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.