Rangers Sign Sam Klassen

The Rangers added some more defensive depth today, adding WHL undrafted defenseman Sam Klassen. In two full seasons in the WHL, Klassen has totaled 3-42-45 in 143 games, while racking up an impressive 195 PIMs. The stay-at-home defenseman was a +27 last season, a vast improvement over the -21 from two seasons ago in just 36 games.

Klassen was one of the non-roster invitees to the prospect camp held this month.

No word on the terms, it’s obviously an entry-level deal. I’m guessing he will be in Hartford/Charlotte next season. Klassen is 20, which I believe is old enough to play in the AHL/ECHL.

Lisin’s Contract: 1/$790K

In a bit of a surprise, the contract for the recently acquired/signed Enver Lisin is lower than his salary from last season. His contract for this season is an incredibly affordable $790,000, a $60,000 pay cut from last season. This is really interesting, because qualifying offers for RFAs making between $650K and $1 million mandates a 5% raise. The Lisin contract is roughly $200K less than I expected him to sign for.

This leaves the Rangers a little extra cash to throw at Dubinsky, who should be signed before the Zherdev hearing.

Salary information courtesy of CapGeek.

Morris to the Bruins

In relatively old news, deadline acquisition Derek Morris bolted New York to play for the Bruins, signing a one-year $3.3 million contract, taking a pay cut of $650,000 in the process.

This means that the Rangers organization is really planning on having two rookies play as the third defense pairing next season. With five guys waiting in the wings to fill those two (or three with the 7th defenseman) spots, the competition will be fierce.

THN: Rangers Could Be Awful

Ryan Dixon of The Hockey News doesn’t have a bright outlook for the Rangers season. In fact, he says the Rangers could “be just plain awful”. He pretty much takes every worst-case scenario and points out that they could all come true.

Yes, Marian Gaborik could shatter his everything. Yes, Dubinsky and Callahan could take a step backward. Yes, Redden and Rozsival can continue to regress. Yes, Avery could be benched permanently by Tortorella come December. Yes, Higgins and Kotalik can be complete busts.

But hey, Gaborik might play 70 games. Dubinsky might be able to fill the shoes of lead pivot and rack up 60 points. Callahan might be able to put up 30 goals. Rozsival might not be as bad as he was last year, considering he is now fully healthy after hip surgery (the same surgery Gaborik had last season).

Well, you get my point.

It’s all what-ifs. Let’s just temper out expectations for a bit and look at the roster from last year and compare it to this year. Is the 2009 version a tad better than the 2008 version? I’d say more than a tad better.

It’s still too early to make predictions on the upcoming season, so let’s just relax a bit before getting overly optimistic or pessimistic.

What If They Become the Kansas City Islanders?

Islanders owner Charles Wang was on the Mike & The Mad Dog Francesa yesterday, discussing everything from John Taveras to the Lighthouse Project. It’s worth a listen. He does touch on the Kansas City topic, albeit indirectly, by saying that if the Lighthouse Project doesn’t get green lighted by October, they will start to pursue other options.

What are those other options? Well, with the Islanders playing a preseason game in KC, that is one of those options. All of us know that the Mausoleum is a dump. It’s depressing to be in, even for a beer fest in the basement. The place is falling apart, and is probably in worse shape than Mellon Arena, and at least that’s getting replaced.

But what happens if they don’t get green lighted, and they move to KC? Will you be thrilled? Depressed? Indifferent? Me personally, I’ll be depressed. This is one of the greatest natural rivalries in sports. Teams that share the same state, are 30 miles from each other, and play in the same division are incredibly rare. You can argue Yankees/Mets, who play a grand total of 6 times out of 162 games, and didn’t start playing each other until 1998, or Jets/Giants, who play a whopping once every 4 years, all you want, but nothing ever beats the intensity of a Rangers/Islanders matchup. No matter how bad one of the teams is, they always play each other hard and always put up an intense and fun game.

If they move to KC, not only do you lose the close proximity, but you lose the rivalry itself. KC will be in the Western Conference. I can see the realignment now: KC to the Central Division, where a natural rivalry with St. Louis is born, Nashville to the Southeast, probably where they belong, and Washington to the Atlantic. Of course, these are just crazy ramblings from my over-worked brain, but it is definitely feasible to see this happening.

Get ‘ir done Uniondale, I don’t want to see the Islanders move. It’s such a fantastic rivalry, and the games are just amazing. Plus, I don’t want to see Washington in the Atlantic, because the division isn’t tough enough as is.

Higgins in 12 Angry Mascots

Got this in my email a few days ago:

Newly acquired Christopher Higgins will make his New York stage debut on July 30 at Comix, performing in the sketch “12 Angry Mascots” starting at 7:30pm.

You can get more info about the show here. It’s supposed to be really funny.

This is my only post of the day, I’m way too busy for my own good at work.

Time For Me to Own Up…

Remember way back when the Rangers were rumored to be going after Avery? They wre going to claim him off re-entry waivers, etc. Well, I was vehemently against it. I didn’t think Avery would mesh well with the new Rangers, specifically the new coach, and I thought his antics would be a detriment to the team that was clinging to a playoff spot.

While I still have my reservations about another three years of Avery, I must say that I was dead wrong. He was much more than any of us could have ever expected (Stas is still exempt from this). Aside from the blunders in Games 4 and 5, which led to his benching in Game 6, he was one of the only bright spots on a team of complacent players, and added a good amount of offense for a low scoring team.

There, I owned up to it. I was wrong, so far. Let’s just hope he has another three years of this in his tank.

Rangers Sign Lisin

Don’t forget about the Zherdev interview article below.

In a move that had to be made, the Rangers came to terms today with recently acquired RW Enver Lisin. It was rumored that Lisin was considering the KHL, but the Rangers needed to sign him or else feel the wrath of Ranger fans who would call them out on dealing Lauri Korpikoski for someone who bolted to the KHL.

No word on terms yet, Lisin was qualified at a 5% raise on his $850k salary last season ($892,500).

The Zherdev Saga Continues

This has got to be the most over-publicized, most over-analyzed, and generally most annoying saga for a SIXTY point scorer. Listen, I like Zherdev, and really wanted him back next year (instead of Kotalik), but for this to continue to grab our attention, it’s just absurd. This will be my last post on this until the result of his hearing comes out (barring significant moves).

This is a bit old, as it came out a week ago. Apparently Zherdev, in an interview with a Russian journalist, is extremely confident that an arbitrator will rule in his favor, and believes that his run in NY is over. The interview is in Russian and can be read here. The translation is at Beyond the Blueshirts, but I just picked out the important parts:

- And what kind of contract will suit you? Would you agree on five million a year?

- First of all, I would like to sign a long-term agreement with the club, for 3-4 years. To have some semblance of stability. As for the number — the bigger the number on the contract, the better.

- Since you’re already familiar with life there, have you thought about remaining overseas after your career ends?

- No, life in America doesn’t suit me. The difference in mentality is too great between us. I dreamed of getting to the NHL for many years. My dream came true. But now, as soon as the season finishes, I’m immediately drawn to Kiev. All my family is there. The NHL is just a job.

- I recall an incident last season when you came to blows on the ice with Steven Stamkos of Tampa. Why were you so upset with the first pick in the 2008 draft?

- He hit me from behind. How else would a normal person react? I could have suffered a concussion. Or become disabled. Adding to my annoyance was that the referee, most likely, slept through the incident. He decided, at least, that Stamkos hit me without breaking the rules. So I fought for the first time in the NHL. I vaguely remember that I fought with him for a few seconds, but then both of us fell down.

Ok, the last question really isn’t that important, but I thought it was amusing to read Zherdev call out refs while talking about his first fight.

Anyway…

All the debate over the head case of Nikolai Zherdev should be put to rest. He’s not a head case, he’s just all about the money. This is a job for him, his heart is in Russia. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. It’s his life. But it’s safe to assume that he will be in the KHL really, really soon, maybe even by next season. He is a very skilled, very homesick player. He met his dream of being in the NHL, but winning isn’t all that important to him. There is nothing wrong with that, but it’s not what the Rangers, or we as fans, want.

I do not say good riddance to Zherdev, he was an exciting player to watch, and if he ever decides to care, can be electric in this league. I say to him good luck, I hope the KHL doesn’t fold, and I hope you get your $5 million a year.

Granted, I would have preferred Slats deal Tyutin for someone who was actually going to be here for more than a year, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Just Say NO to Brad Richards

I guess we really are bored right now, and are looking for something to discuss, because anyone who logically thinks about what it would cost to get Brad Richards realizes that any deal for him would create more holes than it fills. Sure, the Rangers don’t have a bonafide pivot to play alongside Gaborik, but is it really necessary to grab a big name just for that role? I see we have very short memories, as Dubinsky played very well as the pivot for one Jaromir Jagr.

But let’s look at the cost of attaining Brad Richards, who has a $7.8 million cap hit. The conversation begins with Dubinsky (roughly $2 million), one of Del Zotto/Sanguinetti/McDonagh, and some salary, so Michal Rozsival ($5 million) is likely to go the other way, as there is no way Dallas is taking Redden. For a team already looking to put two rookies on as the third pairing, dealing Rozsival would just create another hole on a top-four pairing, and the Rangers wouldn’t have anyone in the system to fill that role for this season, nor do they have the money to go out and get one (like a Brian Campbell, who is definitely available in Chicago).

The key to success, for teams that didn’t finish in the cellar for years in a row (cough, Pittsburgh, cough), is to draft well and build the core from within, and using free agents/trades to fill in holes. Not the other way around. Dubinsky is part of the core, you do not trade the core to fill in holes, you just leave yourself worse off than before.

With the new pledge by Sather to build from within, dealing Dubinsky for Richards would be a gigantic step backwards. Give the kid a shot to play with Gaborik, let’s see how he responds. The training wheels have to come off sooner or later.