Sunday, June 7, 2009

Rangers Need Star Power

Larry Brooks at the New York Post says without legitimate offensive talent it is impossible to thrive in the NHL...

"The Penguins have Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, the Caps have Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green, the Hurricanes have Eric Staal, and the Rangers . . . well, and the Rangers have no one remotely comparable. Fact is, the Blueshirts don't have a forward who would be selected in the top, what, 100 in a league-wide dispersal draft."

Brooks says the oft-injuried Marian Gaborik could be that player for the Rangers.

He also mentions the Rangers trading Marc Staal for top tier talent...

"There is no player on the roster other than lone untouchable Henrik Lundqvist for whom the Rangers could acquire an elite offensive force by trade, though if we were in GM Glen Sather's golf shoes, we'd be calling Ottawa and offering Marc Staal for Heatley, we'd be calling Tampa and offering Staal for Vincent Lecavalier or Steven Stamkos, we'd be calling Colorado and offering Staal for the third-overall selection in the Entry Draft, and you get our drift."

...if there was ever going to be a typical Ranger free agent signing Gaborik would be it. I couldn't be more against the Rangers signing a player that can barely stay in the line-up.

...on the other hand if there was ever going to be a thinking outside the box move it would be trading players like Staal and Anisimov for top offensive talent. I'm not condoning this approach by Sather, but I'd understand. Plus the GM needs to unload two of the four biggest contracts (Drury, Gomez, Roszival and Redden).

Steve Zipay at Blue Notes suggests the Rangers look at Milan Hejduk and Jonathan Cheechoo.

1 comment:

Rennie said...

The Pens and Caps have those "superstar" players because of really really bad seasons in which they got the number 1 slamdunk picks. Unless the Rangers plan on tanking the next 2 seasons it's gonna be mixing and matching like always. Being in New York has made this franchise inconsistant for years and years, and unless we are willing to bring in a GM who can work with what he has, we won't win for years to come.