Ryan Dixon at The Hockey News says the Rangers signing of Alexander Frolov continues the team's trend of entering high-risk, high-reward scenarios..."Enter the Blueshirts, who are happy to enter high-risk, high-reward scenarios. No team that isn’t would have committed $7.5 million per season through 2013-14 to Marian Gaborik, a player who sends writers scrambling to find a much stronger word than prone when describing his relationship with injuries.
Frolov is a lighter version of another he-loves-me, he-loves-me-not player the Rangers used to employ, Alex Kovalev. The latter, in his prime, possessed more game-changing ability than Frolov, but they’re still cut from the same maddening cloth.
Another player who fits that mold? Nikolai Zherdev, whom the Rangers employed for one season in 2008-09 before cutting ties with him last summer after he was awarded a one-year, $3.9-million deal in an arbitration hearing."
...both Kovalev (his first stint with the Rangers) and Zherdev were much younger than Frolov and neither of them came to the Rangers with a chip on their shoulders.
...and even if Frolov does end up in Torts' doghouse, they only have to deal with it for a year.
13 comments:
Really cant understand why people are saying this is a high risk signing, its for one year and pretty cheap considering when free agency first opened a lot of "experts" thought hed command 5 mill
i dont envision him on a line with gabby at all, i think hed be best suited for a 2nd line role with "Pocket Aces"(the nickname i coined for AA, Artem Anisimov) and Grachev or MZA, thatd be a really dynamic line no matter the 3rd player on the line, even though id love to see both of those players make the team
but i digress, frolov is a great signing and if you take a look at our team, we have vastly improved over last year just by the mere fact that at least a few of our young core players will have an uptick in production and could breakout, its gonna happen eventually, might as well be this year when nobody thinks anything of us
I fully agree Adam, I don't see this as high risk at all.
adam - totally agree that it's probably the opposite of high risk considering the price tag and duration of the contract.
however, on your line combo call, id say its pretty bold to assume both MZA and Grachev are gonna be NHL ready, let alone second line material right out of the box. we need to be realistic about expectations for Grachev after he struggled last year in Hartford. After all, AA put up MVP numbers with the Pack and while he had a very solid rookie campaign (probably deserved more TOI), he was by no means a bonafide second line player. MZA remains a wild card. i'd love to see him bring St. Louis type energy and skill, if only a fraction of it, to the Rangers.
Adam, I'd be shocked to see either one of them in the opening night lineup unless Drury is fourth line center. Which I don't see happening.
Who are you taking out of the lineup?:
Dubi-Christensen-Gabby
Frolov-AA-Prospal
Callahan-Drury-Avery
Boogaard-Boyle/Byers/Weise-Prust
kevin or they move avery to 4th line. he's played center in the past and for the 2 shifts per period could do so on 4th line at least until injuries rear their ugly inevitable head
well i watched a bunch of hartford games and grachev looked disinterested in playing there, he knows he belongs in the NHL and you could see in training camp last year hes got the body and skills for the NHL, i want an all russian line! youre gonna tell me they wont gel right away and go crazy on other teams?! i can dream cant i?
as far as MZA, have you seen his highlight vids? that kids got skills on top of skills, the little engine that could, not afraid to go into the high traffic areas, he better make the team
screw weise, byers and boyle, the more skill players we have the better
if i could take off 2 other plays, i hate to say it, but avery and drury, peace!
Adam, that may be who you want out of the lineup but you know Torts isn't taking them out.
LI Joe, sure Avery can play center, but I just don't see Torts doing that.
But he said today there will be spots for kids so you never know.
I'm already tired of the Zherdev comparisons. The biggest differences are that we didn't have to lose Tyutin this time around and Frolov is making less than Zherdevs arbitration award. Plus our forward prospects are much better and closer now. One has to believe that at least one forward will emerge as NHL ready at some point during the season if a regular forward under performs.
well assuming no injuries to start the season i can see torts doing that. especially if mza earns a spot. avery is not exactly a torts favorite and as injuries occur he could be slotted on 3rd line.
torts uses 4th line intact probably 2 shifts a period. exception was end of yr but that unit played really well better than some other lines. on another shift can double shift a center and sit boogaard moving avery to wing
Kevin, I agree with your lineup but such a shame to relegate Callahan to third line, although he'll get lots of special team play. I really want to see him hit 30 goals this year and that's not happening playing with Drury and Avery.
Re: 4th line, may as well put me in the middle the way Torts rolls.
I love the Frolov signing. He will be motivated and love playing in NY. Expectations will be reasonable so he won't have too much pressure, and it's a very reasonable 1-year commitment. And as an added bonus he will apparently necessitate sending Redden “wading” to the minors (I hear Hartford is lovely in October).
Look for Grachev or MZA to crack the line up during the season but be reasonable with expectations.
@Adam Brett
"well i watched a bunch of hartford games and grachev looked disinterested in playing there, he knows he belongs in the NHL and you could see in training camp last year hes got the body and skills for the NHL"
Are you seriously making excuses for him? If that is even the case which it definitely is not is embarrassing. In the NHL you have to prove you belong there regardless of what you think. His problem is when he was in juniors he was playing against boys and now he is playing against men in the AHL and he can't easily overpower everyone. I read a few reports that he is not fast and in juniors he used his body against other players who were still growing. Face it a lot boys dont start filling out until they are 20-21. I guarantee Stepan is NHL ready before Grachev.
Now AA on the other hand has a chance to be top line center. I hope he breaks out and earns it from Christi and old man Prospal.
@Kevin
I like Frolov away from Gabby only if he plays with AA on the 2nd. But do you really think AA will start on the 2nd line?
Snuser- first of all, do you snus?
on callahan, as good an all around player/hustler he is, he's not a pure scorer and will be lucky to crack 30 more than once in his career, unless he gets on a regular line with an all-star caliber pivot. that said, if you look at the statistic "Prod." which measures a player's productivity per minute played (pt/min played), callahan does not compare favorably to top 6 forwards around the league. thus, should the Rangers acquire or develop one of their centers into an 80+ pt player, Callahan will likely not be on the wing. He's a 3rd line - 50 point player - on a Stanley Cup caliber team. nothing wrong with that. but he's not Graves
I'm a Kings fan and it's eating my guts out that we lost Fro.
His goal production last year was so much lower than usual, and it wasn't his fault.
He's got great defensive skills, likes to mouse around the net, has decent size, and can score thirty goals when he's awake.
But wait'll you see how he holds onto the puck in the offensive zone.
At $3-mil he's a steal.
I HATE you guys.
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