Adam Gretz at AOL Fanhouse says the line of Radim Vrbata, Martin Hanzal and Petr Prucha has turned Phoenix into a playoff contender...Prucha burst onto the NHL scene coming out of the lockout and tallied 30 goals in just 68 games with the Rangers during his rookie campaign. After that fast start, however, his production, and ice-time, started to decrease in New York to the point where he scored just 13 goals the past two seasons ... combined. He already has 11 this season.
"Petr, he just has so much energy on the forecheck," said Vrbata. "He's also a finisher. He gets open and he gets a lot of chances. As for me? I'm just trying to make plays, trying to get open, and trying score some goals. So far it's working for us."
...just in case you guys weren't depressed enough by the Malhotra piece yesterday, I thought I'd pass this along. Seriously, it is great to see Prucha doing so well as he was always a fan favorite and I'm looking forward to watching him tonight.
...man did the Rangers mess up with Pruuuuucha.
5 comments:
small speedt forwards always seem to go from the East to th West and find success.....never seems to be the case the opposite direction...its like an American league pitcher going to the National league...
He's got 11 goals and 7 assists in the Western Conference. That's not really that impressive.
I liked Prucha, but the Rangers biggest mistake in this situation is not that they traded him--it's that they didn't trade him immediately after his 30-goal season when he had some value.
@ james, why would you trade a rookie who scored 30 goals and was making rookie money...its easy to say we should have traded him earlier, but if we had a 30 goal rookie this year, would you want him traded at seasons end? doubt it
Prucha was small and wasn't extremely popular with Renney who was firmly entrenched as the head coach at that time. Once Sather realized Renney was going to underuse him (by the end of Prucha's first season he was already underused), he should have moved Pru for assets Renney felt more comfortable using. It would have been better than what the Rangers ended up getting for him.
Instead, Sather let Prucha die on the bench while Renney benched him for extended periods of time. He went from a rookie scoring sensation to a small player without any value. I realize hindsight is 20-20, but if it seems obvious you're coach doesn't like a guy, trade him while value is high--that's GM'ing 101.
haha if your coach doesnt like a guy trade him? REDDEN "cough"
rosival "cough cough"
ah sorry, sick today
is it just me or do we have a tendency on keeping too many extra players each year? we always seem to have at least a 1-2 mill (in kotaliks case 3mill) player sitting in the pressbox...rissmiller (1mill) voros (1mill) brash (1.7) kots (3mill) i dont think rissmillers hit is on our cap this year cuz hes in the minors...but wow when you have almost 4 million tied up in players that arent getting dressed...time for a new gm!
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