"Tell me. Tell me the name of the stud cen ter or blue-chip de fenseman in his prime coming up on unrestricted free agency for whom the Rangers should reserve cap space and thus bypass Ilya Kovalchuk. Tell me the names of the Entry Level kids within the organization for whom general managerGlen Sather will need to reserve space to sign once the deal is done with Marc Staal. Because I don't see any Drew Doughtys or Duncan Keiths or Nicklas Backstroms on the depth chart, that's for sure. Tell me you aren't attempting to make an analogy between the Rangers adding the 27-year-old Kovalchuk this summer, and adding the 28-year-old, already-multiply-concussed Eric Lindros in 2001, or between signing Ilya now and signing the 31-year-old, already-fried Theo Fleury in 1999. Regardless of whether Sather, who has been in touch with the Kovalchuk camp this weekend, ramps up his interest in Ilya and joins the dance, do not tell me that the Rangers need to reserve his spot for a younger player. Do not tell me the Rangers need to get younger this year, and that goes for Sather and head coach John Tortorella, too, because a the clarion call to get younger when the shadow roster already contains eight players no older than 26, well, that kind of sounds like the beginnings of pre-emptive excuse making when none is acceptable." http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/rangers/make_no_mistake_rangers_need_ilya_nsCEOFIuVKkt8G0wiBypGJ
