Big Opportunity

Without taking into account Blake Wheeler’s $2.2m arbitration award the Boston Bruins were sitting at an unhealthy $60.3m cap figure. The Vancouver Canucks were stuck with an unhealthy $62m hit plus change. New Jersey was $2.3m over the cap without the Kovalchuk saga resolved (and subsequent cap hit added). Chicago is still over the cap despite purging their roster of role players. Why do I mention this? Because I believe The Rangers have an opportunity.

I am a firm believer that you can build a young roster without needing to lose every year even if it served the Hawks, Caps and Pens well. I believe young players are better off being inserted into a line up that has a successful culture and a winning mentality. So what has this got to do with anything? With the addition of Frolov I genuinely believe The Rangers added an excellent piece and are closer to being very competitive. This is where the above cap-strained clubs come in. Sather, as we all know, is a trade wiz. He can prey on the weak (GM’s) and is known for getting good value. I believe these clubs will need to give up further good players to make cap. Assuming Redden is toast in Manhattan – and it’s still a fairly sizeable assumption at this stage, with the cap space that’s left over from Staal’s re-signing I would go and get another forward.

By all means don’t add a guy with a six year contract who becomes another Manhattan cap anchor but there are quality pieces around that are (or could be) available. Blake Wheeler may be in play and we know Sather had grand designs there before. Troy Brouwer in Chicago anyone? How about sniffing around guys like Mikael Samuelsson, the ex Ranger in Vancouver? Or how about Patrice Bergeron from Boston?

If the Rangers could add a Bergeron or Brouwer I truly believe this club makes a significant stride in its development. They go from a nice top 9 to a fairly stacked top 9. They have the best goalie in the Eastern conference with a young emerging defense in front of him. Not a single contender in the East is without weakness. Pittsburgh cannot rival even the Rangers’ crop of wingers. The Caps can’t play defence and have issues in goal (short term). Boston has issues scoring and Jersey has yet to see how much they’ll have to trim off the roster when Kovy finally gets signed.

Sather has the chance to low ball a club, steal a piece of the puzzle and improve his club going forward. How good could a top 9 of Frolov – Dubinsky – Gaborik; Prospal – Bergeron – Callahan; Avery – Anisimov – MZA potentially be? With an addition of Bergeron’s calibre this team can make noise in the East and not ignore its future. Prospal, Christensen, Drury and Roszival (and others) will all be off this club in 2 years or less. The talented prospects will still have spots to win if they earn them. There’s no reason the Rangers can’t win and progress the youth movement. For years San Jose and Detroit have shown that you can ice a strong club while adding good youth. No reason the Rangers can’t do it too.