Saturday, December 22, 2007

Possible Ranger/Blue Jacket Trade

Tom Reed over at the Columbus Dispatch, reports that a Rangers scout has been spotted at three recent Blue Jacket games, while Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson attended Thursday night's Ranger/Wild game...

"New York Rangers scout Rick Kehoe has been spotted here on three occasions in recent weeks. On Thursday, Jackets’ general manager Scott Howson watched the Rangers play in Minnesota. Hey, we can speculate, no?

The teams don’t seem trade compatible on the major league level, however. Both need offense. Despite their $51 million payroll, the Rangers are the league’s lowest scoring team.

The Rangers have four unrestricted free agents on the blueline, including Marek Malik, who’s fallen out of favor with the coaching staff.

Malik, 32, was part of the Rangers’ shutdown defensive pair last season, but he has a penchant for turnovers. He doesn’t seem like a Hitchcock guy."

...you have to figure these two teams are discussing a trade as they don't face each other this year so there's no need to do advance scouting.

...I also find it odd that Reed would mention Malik's name. Hopefully, as a beat writer, he knows something.

...maybe the Blue Jackets would trade us Rick Nash for Malik. A forward with 18 goals and 13 assists for a defenseman who has been rotting in the press box, seems fair to me.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bring back Malhotra!!!

Anonymous said...

No way for Nash as he would fit with the cap and they would never give him up.
Are you kidding Malhotra? Thats all we need is another 3 or 4th line player. I think this team has enough

Anonymous said...

How about defenseman Adam Foote and/or tough guy Jody Shelley? If I'm the Rangers GM I'd give up Malik, Prucha, Hossa and a draft pick. Then again, Rangers scout Rick Kehoe's name is in the article, a guy with a past connection to Jaromir Jagr, whose contract will be up this year...