With free agency set to begin in about 15 hours I figured it would be prudent to talk a bit about it. I’m going to keep this fairly simple. First, here are my predictions for what I think will happen, followed by justification…

Nylander walks, i just get this bad feeling that hes looking for the highest bidder, and i know thats not going to be us.

Gomez is signed. Hes going to take over Nylanders spot, and the rangers are going to pay through their nose, 7 years, 49 illion dollars (Shudders)

Forsberg is signed. Despite his injury status the rangers bet on him being the “x” factor in putting them over the top. 1 year 3.5 mil

Shanny will be brought back, 1 year, 1.5 mil. hes taking a pay cut to make the gomez thing happen.

and my wildcard….. Sheldon Souray is signed. Rangers are looking to get nastier and more offense from their blueline, they get both with one fell swoop. 6 years, 6 per.

These 4 moves take the rangers right to the cap max once they sign all their RFA’s, and trade away either mara, or cullen. The reason I expect the Rangers to be so aggressive is fairly simple. They were close….REAL close to possibly winning the cup last year. They have the goalie, they have the superstar to lead them there, they just need to augment him with guys who can get it done. These are the people I feel the Rangers will target to make it happen. Is this a step towards oblivion? No, Straka and Shanny wont be back the year after next, nor will Forsberg when his contract expires. The Rangers get a little tougher to play against with Forsberg a notorious nasty, sometimes downright dirty player, and Souray who isn’t afraid to drop the gloves. It also means the Rangers can afford not to play Orr as much and use his spot for a kid with a real future on this club (Jessiman?). Could this team win the cup? My answer is yes, and I would expect them to do just that….or at the very least, make the Eastern Conference Finals.

Now, for what I would do if the decision rested on my shoulders…

Trade for Brad Richards or Patrick Marleau (whichever one requires less prospects headed the other way…probably Richards for his contract). making sure matt cullen AND paul mara(not a big fan of his) head back the other way.

re-sign nylander for 2 years at 4.5 per.

sign Ryan Smyth to a 4 year 6 million dollar contract (id go up even higher if i had to)

Then my lineup would be something like this (assuming prucha was traded to tampa):

Hossa Nylander Jagr
Shanahan Richards Smyth
Avery Cullen Callahan
Whoever wins this job in camp/Betts/Whoever wins this job in camp

Malik Rozsival
Tyutin Girardi
Pock Staal

This lineup would be more future friendly and get us a true number 1 center in Brad Richards to play on a deadly second line. It would also give us, a legitimate 3 line scoring team, with one line which should be fairly versatile in our 4th line (depending on who plays). It also is a fairly young backline, but I don’t see this as a problem, as that setup is very mobile (with the exception of Malik) and fairly physical.

Well, there you have it folks, hope it was worth your time reading this.

-Inferno

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Colton Orr	Games	Goals	Assists	Points	+/-	PIM
Regular Season	53	2	1	3	-2	126
Playoffs	4	0	0	0	-1	12

You’ve seen it, I know you have, particularly if you’ve seen my videos on youtube. The punch heard round the world is what I call it. Just in case you forgot, here it is for you one more time…

I guess you knew what I was talking about even before I posted the video, but I was going for effect on that one.

Anyways, that, is what Colton Orr brings to the lineup. That, and not much else. He is a HORRENDOUS lateral skater, and a well below average skater when going in a straight line. He has no shot, has terrible vision, and generally his hits aren’t really all that note worthy since they happen after the fact (unless your name is Ovechkin…)

That, by the way, was an utter cheapshot, and I absolutely despise what happened there by Orr.

The problem is though, that while Orr brings almost nothing tangible to the ice, he still has a decent amount of potential with his size, and extremely coachable attitude. I dont know if there is a more coachable player in the entire Rangers system, except perhaps Lauri Korpikoski. Orr takes his benchings in stride, and apparently works his tail off in practice to make himself better. You gotta love that kind of an attitude, and we know for a fact that the players around him love him. Which leads us to the other aspect of Orrs game. Intimidation. As you saw in that first clip, if you fight Orr, you probably arent going to win the fight unless youre talking maybe Boogard, Laraque, or Huggy Bear (Donald Brashear). Orr has an absolutely devastating right hand, and if he could ever get his left to the same level, might turn into the best fighter in the league. These things add up to make Orr’s teammates play better.

It’s no coincidence that the Rangers play better when he is in the lineup. They feel they can play their game without fear of being run, or having to constantly keep an eye out for cheapshots. They know that if someone cheap shots them, Colton is going break a face. This is good. But it is not always necessary. More and more teams are going with Buffalos style of playing. They want to throw 4 lines at you that are threats. Fewer and fewer teams are keeping enforcers in their everyday lineup, or are using everyday players as enforcers. What this adds up to is a problem that Renney is going to face next year. Do you play Orr, or don’t you. How do you find the balance between keeping him in the lineup to protect the team, and keeping him in the press box for a better player. It’s a tightrope for sure, one which injuries to Hossa and Shanny moot for the bulk of last year.

My guess is, Colton Orr will play about 30-40 games this year, and will be replaced by Hugh Jessiman by next year, if not sooner. Hugh probably could play just as well as Colton does right now, and chip in more offense. Hugh is also a decent fighter, albeit nowhere near the level Orr is. My personal preference would be to play Hugh from day one, so we can keep the intimidation factor up, and still have a spot which can produce offense, or at the very least, sustained offensive pressure.

-Inferno

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