ll park himself in front of the net with a man advantage. Tkachuk’s not Nik Antropov huge, but he does offer some size (listed at 6’2″, 231 lbs) and there’s a darn good chance he’ll be re-energized by joining a playoff team after making the postseason just once in the past four seasons (’06-’07 with Atlanta). He’s still got a nose for the net, potting fifteen goals this year (including the first goal in Sunday’s All Star Game) despite minimal help from his Blues teammates, and his ten power play goals (sixth most in the league) would far and away lead the club.
Now, how does the money work? Tkachuk’s making $4.5M this year and has a $4M cap number according to NHL Numbers, and is due to hit the free agent market following the season. That $4M cap hit is a bit of an eyesore but it’s certainly doable. Perhaps the deal could be expanded to included a physical (and cap friendly) defensman like Jeff Woywitka or Roman Polak, both of whom will be restricted free agents after the season. Adding that extra player would make giving up multiple young players/picks for Tkachuk much easier to swallow.
Bill Guerin’s name has been connected to the Rangers in the past few weeks, but Tkachuk is almost the exact same player production wise (15 G, 16 A vs 14 G, 18 A) except sixteen months younger and with a more favorable contract. Hopefully we hear some more about this in the coming weeks.
Posted by: Mike Axisa, on at 9:00 am in Rumors, Trade Deadline | Comments (1)
Tags: Ilya Kovalchuk, Jason Spezza, Jay Bouwmeester, Jeff Woywitka, Keith Tkachuk, Manny Fernandez, Marian Gaborik, Nikolai Khabibulin, Roman Polak, Vesa Toskala, Vincent Lecavalier
(click image for larger view)
What happened to their defense?
With new GM Brian Burke trying to rebuild in Toronto, seemingly every player on their roster is available via trade. The most notable players available are Nik Antropov, Jason Blake, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Pavel Kubina, Tomas Kaberle, and Vesa Toskala.
Only Nik Antropov interests me of this group. The others are either overpaid (Kubina), locked up for too long (Kaberle, Blake), or just plain bad (Toskala). Ponikarovsky’s an interesting case, as he is similar to Antropov, but I don’t think Sather can afford to have him locked up for next year as well at his $2.15 million cap hit.
As for Antropov, he’s that big body the Rangers desperately need (6’6, 230lbs) in front of the net on the powerplay (note: Aaron Voros does not count). He would almost certainly bolt for that $4 million contract he will get at the end of the year, so there’s no long term committment. And to top it off, the Rangers can actually afford him because he’s only a $2.05 million cap hit from the beginning of the year.
I don’t know what it would cost to get him, but I would assume a mid level prospect and a mid level pick, plus whoever is needed to clear space (Voros/Fritsche?).
This is another one where you would hope the tires are kicked around a bit. He would be a good pickup at the right price.
As per Larry Brooks, apparently the Lightning are shopping Steven Stamkos.
Tampa Bay management can deny, deny, deny in the best tradition of all sorts of scoundrels, but it is most certainly true that 2008 first-overall draft pick Steven Stamkos is available for trade, at least according to two franchises that have been in contact with the Lightning and have no reason to fib about it.
If this is true, the tires should be kicked by Sather on this one. Anyone not named Staal and Lundqvist should be made available too. Stamkos has a cap hit of $3.725 million, and is under contract for the next two seasons, then becoming an RFA. He is also only 19.
This is probably never going to happen, but I think we would all breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Sather at least made a call to Brian Lawton.
It turns out Mike Richter, probably the most intelligent person to ever put on a Rangers sweater, is re-considering his run at Congress.
Richter has been approached by Democrats about running for the upstate seat being vacated by Senator-designate Kirsten Gillibrand.
We all know how intelligent Richter is. He was a great speaker during his days as a Ranger, and returned to school (Yale) to get his degree in Ethics, Politics, and Economics (EP&E) in 2007.
If Jesse “The Body Mind” Ventura can become governor, then Richter should have no problems being a Congressman. I think he would do quite well actually.
The first goalie to make the All Star Team from the Rangers since Mike Richter, Hank got torched last night. That’s expected at this game though. I’m not going to lie, I kind of laughed at the end of the period. The game, like pretty much every All Star Game, lacked defense.
It’s all fun and games. I certainly enjoyed it.
Back to business though, the final two months of the season are upon us.
Well, I was in Philly watching my old teammates from school play, so I missed most of the All-Star Skills Competition. I caught the breakaway challenge though, it was nice to watch. I guess Malkin and Ovechkin settled their differences. Staal had two goals in the Young Stars game, and Dubinsky didn’t light the lamp. I wish I watched that game. I would have loved to see the look on Gretzky’s face when Blake Wheeler put up his fourth goal. Think they wish they didn’t give up on him so fast?
Side note: NHL goalies must crap themselves when Chara lines up a slap shot.
Posted by: Dave, on 01-25-2009 at 1:25 pm in Awards | Comments Off
