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Who, What, When, Where, Why…and…uhh…How much…

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

    Posted by inferno272 on Saturday, June 30th, 2007 at 9:00 pm.

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