Kevin Oklobzija at the Democrat and Chronicle reports that former Ranger Michael Nylander will undergo possible career ending surgery after suffering an injury to a vertebra in his neck when he was checked from behind and fell into the boards at a somewhat awkward angle during the Rochester Americans 4-1 loss to the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL.Nylander was loaned to the Amerks in late September by the Washington Capitals.
...i know Nylander probably won't be happy that his career may end this way, but he should be thankful he's even able to walk after injuring a vertebra.
...i've said time and time again on this blog that one of Sather's biggest mistakes was not re-signing Nylander and instead going after both Gomez and Drury. The chemistry Nylander had with Jagr was something that couldn't be replaced and neither player was the same after Nylander moved on.
19 comments:
Yes, Nylander and Jagr was special, but it had everything to do with Jagr's effort. The reason Jagr had a down season in 07-08 was because he didn't click with Gomez immediately and the effort wasn't there until the latter part of the season when playing with Dubinsky rejuvenated his youth.
or maybe it was jagr decided to play in the latter part of the season as he paced himself for the playoffs and boy he did extremely well in the playoffs
i kinda wish we signed nylander then somehow got drury for a smaller price.
nylander has been in minors last couple of yrs so can;t say he was the answer to our problems. gomez brought us the 2 young dmen in the ahl as well as prust after we traded higgins. drury did fine 1st 2 yrs including leading the team in goals 1st yr and 22 2nd. now he;s hurt between 3 concussions and all the bone injuries but certainly nylander would not be better even before this injury.
I always wished they kept Straka, the guy had a ton of guts and skills.
LI Joe, good points on what Gomez ultimately brought us, but that wasn't the intent of the Gomez signing.
I think the Rangers would have been better in Jagr's final year with Nylander, plus Jags may have hung around a few more years. Just my opinion, no one knows what would have actually happened.
i liked straka a lot on those teams
i also liked the gomez signing. not for the money. 90% of ufas are significantly overpaid. if we drafted better at forwards from mid 90's to 2007 (say even just parise instead of jessiman) a lot of our ufas would never have been signed. need another name or 2 - montoya, brendl, lundmark - allthose drafts had plenty of prime players still palying when we signed gomez and drury 3 yrs ago
btw - i liked nylander and wish him well in all aspects of life especially health
I loved Nylander and wish we kept him at the time, but right now I'm happy that we ended up getting Gomez because he ended being traded for McD and Valentenko. Overall, having Mcd and Valentenko is way better than having on over the hill Nylander and Jagr.
I remember Nylander had incredible control of the puck, especially in shootouts. He was fun to watch. But honestly, was anyone really upset when the Rangers signed the 2 biggest free agents of the 08 offseason? Hindisght is 20/20.
Both Nylander and Zherdev had more goals in Drury's second year. He was a combined minus 11 thru those two years of service. For him to close to being worth his price tag, he would be averaging 75 pts/year (that's forgiving; most ~$7 m players put up +80 pts/year; see Gaborik, etc), consistently centering our 2nd line, and being a net positive player. People talk about Drury as a great defensive player/shot blocker. Fact is, he's been so slow the past few years that seeing him chase the puck around the D zone, a step behind, is a far too common occurence.
If you compare what happned to Jagr's production when Drury and Gomez came, to the top line's (Jag, Strak, Nyl.) production the previous year, 2006-07, I think it becomes pretty goddamn clear, that those acquisitions were ill-advised, let alone at those grossly inflated prices. Sure, you can contend that Drury and Gomez were serviceable and led in some categories for a year each, but I think it's pretty indisputable that they have/continue to underperform, considering their price tag and #1/#2 center billings. I think, had we signed Nylander for $6M (however, he might have wanted some absurdly long term), we get at least two more highly productive seasons out of Jags and Straka. I would have given him a 4 yr/$24M deal if possible, if that mean keeping Jagr and him together and highly productive for the next 3 years, while developing young players beneath them. Also, I don't think what happened to Nylander in Philly transpires in New York for a multitude of reasons.
In this situation, we don't sign Drury/Gomez, #2/3 centers for $14 million. Basically, Sather made a bet that Drury and Gomez were about to peak in the prime of their careers. Unfortunately, they had already peaked. Regardless those contract durations were absurd. What happens after that (Redden signing), is impossible to predict. There are millions of iterations.
As far as the eventual Gomez trade, that shit continues to amaze me. How Sather was able to pull that off with Gainey in Montreal remains a mystery.
***First sentence should say *Naslund and Zherdev*....whoops
got the Swedes mixed up
i hope nylander heals up. hes got a wife and 6 kids at home so i hope he can come back and play some more. thats a pretty scary injury.
It's about time someone actually agrees with me on that. I always thought Nylander and Cullen would have been every bit as productive as Drury and Gomez - for half the price. Watching Nylander and Jagr play together was a thing of beauty. Granted that only had a shelf life of another year or two if they did go the Nylander direction but it was great to watch.
A shame he got so injured. You never want to see a guy get hurt - even Tony Romo...weeeeell maybe Brett Favre :)
pretty much completely disagree with william who seems to think 25 and 22 goal seasons are bad. sorry buddy but they're not.
the nylander jagr gang peaked - see both since then incl jagr in olympics and nylander most of time in minors for wash (not philly william). they would both be 3-4 yrs older now than they were when they left.
find it interesting some still can't find anything to talk about than a guy out 2 mos with broken finger - or criticize the signing of a guy that brought us the 2 dmen in ahl and indirectly brought prust.
Anonymous makes a good pt about Cullen. I liked what he gave us. 2-way center @ ~$2.5M, 40 pts (def. below his average total) in 2006/7. Think that was a bit premature offloading him.
And sorry LI Joe, but i do think 25 and 22 goals, -11 cumulative +/- and not exceeding 60 pts is shitty for a guy making $7M. i think most would agree that's not a good ROI. And im glad he's hurt now because he'd be occupying space in the top 3 lines, as he did last year. you are clearly biased towards Drury. And to give Gomez credit for guys we got after miraculously shipping him and his underperforming $7M tag north is slightly absurd.
Yes, Nylander and Jagr peaked two years before Drury/Gomez arrival. Jagr was an expiring asset and so was Nylander. But playing hypothetical here, I think Jagr would have continued to put up better numbers minus the arrival of the other two centers (who proved incapable of playing with the engimatic HoFer). Just look at the damage Jags did in 2006/7 and his playoff performance in 2008. And you never know what would have happened to Nylander's production had he stayed with the NYR and not gone to Wash (yes Wash., not Philly - momentarily confused for Briere, who, in an adjacent point, would have been a better acquisition than Drury or Gomez, based on his accelerating pt production at the time). Yes, he got hurt, played relatively shitty for a season (still better than Drury), but doesn't necessarily transpire that way if he comes to NY. that's a whole anothe debate anyway.
Anyway, we're almost out of the woods with Drury and we traded Gomez, so I guess you can thank Gomez for sucking, and getting two talented D-men in return. ok.
This is all sort of moot as I see the Rangers having a lot of promise these days, and, minus paying Drury $7M per to don the C and maybe center our 3rd or 4th line over someone perhaps more deserving and younger, am genuinely content with the 2-5 year plan in place.
Still, I have a soft spot for Nylander, whose career has submarined since we told him to walk. And in light of this scary injury, feel it appropriate to sing his praise. In short, loved watching him play with Jagr, and was sad the day we signed both high priced free agents in 2007
also, just to clarify, I dont think signing Nylander in 2007 to a Drury like deal would have been a prudent decision. Perhaps a front-loaded contract of shorter duration. Not sure what Jagr was demanding, but if we could have re-upped for 3 years/$18 million or 4yr/$22, I'd have been on board
I think LI Joe has been right when he earlier stated the organization has messed up several first round picks over the past 10 years, most notably in 2003 when we drafted Jessiman, and then in 2005? when we drafted Sanguinetti. In all likelihood, neither play in the NHL, let alone be a star. up til now, this draft futility has been costly- particularly 2003-best draft ever.
the one thing i agree with william about is that the draft especially the horrendous 1st rd picks led us to go into ufas a lot more than we would have liked. 90% of ufas are overpaid by quite a bit in yrs and salary and drury and gomez fit in the 90%
well i agree on 2nd pt in that i liked nylander too
disagree entirely with his bashing gomez and drury. 25 and 22 goal scorers don;t grow on trees. regardless of whether as ufas they fit into the 90% overpaid. and the worst pt of all was being glad someone is hurt. lose a lot of respect for you there.
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