By Jason Glezman
Rangers had it good. The Rangers had Colton Orr.
Orr is currently winning Hockeyfights.com Favorite Fighter Award with 26% of the votes and Fighter of the Year with 66% of the vote. In the last year of his contract he was rated #1 on Forbes.com “Best Hockey Fighters For The Buck,” at a salary of 525,000 .
Orr was not just a fighter but he was a defender, of his teammates that is. One of the best moments I’ve had being at the Garden was when Orr knocked out Todd Fedoruk after Fedoruk, as Sam says “went all around the ice hitting everybody, going wild,” in the previous Flyers/Rangers game. Orr stuck up for his teammates, he knew his role and he did a damn good job at it.
Was it so outlandish that Orr asked to double his salary to one million a year? I don’t think so but then again I’m not an NHL GM. However, I do have the right to criticize those that hold that position.
So as the story goes, Brian Burke (my favorite GM), signs fan favorite Orr to a $4 million-four year contract ($1 million a year). Glen Sather (my least favorite GM) signs Donald Brashaer, the man that knocked out our top PK man, Blair Betts, with a cheap shot the previous year in the playoffs. Brashear gets $2.8 mil over 2 years ($1.4 million a year). Long story short, Orr’s popularity booms across the NHL and Brashear is now enjoying his paid vacation in Hartford.
Well Brashear equaled failure. Bring in Brandon Prust and Jody Shelley midseason. GREAT PICK UPS (Sather still least favorite). Prust was a fantastic team player, defended teammates, and always went after the other teams biggest guy (check out Andrew Peters face in their first fight this year) . I loved Shelley, he didn’t fight much for us but if you re-watch any game this year he had a presence on the ice that pretty much said “back off.” The two brought toughness and with Arty they combined to form arguably the best forward line down the stretch.
Guess what? Doesn’t matter, missed the playoffs and now we are in the middle of yet another offseason as the Rangers address team toughness. Resigning Prust was a good move, 2 years $1.6 mil. Loosing Shelley, hurts, hurts even more that he’s going Philadelphia.
In comes Sather’s Ace in the Hole, Derek “The Boogeyman” Boogaard.
He’s a big guy and a top three enforcer around the league, no question. However, Boogaard signs a big and scary deal, $6.6 mil for six years.
When we signed Brashear instead of Orr, Sather stated "We think Brashear...is quicker and can get in on the puck a little faster [than Orr]. We feel he's going to be more effective for us.” Well Brashear wasn’t and now Sather is bringing in a player that hasn’t scored in 190+ games contradicting his exact reason for letting Orr go.
There is no questioning Boogaard’s toughness (ask Todd Fedoruk) but there is questioning if Sather could admit to loosing Orr was a mistake. Orr and Boogaard are fighters and in a division with three heated rivals the other the Rangers need a fighter. However, it seems that Sather, yet again, screwed this up.
So the conclusion, or rather question, are we better off?
Orr or Boogaard/Prust (Brashear in Hartford)?
$1mil a year or $3.4 mil a year?
Orr and Boogaard have never fought in the NHL. However, there is this old scrap from 2000-01. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueDXz7MNtlA Orr is in white, while Boogaard is in dark. The old scrap is just a sneak peek at what we can expect this upcoming year when the Rangers face off with Toronto.
I’ll tell you this much I’ll be watching October 21 (Rangers @ Toronto) and I’ll be rooting for the old fan favorite that got screwed by Sather, Colton Orr.
Who you going to root for?
14 comments:
I always root for the Rangers.
... to answer your question. Orr was great and I don't know why Sather let him go, but I don't see much point in rooting for him now that he's our opponent.
Sather partially redeemed himself by ridding the organization of Brashear and his contract (partially redeemed as the contract probably never should have been there in the first place).
We'll see what Boogard can do. I'm usually pretty optimistic about our guys but this one does seem pretty limited.
Great post.
Now im as big a Colton Orr fan as anybody, but Im a Ranger fan first, I'll root for the jersey.
The only ex-Ranger I've ever been close to rooting for is Brian Leetch.
Other than that, great post. Definitely should have kept Orr. Whereas not keeping Orr isn't the reason this team didnt make the playoffs, it is indicative of the crappy decisions Sather makes.
This romanticized view of Orr is getting to be a bit much. I know he was on the team for four years but it's ancient history, time to move on.
I must quote Garth Algar here:
"Just get over it and go out with somebody else."
I think it's a 4 year deal for the Boogeyman. Still not a great deal but he is one scary dude to play against.
I guy I'm happiest with is Prust. As you said, great pickup.
Let's not forget: It was at least partially Orr's decision to leave. He was going to get a drastic decrease in his playing time with Torts as the head coach. Being a forth liner under Renny was very different than being a forth liner under the new coach. He didn't want to stay.
BEST POST YET. Letting Orr go still pisses me off to no end. He's one of my favorite players and I do still root for him. I met the guy a few times, asked him if he missed playing in New York because we sure miss him, and he said he missed playing in NYC and the fans. Leafs are lucky to have him.
Best guest blog yet. Orr was great (and still is). I also had the pleasure of meeting Orr and it is clearly evident he wants to be in New York. I will always root for the Colt man. Sather, it's time to get your head out of your ass. Great post.
Sic semper tyrannis.
You should NEVER be rooting for someone else to beat on our players. What is that about? I don't care if this guy is Mark freakin' Messier. That is unacceptable.
And I try not to get my hockey news from Forbes. Or stock tips from Sean Avery, for that matter. The guy was good, but he's a fighter. Just a fighter. Yes, it was dumb that they signed Brashear for more, but two wrongs don't make a right.
If the guy didn't want to play here for the money we offered him, there are a hundred other guys willing to bash in heads and get their heads bashed in for a half mil a year. Would the Gaborik/Carcillo thing have happened differently if Orr was on the team? Probably. Does that guy have to be Orr? Absolutely not.
Orr Brashear Boogaard does not matter what the skill set is, it will never add up to much. What you pay for is the fists and Boogaard has that hands down, we paid for the best. He is the only player that we can say is the best at any position.
I liked the post, and I see the point. We keep paying more for less or the same when Sather claimed that he did not want to pay more. What could we do with the extra money that Sather could have held on to if he had kept Orr. Before Brashear was traded we were looking at an extra $2 million all together I believe ($1.4 million for Brashear, and $600,000 more for Boogard over Orr).
Now, for all of you guys who say you should never root against the Rangers, I wonder if you would be singing that same tune if it was Wade Redden fighting Colton Orr. I think I would be pretty in favor of an Orr knockout. It's just a fight; no one is rooting for a Rangers loss.
You don't think the fights have huge bearing on the momentum of a game? Please. And no, I don't wish Wade Redden physical harm. I just don't think he's skilled enough for his position or paycheck.
Just in my own defense, I wrote this article to purposly be controversial. Sitting on the fence would have left me with 3 comments. I love Colton Orr, and I have nothing against Boogaard. That fight is going to be fantastic and I'd love for the two of them just to beat on each other for a good 3 minutes.
Also, my main point was we could, as StevePrime said, saved alot of money had we just kept Orr, who had a good relationship with the team and the fans.
That extra 600k that we spent on Boogaard will do plenty for team toughness but does nothing in regards to PK or goal scoring.
I'm excited for Boogaard, but I think its obvious from this article that I'm still bitter about loosing Orr.
Either way, how about the great links of Todd Fedoruk getting dominated by both guys!
All is fun, Go Rangers.
No, no, no. Great article, great debate. The recent comment revolution here is a fun addition to the blog and more op-ed pieces add variety to the conversation.
Regardless of team affiliation, as a hockey fan, you've got to appreciate commentary like this.
Now, I'm not a Rangers fan, and to keep this post clean of nonsense, I think i'll stick to the whole anonymity thing, but I think i've seen Colton Orr play enough times to wager an opinion (and been around the game long enough to see that Sather's a dope). Not only is the guy a bruiser, but he posseses a skill set that hard nosed guys don't usually have- plain and simple.
Do I think that the Boogeyman can step in and fill the role of 'tough guy?' No doubt about it. Do I think that you lose some skill with the departure of Orr? No question. Do I think it was a mistake on Sather's part to not retain Orr? Absolutely. What he was asking for wasn't much, and frankly, it was well-deserved if you ask me. With Sather's track record, however, I can't say i'm surprised.
But for now, we'll have to wait and see how things play out. It's all speculation now, but hey, it's stuff like this that makes hockey great.
Great work with this Glez. Helluva post brother.
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