The Greatest European Rangers: part 2

During the first post discussing the best European Rangers of all time we discussed a couple of Scandinavian wingers, and the great Jaromir Jagr. We also discussed a certain Swedish goalie that may well end up as the greatest Ranger ever, period. Let’s take a look at a few more great Europeans who lit up Broadway.

Sergei Zubov

I’m old enough to remember Zubov traded and for many Rangers fans it’s still a painful memory. Zubov won a Cup in New York – as a home grown Ranger – and was a dynamic offensive weapon and for those reasons Zubov’s Ranger tenure should be fondly remembered. People forget that during the cup winning season of 1994 Zubov led the Rangers in scoring during the regular season with 89 points, an unthinkable total for a blueliner today. An in-his-prime Zubov would command obscene amounts of dollars from clubs in the current NHL era.

You could make a valid argument that 165 games as a Ranger isn’t enough to be in this discussion but when you average almost a point/game as a blueliner (156 points/165 games) in the regular season and grab 30 in 32 playoff games, including 19 in 22 during the Cup season, the impact is undeniable. Another draft steal (5^th round, 1990), his trade to Pittsburgh still hurts.

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MSG Unit Spins Off, Zherdev Hearing Today

Sorry for the lack of updates yesterday, I was running around all day and didn’t have a change to put up a post.

In what should have been an expected move, Cablevision spun off the MSG Unit into its own entity. James Dolan will still be in charge of this unit, so no “reprieve” there. I put reprieve in quotes, because you really have to be careful what you wish for (see post below for details). This doesn’t mean much for the Rangers, it’s just a re-arrangement of the businesses themselves. I don’t know if there’s going to be a stock offering on the MSG Unit, I doubt it though.

Wow I ran off topic.

Anyway, the moral of the story here is that it doesn’t affect the Rangers at all.

Today is the long-awaited Nikolai Zherdev arbitration hearing. By the end of the day we should know what the Rangers will do with Zherdev. My guess, he gets awarded $3.85 million, the Rangers accept. As for the next step, I believe Zherdev will accept too, and Zherdev will at least be given a shot to prove his worth. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Zherdev involved in a deadline deal somewhere.

Oh, and for all of you wanting the 39 year old Sergei Zubov back in blue, sorry, but he signed with the KHL.