Thursday, July 05, 2007

Blueshirts Lacking the Green?

- One of the biggest splashes in the free agent market this offseason was made by, who else, the New York Rangers. Signing first Scott Gomez and then Chris Drury was a bold move to be sure, but the jury's still out on whether it was a smart one.

With these two signings the Rangers' salary, pre-arbitration, was inflated to $39,711,310. Still under the cap, so no problem, right? Wrong.

There is this tiny nagging problem that four of their cornerstone players remain unsigned: Brendan Shanahan, Sean Avery, Marcel Hossa, and Henrik Lundqvist. (Prucha was the fifth, but he re-signed today, terms undisclosed.) The remaining cap space is just enough to cover Lundqvist at $5 million, Avery at $2.5 million, Hossa at his qualifying offer, and Shanahan at $2.5 million plus cap-exempt bonuses.

Lundqvist is in the best position to negotiate, arguably being the biggest reason for the Rangers' success in the postseason this past summer, and could file for arbitration before tomorrow's deadline.

Raise your hand if you think any of these guys, particularly King Henrik, is going to settle for these amounts after the numbers thrown at Drury and Gomez. No one? Me neither. Now raise your hand if you think Shanahan is as good as gone. Everyone?

Me, too.

- In other Rangers-related news, the Devils have stolen away Lundqvist's backup Kevin Weekes, signing him to a $1.375-million, two-year contract. I guess all this really means is that Clemmensen is on his way out and the Devils will now overpay someone different to ride the bench for 79 games a year. Good plan.

4 comments:

Shmee said...

That last line was very funny and very true.

Steph said...

I think the Prucha signing was two years at 1.6 million a year...I think. Then again, I'm laughing at the Rangers regardless of that, so the amount probably doesn't really matter :b

Meanwhile, maybe the Devils figure at least now they're overpaying for a backup goalie who comes with his own awesome awesome 70s porn musi.

Marie said...

Steph, I think you're right about the Prucha deal. Also, I read somewhere that Lundqvist said he was willing to take a discount to stay in NY, to which I thought, "Oh really? Why the hell would he agree to that when Jagr, Drury, and Gomez definitely did not take a discount?"

Margee said...

I hate the Rangers. I also have nothing to contribute to the conversation besides that sttement. Hate.