Best post-lockout Ranger: Round 1, Ryan Callahan (1) vs. Ruslan Fedotenko (8)

As the offseason wears on, us and Matt Josephs of Blue Line Station (Twitter: 11Matt_Josephs8) will be running a tournament for the Best Ranger since the 2005 lockout. Yesterday, #2 Brendan Shanahan took out #7 in a surprising blowout. Today the second round continues with #1 Ryan Callahan vs. #8 Ruslan Fedotenko.

Ryan Callahan (acquired – 2004 draft, 4th round)

The Rangers actually acquired the draft pick used to select Cally from San Jose in exchange for the negotiating rights to Mark Messier. It’s funny how the Rangers traded the rights to their captain, and used that draft pick to draft a future captain. Cally saw his first NHL action in 2006-2007, playing 14 games with the Rangers. He played 52 games with the club the following season, which included an 11 game stint in Hartford. After that Cally stuck with the club and has been an all-round beast for the Rangers since. In his full Ranger career to date, Cally has put together a line of 121-108-229 in 405 games, and has slowly climbed from averaging 40 points per season to averaging close to 60 points over a full season. Cally has been the captain of the team since 2011, and was an alternate captain from 2009.

There’s not much else to say about Cally. We all know who he is and what he means to this team.

Ruslan Fedotenko (acquired – 2010 PTO/unrestricted free agency)

Fedotenko might be one of the best PTOs the Rangers have ever had. He wasn’t a big scorer (19-26-45) in his 139 games, but he was a big contributor on the defensive side of the puck. In his two years, he never started more than 41.5% of his shifts in the offensive zone. His line with Brian Boyle and Brandon Prust didn’t face the toughest competition, but they were still relied upon heavily to take those defensive zone draws and focus more on the defensive side of the game.

Fedotenko left New York for Philly when the Rangers decided to move in a different direction. His absence was definitely noticed on the bottom-six forwards.

So who do you think is the better Ranger, Cally or Fedotenko? Vote thumbs up for the higher seed (Callahan), or thumbs down for the lower seed (Fedotenko). Voting ends at midnight tonight.