Garrioch: Rangers Interested in Volchenkov?

According to Bruce Garrioch, the Rangers are one of the teams showing interest in soon to be unrestricted free agent Anton Volchenkov. Volchenkov has been a hot topic so far this offseason, and was covered here in our Scouting the Market series. Volchenkov turned down a reported five-year $20 million deal after the Olympics from the Senators, ensuring that the highly sought after defenseman will hit the open market. Volchenkov has been linked to the Washington Capitals, but those rumors have been refuted.

Let’s play a game of which defenseman would you take?

Player A: 6’1, 226 lbs. 28 years old, 7 year veteran. Physical, shot blocker, stay at home defenseman. Averages 15 points per season, GVT of 4.7 (4.2 DGVT). Averages 65 GP/season. Will command at least $5 million/season for five years.

Player B: 6’1, 210 lbs. 28 years old, 6 year veteran. Physical, shot blocker, stay at home defenseman with a little offense. Averages 22 points per season, GVT of 4.3 (5.1 DGVT). Played a full 82 games for four of six seasons. Will command roughly $500,000-$1 million less than Player A for one or two fewer seasons.

Which defenseman do you want?

I think we can agree that Player B brings more value for the dollar, which is what the salary cap era is all about. If you said Player A, you said Anton Volchenkov. If you said Player B, you said Zbynek Michalek. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, when looking for bang for your buck, Zbynek Michalek makes more sense than Anton Volchenkov. They have the same style of play, Michalek contributes more on the blue line, and is much more durable. The slight difference in GVT is negligible, but it’s worth noting that again Michalek has the better defensive GVT.

So the Rangers can be interested in Anton Volchenkov all they want, but they will not have the cap room for him. On the other hand, Michalek should certainly be an intriguing option, and worth more than just a kicking of the tires. Of course, Dan Girardi is an even cheaper option with almost identical numbers (6.8 GVT, 5.0 DGVT), but he isn’t as physical as the other two. Girardi, of course, will cost significantly less than both Michalek and Volchenkov.

Scouting The Market: Zbynek Michalek

Our next victim for Scouting The Market? Zbynek Michalek

Zbynek Michalek is a 27 year old defense man who has played the past couple years in Phoenix.  A very consistent, durable blueliner, Michalek is a shot blocking demon, leading the league in 08-09 and always near the top. A good positional defenseman, he’s not going to make too many mistakes, but he’s not going to be a real crease clearing presence in the front of the net either. He has offensive skills, and while it’s dwindled the past couple of seasons, a lot of that is due to playing with Ed Jovanovski, who is an offensive threat and defensive liability.

Michalek is not the most physical guy, but he gets the job done with solid positioning and good stick work. He’s not afraid to block a shot and sacrifice his body. Michalek made $1.5 million last year. You can probably expect an increase to $2.5-3 million a year.

Obviously, signing any defenseman limits the ability for the youngsters to play. Assuming they re-sign Staal and Girardi, the D-pairs would look something like this:

Staal-Girardi

Rosival-Michalek

Redden-Del Zotto

The best thing to do is to buy out Redden, and try to trade Rosival (which may be easier than you think, considering how well he played down the stretch last year). If they can’t do that, and if they sign a defenseman like Michalek,  guys like Gilroy and Sanguinetti can’t play. It’s a downside.

That said, what do you think of Michalek? Worth the price of admission? Worth blocking some of the youngsters? Let us know in the comments.