As Glen is rocked to sleep aboard his fishing boat tonight one has to wonder what his plans for next year are. What's nice for Glen is he has already been given a vote of confidence from Dolan for his steady management of the Rangers. That being said Glen has a plethora of free agency dilemmas: 1) Richards - I never liked the signing but who can blame Brad for taking such a generous contract from a desperate GM? Nice start to season and on pace for 60 points but is he worth $8.5 mil with all of next year's free agents? 2) Hank - Can play in NY, top 3-5 goalie yearly but what will he want to stay, $8mil, $9 mil? 3) Captain Callahan - UFA making $4.875 this year, small guy with a big heart but you have to get more than 45 points from your captain. How can Glen offer him any more than his current pay? 4) Girardi - UFA making $3.4 this year who will probably get ridiculous offers from other teams based on last year's free agency contracts. 5) Brassard - UFA making $3.7 thought he was a good playmaker after last year's playoffs but that guy has apparently left the building. Would be shocked if a team matched this year's salary. 6) Stralman - UFA making $1.8 can't see him commanding any more than that but youth makes him expendable. 7) Boyle - UFA also making $1.8 mil, decent utility guy Glen can probably get back for the same dollars. 8) Pyatt - UFA making $1.65 should have to wear a mask while he plays because he's stealing money. AV doghoused him which points positively toward his depature next year. 9) Pouliot - UFA making $1.3, big guy who plays little, 5th team since being drafted in '05. Doubt other teams will be knocking his door down this off-season. 10) D. Moore - UFA making $1 mil. second time wasn't the charm hopefully will be gone for youth before end of season. 11) Kreider - RFA making $900K due a huge raise 12) Zuccarello - RFA making $1.15 plays bigger than he is. I didn't like him in the beginning but he's impressed 13) MDZ - RFA making $2.9, the whipping boy, the bane of the board. No Rangers dman can go coast to coast like him, needs confidence boost would like to see him stay but wouldn't mind if he was part of a fair trade. 14) Falk - RFA making $975K big body small body of work to evaluate 15) J. Moore - RFA making $810K now residing in AV's doghouse for being a young, mistake-prone player Glen has quite a bit of work ahead of him and can make his workload easier with a few trades. Guess we'll just have to sit and wait.
7-10 should all be gone, they need to putting together a well crafted bottom 6, not just plodders and fa leftovers. Maybe lindberg, fast or kristo grab one or two spots there to add price value. Dorsett is ok but it would be nice to see him chip in offensively a tad more. Falk resigning depends on whether Allen and Dmc are close to ready. I dont see Girardi getting much more from anyone but i would avoid him and grab someone younger like Hjalmarrson whos better offensively, they need more mobility on D. Callahan will get a bump up to 6 probably. Mza is a toss up and Brassard/Stralman bring back but only at the same $$.
This is Brassard's 7th year. I think the only guy I'd consider from 7-10 is Pouliot 71 because he should be cheap to resign but he is shades of Marcel Hossa.
Great job Panzerporter. Agree with each and every one. As far as Cally is concerned, he could get a bit more depending how much the cap goes up.
Richards is gone for sure. Not even worth having a discussion on him. Pyatt will be gone for sure. Boyle and D. Moore most likely gone. The rest we'll see. We have a lot of choices to make this summer, and we'll see which way we go. I think we'll see a handful of different faces next season. I am pretty sure Brassard is a UFA, but either way if we really want him back he'll be back. If not then we would let him walk anyway UFA or RFA. And MDZ I personally would not give him a 3 or 4 year deal worth over 3 or close to 4 mill per, but that's me. I would only deal him for full value, otherwise I would try and trade him around the draft for a nice return if possible. I just don't love giving this guy 4 mill a season, or close to it, which is what he will get. I can't worry about next year though. We still have a long way to go this season. And we have so many options, and available guys for next season that it is really hard to dig that deep and go through a team worth of players not even 30 games into a season. All I feel strongly about is Richards is 10000000000000000% gone (unless he is injured). No shot he is back. And Pyatt is 100% gone. And D. Moore is 90% gone. And Boyle is 75% gone. The rest we'll see how Sather plays it, if he bothers to pick up a phone and actually work that is.
I wouldnt mind Pouliot back at that price but not if he cant score 15g. He could be a really good 3rd liner on a cup contender.
I like Pouliot also, but he needs to start to score some goals. I think he is a solid 3rd line guy that can score 15, and has a big body, but he needs to start producing. We'll see...
Cally is a tough one. His production really doesnt equate to $6m but he is a Captain with intangibles off the chart. I hope they can settle in at $5 yrs/$25m but I see a scenerio where they overpay
They will probably overpay for cally but his production is not that of a 6 million dollar player. Not that that means anything of course.
It looks like Sather will drive every Ranger fan up a creek without a paddle.LOL After all these years, I still do not know what his plan is.
Beach, Awesome. A first round pick (2008) that has never even impressed enough to play a single NHL game...
I think Sather is in a difficult position because of Girardi and Staal not playing consistent hockey this year. I'm sure he would love to trade MDZ. However, he is faced with the fact that he might not sign Girardi. So basically, that would leave him with Moore, Staal, McDonagh and Stralman at the end of the season if he traded MDZ and Girardi left. That is assuming he can sign Stralman. So McIlrath has to make the team. Hope Skjei comes out after his second year and gets into the AHL. It's more complicated than people here make it seem. Girardi and Stralman can both leave. So if he trades MDZ, that might mean there will be three defenseman openings next season. That could be a significant problem.
No one said it was easy, but that's why Sather gets paid millions of dollars. He does not get paid millions of dollars to do nothing at the trade DL two years ago, and sit on his boat this year when we need more scoring. We can trade players/picks/kids outside of MDZ right? At least I think we can....
I think if they can deal mdz theyll give stralman a little extra to make sure he's retained. The FA dmen market is fairly weak but theres a few guys that could help like Hainsey and Niskanen. Hopefully they dont get lulled into keeping Girardi and look to get something for mdz this year. Maybe Mcilrath and Allen are ready to contribute out of the gate, at least as a spare.
The Beach move was actually interesting. I figure they think Mashinter wasn't a pro but Beach might be, Pyatt is useless and Pouliot just can't figure it out. Maybe they want Beach on the 4th line for some toughness. This team really needs McIlrath to take a 6th defenseman role this season to police moron teams like the Bruins.
Beach sounds similar to Palmeiri who they never did anything with. Both were high picks with size who i guess flamed out. Im surprised they got him for Mashinter alone but it sounds like he needs some work.
