Everyone, myself included, believes you generally go with Best Player Available in a draft. You don’t draft for need, you draft whoever is the best player left on the board. So with all that said I am going to sound very hypocritical when I say I don’t particularly care for the pick of Michael Del Zotto from Oshawa. Why? Because we already have a better version of Michael Del Zotto from Oshawa, his name is Bobby Sanguinetti, from Brampton, soon to be Hartford, and shortly thereafter in New York playing along side Marc Staal.

While I havent seen Michael play, I have done some reading and looked at a few videos on youtube and looked at some stats, and heres what I have come up with…WE ALREADY HAVE A BETTER VERSION OF THIS KID IN OUR SYSTEM!! Bobby plays a better defensive game from all accounts (though certainly no Lidstrom, hes at least adequate in his own zone which Michael is not…yet), Bobby is a bigger goal scoring threat, and really, Bobby played on teams where he was the primary offensive attacking option on many nights. He was close to the top in terms of point production, ranking 3rd on his team where no player broke 100 points, Del Zotto was 5th on the Oshawa Generals team that featured 2 100+ point players, one of whom being 1 John Tavares, breaker of Wayne Gretzkys records. Looking at Del Zottos stats, you see that a lot of his numbers are from assists, not goals. Thats ok, most defenseman, and NHL players in general work out that way, but when you have a 1 man offensive blitzkrieg like John Tavares on your team, and you see 47 assists, you wonder how many of those are simply Michael passing the puck to Tavares, and Tavares going in and scoring all by his lonesome, and Michael picking up a point. All I am saying is, when I look at Del Zottos stats, and I look at Sanguinettis stats, Sanguinettis stands out more because he was looked at to be “the man”, Del Zotto didn’t have the same pressures if you ask me.

Secondly, the Rangers have a clear area of concern throughout the organization, THEY DO NOT HAVE A BRUISER! Del Zotto appears to be willing and able to make hits, but he isnt a Teubert, or Petrecki, or Orpik kind of a player who will murder players, THAT is what we needed. Maybe Del Zotto might have been the best player available, and maybe I have no right whatsoever bitching about the pick, but I see John Carlson on the board, and I read what I have read about the kid, and I have to ask myself, why the Rangers passed on a kid with so many tools, and who is capable of being that bruiser with some offensive upside?

This pick just does not make any sense to me. Who knows, maybe Del Zotto will combine with Sanguinetti to form a lethal power play pairing the likes we havent seen since Zubov and Leetch lit up broadway 14 years ago. Maybe Staal, Sanguinetti, Del Zotto, and Michael Sauer will be one of the most feared bluelines in the NHL in 4 or 5 years because of how versatile, and complete they are as a tandem. All I know is, if it were me, Del Zotto would not be the player I would have taken. I just think we could have done better organizationally. Maybe not better in terms of talent, but better for the organization.

For a guy who has been looking forward to this day for months now, I find myself quite disappointed.

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-Yep, I am already in NHL Draft mode. Still an hour to go. As usual, the live blog goes older posts at the top, newer posts on the bottom.

-Wow, Habs given permission to talk to Sundin. Man, I did no see that coming.

-Im going to grab some food before the draft starts, I’ll be back in 15.

-Wow, good trade there between the Kings, Ducks, and Flames. Looks like all 3 teams make out well.

-Tanguay to the Habs for #25. Great move for the Habs imho. They get more offense. Though that probably spells the end of Hossa to the Habs because of Tanguays 5 million dollar hit.

-Stamkos the consensus #1 on TV right now, but I gotta tell you, I think the biggest impact player will be Drew Doughty.

-Bettman on the stage, here we go…

-Panthers moved to the ‘Yotes for Boynton, Ballard and a 2nd rounder. IMHO TERRIBLE deal for the Panthers. They didnt get near enough for him.

-Shocking, just shocking, Stamkos taken at #1.

-Rangers shoulda beaten that offer for Jokinen. Hes an elite #1 forward who got traded for a bag of pucks. Unbelievable.

-HAHAHA, did you catch the way Duffy said Daigle?

-Kings are up, Im sure they will take Bogosian or Doughty.

-Doughty, what a great player. Kings got an elite player right there.

-Thrashers are up, Id take Filatov if I were them. I know they will likely go for Bogosian, but Filatov is the best player available right now, and those guys need to think about who is going to best help their franchise right away. Filatov playing with Kovalchuk scares me even thinking about it.

-Bogo to the Thrashers. Bad pick imho….well, not a bad pick, just not the right pick. Bogo is a superb player, but Filatov is the right player for that club.

-Blues on the board, Pietrangelo should be the guy.

-Wow, JD has aged a lot since becoming team president. I guess those responsibilities will do it to ya.

-Good pick for the Blues.

-Isles on the board, they would have to be on crack to trade the pick and give up the chance to get Filatov.

-Oh jesus, the isles are just the worst run club out there, unless somehow Filatov drops to 7.

-Like I said, the only way this one works out for the Isles is if Columbus passes up on Filatov and he drops to 7.

-My guess is Schenn.

-Well, getting 2 picks to move down 2 spots isnt all that bad I suppose.

-Another trade. Wow, Columbus overpaid a LOT to get Umberger.

-Columbus up, they should take Filatov IMHO.

-Filatov gone, Islanders just screwed up big time IMHO.

-Wow, yet another trade…Islanders move down 2 more spots again. Reminiscent of the Thrashers when they moved down to get Bourret.

-Here is where things get interesting. No idea who Nashville will take here.

-Colin Wilson, great pick for the Preds.

-Phoenix is up, id go with a defenseman here if I were them.

-Gretzky, the only guy who could get applause while taking a dump….fwiw, I still wear my Gretzky Rangers jersey while I watch games on TV.

-Well, looks like I was wrong. Don’t know much about this Boedker kid.

-Here come the Isles…I think they go with Myers.

-Nope, they went with Bailey. The 12th ranked player taken at #9.

-Canucks are up, RIP Bourdon.

-I thought for a minute that it might have been Beach there, which scared me. Kyle is someone I hope falls to the Rangers if Carlson and Teubert are gone.

-Chicago is up…F*** Beach is gone. DAMN IT.

-Kings dealt their pick to Buffalo it seems…

-Myers is gone. Good pick.

-Kings are on their way to becoming the Western Conference version of the Pens. Great drafting because of ineptitude.

-F***, F***, F***, F***, F***, F*** There goes Teubert….DAMN IT.

-Here come the Canes, only 2 more players im really interested in, Carlson, and Petrov.

-Nashville is next, were getting close to the Rangers picking…

-Looks like we have another trade…Ottawa and Nashville swap picks with Ottawa throwing in a 3rd rounder.

-Karlsson, I know many people had him falling to us in their mocks.

-Here come the Bruins, I think they may take Carlson here….ugh…

-Screw the Celtics, and that whole city. Whew, Carlson still on the board.

-Anaheim goes with the High Schooler…

-Here comes Nashville again…They will likely go with a goalie…

-Philly goes up, my guess, they screw the Rangers and take Carlson, while we take Del Zotto, a guy im not as high on as others…

-Here it comes…Wow, they went Sbisa, WOOT, Carlson is on the board! Dont blow this!

-Rangers take Del Zotto…Im not a super happy guy right now. Hes a good pick, I just liked what I heard about Carlson more.

-Rangers have a genuine NEED for a big time heavy hitting defenseman. they went and drafted a player whom we already have a better version of in our system. Im not very happy.

-Caps are up, Devils traded down. My guess is the Devils take Carlson just to piss me off.

-Caps take another Swede, Oilers up now…

-Oilers take Eberle, not that big of a fan of this kid.

-NJ moving down again…

-Minny take Tyler Cuma, interesting pick, not a big fan of converted players like this.

-Here come the Devils, and John Carlson

-”All our fans?” Puhlease, there are maybe 6 Devil fans across the world who are watching this. Wow, they took Tedenby. Excellent pick.

-Both Petrov and Carlson still on the board…Maybe trade up and grab em now?

-Nemisz taken by the Flames, pretty good pick by the Flames.

-Sutter, ever the talker. Buffalo about to make their pick, no idea who they are going with.

-Another midget player for an already small Buffalo team.

-Man, how many trades can you legally have in 1 draft?

-Ugh, there goes Carlson to Washington. Caps got themselves a heck of a player.

-Aaaand another trade. Phoenix on the board.

-Wow, Phoenix takes Tikhanov, a guy I hoped we could get in the 3rd round. I cant believe they traded up to get this kid. Hes an excellent player, but he dominated as an older player, but might be close to being NHL ready.

-Thrashers up here, I think they take a goalie…Uhh, who did they take? Leveille? Never heard of him.

-Detroit is up, and the first round will be over in a few…

-Detroit took a goalie. Interesting, I didn’t think they would with some pretty decent skaters still on the board.

That concludes the draft, Ill probably make a post on what I think about Del Zotto tonight. And I will be back tomorrow.

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I will be Live Blogging both days of the draft. So check in here if you want to be one of only 3 or 4 people pathetic enough to spend their Friday night, and all day Saturday talking about the NHL draft.

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The NHL draft will be taking place in just 4 short days. Usually I find myself knee deep in reading material on these kids, and this year is no exception. Although I would consider myself a prospect novice in most cases, I still read enough, and trust other peoples judgement enough to be able to couple that information with my own perceived needs and wants of the team I follow. With that said, here are my top 4 choices for the Rangers this draft:

1) Stay put, draft John Carlson. The kid has been a big time riser during the combine. Hes shown adult physical attributes, with still room to grow. He hits, he can skate, he can play offense, hes good in his own zone, he has all the tools to be an elite #1 defenseman. However he isn’t without risk. Every year there seems to be a player that comes out of nowhere, or who seems to have his value rise inexplicably only to fall back down to earth the moment hes drafted (Hugh Jessiman anyone?). I’ll admit, its risky, but I really like what Ive read about the kid, and Jess from Prospect Park speaks very highly of the kid, and we know what a prospect junkie Jess is.

2)If John is off the board at #20, as I expect him to be, draft Colten Teubert. Ive seen him go on mock drafts anywhere from 12, to 30, so there is a very good chance he could be there at #20. If he is, and Carlson isnt, take him. Hes a big time hitter, but doesnt have much offensive upside at all. Ive read comparisons to Shea Weber sans the heavy shot, which I am a-ok with. I want a kid who can punish other guys, and while John Carlsons overall game is quite appealing, Teuberts mean streak brings him up to #2 on my most wanted list.

3)If both Carlson and Teubert are gone, which is a pretty good possibilty, draft Kyle Beach if he drops as many expect. The kids attitude is in question, not his playing ability, and attitude is something the Rangers are very concerned with. Usually I prefer to pass on the head cases, but this kid may be the exception. Hes got size, hes got a chip on his shoulder, and hes got skill. He is injury prone as well, which is a little scary, but this might be one of those swing for the fences type picks, where he becomes the next Owen Nolan, or becomes the next Pavel Brendl. Time will tell.

4)If all 3 of those guys are gone, then trade down with Los Angeles, as the kings are likely trying to move up. If you can grab the 28th and 32nd picks from Los Angeles to move down 8 spots, you do it. With the 28th pick, id gamble and take Kiril Petrov. A kid who is likely to sink like a brick in this draft because of his contract situation. Im not entirely clear on what exactly his contract situation is, because I have read conflicting reports from many different places, but basically hes under contract (probably) for the next 3-4 years. He does (apparently) want to come and play in the NHL. Hes a power forward with tremendous skill, and willingness to power the puck to the net and can play either wing. We could also take a risk on Jared Staal, just because I know everyone loves the kid, and you might as well take a gamble on him with the thought that maybe you can entice one of his brothers to play here as well to play with the other 2 Staals. Tikhanov impressed the hell out of me in the juniors, and Id definitely take a risk on him with the 52nd pick. There are a few swedes as well who might be available in the 2nd round that drop because of the abundance of high quality north american players.

So there you have it. That’s what I would do with the draft.

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No, not because Michal Rozsival is scheduled to go under the knife which may bring him back into a price range the Rangers can afford, but because 28 years ago today, yours truly was unleashed upon the Rangers organization. Yep, it’s my birthday and I’ll cry post if I want to.

Not much on tap for me, and the only reason im even posting this is to actually direct you guys to a pretty well written mock draft by Jess over at PP. Check it out.

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I watched maybe 10 minutes of the Stanley Cup Finals. It didn’t interest me to see either of those teams win it, or lose it. Frankly, I didn’t care. It’s how I always am following the elimination of my team. I don’t like to see other teams play, it reminds me too much of how we lost, and the game is much harder to appreciate then. Regardless, congrats to the Detroit Red Wings. They won it, and they built their team the right way, on the fly, while always putting out a superior product year in and year out. The same can not be said about the Penguins, who owe their success thanks to a decade of losing, and some very lucky lottery balls to draft Crosby.

Now the Rangers offseason really begins. Looking towards the draft in a little over 2 weeks, I think we should go with whoever is the meanest, nastiest SOB defenseman available. I want a guy like Phaneuf, even if he doesn’t have the offensive upside. I want a guy who will level any player, at any time, and can fight, and can end careers. I know we have a shortage of elite offensive talent, but we also have an excess of wussiness. I’m ready to trim the fat.

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A lot of Ranger pundits, myself included (though I would definitely not call myself a pundit, more like a “dit”) have tried to deconstruct the Rangers and what they did wrong, and more importantly what needs to be done to fix it. I myself wrote up a ridiculously long article just a few weeks ago on what I felt was wrong, needed to be fixed, and how to do it. Well today I was surfing the Rangers blogosphere and came across this wonderful sentence by Sam Weinman.

The Rangers, meanwhile, were defined by sequences this season when they’d control play for minutes on end, not score, and then surrender a costly odd-man rush the other way.

Sam, buddy, pal, I bow to you. Basically that right there is exactly, 100% the perfect way to sum up what is wrong with the Rangers. Its not necessarily their style of play. Its not necessarily how retarded the coach can be, at times, its not necessarily the ridiculous contracts weve handed out….it all comes down to this very basic premise. The Rangers play their style, to control the puck, but simply do not score often enough, and time and time again, after controlling the play and having nothing to show from it, they find themselves down a goal or 2 because of odd man rushes the other way.

Sam, I couldn’t have said it better myself….and believe me, I HAVE TRIED!!!

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Rangers Review | Comments Off

First off, if you have anything pressing to do, or have to even slightly go to the bathroom, go do all that stuff before starting to read this post. Its going to be long. Dare I say, gi-normous. This is my armchair GM moment of the offseason (well, at least the first one) and I intend to flex some mental muscles and give a long post on why I want to do certain things, and my rationale behind it.

First and foremost, it is important we take stock of the situation the Rangers find themselves in right now. A ton of holes, some salary cap issues, and a whole lot of unanswered questions. I figure step 1 is to paint a nice clear picture of what we have, what we need, and what cash we have to work with. This is basically the math section, if you want to skip all of it, just scroll down to the next horizontal line…

Salary Bonuses applied to next years cap:$780,631
Jagr buyout applied to next years cap: $760,000

Total dead cap space next year: $1,540,631

Still under contract:

Forwards:
Scott Gomez: 7.357
Chris Drury: 7.050
Petr Prucha:1.6
Brandon Dubinsky: .633
Blair Betts: .615
Colton Orr: .537
Ryan Hollweg: .512
Ryan Callahan: .575

Total forwards currently under contract: (8) $18.879Mil

Defense:
Fedor Tyutin: 2.844
Marc Staal: .827
Daniel Girardi: 1.6
Christian Backman: 2.3
Thomas Pock: .667

Total defense currently under contract: (5) $8.238Mil. Not counting Thomas Pock:(4) $7.671Mil

Goaltending:
Henrik Lundqvist: 6.875

Total Goaltending currently under contract: (1) $6.875Mil.

Total Cap space spent including Thomas Pock: 35.532631Mil
Total Cap space spent not including Thomas Pock: 34.865631

UFA who need to be replaced:
Brendan Shanahan
Jaromir Jagr
Martin Straka
Sean Avery
Paul Mara
Marek Malik
Michal Rozsival
Jason Strudwick
Stephen Valliquette
Darius Kasparaitis
Andrew Hutchinson

RFA who need to be signed:
Nigel Dawes
Fredrick Sjostrom
Greg Moore
Pierre Parenteau
Ivan Baranka

Tentative Roster with Holes:

????????? - Dubinsky - ?????????
????????? - Gomez - ?????????
Prucha - Drury - Callahan
?????????- Betts - ?????????
Orr
Hollweg

Staal - ?????????
Tyutin - Girardi
Backman - ?????????
Pock

Lundqvist
?????????

Estimated Cap for next season: 56.1Mil

Estimated cap space remaining (including Thomas Pock): 20.56 Mil

Players who need to be signed or replaced of consequence:
Jagr
Shanahan
Straka
Avery
Dawes
Sjostrom
Mara
Malik
Rozsival
Valliquette

Total players needing to be addressed: 10

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Ok, so now that we know exactly what we have to work with, we have to decide on what we should do with this club. First and foremost I have decided to waive or trade Christian Backman, as well as Ryan Hollweg from the team listed above. I am electing not to replace Hollweg, and to go with a 22 man roster rather than a 23 man roster. This adds 2.812 million dollars more to work with, bringing the total cash we have to 23.372 to fill out our roster.

Ok, now we have to make our decision, how do we want to go with this team? Do we want to keep playing the “deferment” game we started last season, and pile more money onto next years cap? Do we try to bring back most of the players from last year in order to try to give it one last go with these guys before they ride off into the sunset? Well, I have been back and forth on this for a while now. The Jaromir Jagr question has bugged me a lot these past few days. Do we bring him back, or do we let him walk? There are pros and cons to each side of the argument. On the one hand, bringing back your best player is never a bad move. On the other hand, he is going to cost us a whole lot of bling, not to mention his puck possession style of hockey does not work for the rest of our core players, namely Gomez and Drury, who seem to be far more suited to an offense based off the rush. I don’t like the idea of once again going into a regular season with no clearly defined offensive approach, as Renney loves to simply let the players do whatever they want in their own zone, with no structure associated with what they do.

With all that said, I think we need to make 2 different contingency plans. Plan 1 will be if Jaromir Jagr is willing to come back for $5 million dollars, 3 of which is deferred to next years cap. Plan 2 will be if Jaromir Jagr is unwilling to come back for that amount. Since I plan on making them pretty similar lineups, I will post plan one, with details, then I will just post plan 2’s lines, without any explanation, since you can pretty much figure out what I am doing.

Now, we have Jagr on the first line right wing, we need a left winger for him. Before anyone says Marty Straka, let me just say. NO. Sorry, NO. If Jagr refuses to come back without Straka, then its time to cut the cord with both of them. I love what Straka does on the ice. He is tenacious, fast, responsible, etc. But what he is not, is worth the money he gets paid. We have a handful of players, especially Lauri Korpikoski and Freddy Sjostrom, who can play exactly the same way Straka does, at less than 1/3rd of the cap hit. My first line left winger is the guy who should have been the first line left winger in the playoffs. Sean Avery. He absolutely 100% MUST be back. My price for him is 3.5Million dollars. Leaving 8.5 Million dollars off the table for next year, but a first line finished. Total dollars still left to spend: 14.872+3Mil deferred=17.872 Mil

For the second line we have a problem. Scotty Gomez needs a winger who can score. He needs a guy who can take those passes he makes off the rush and puts them in the net. The first choice on the left side is obviously Nigel Dawes, the RFA. He made 496k last year, I think a bump to 1Mil even is a fair raise for the kid. On the right side, I say we go in a different direction and bring in some outside help. My pick? Kristian Huselius. Although he plays the left wing, I can see him sliding in just fine on Gomezs right side, while finally providing Gomez 2 guys who can keep up with him speed wise, and can shoot the puck and play his game. Estimated cap hit, 3Million dollars. The second line is now taken care of. 17.872 - 4Mil = 13.872 left

The 3rd line is a pretty easy line to fill. I’d keep it exactly how I have it listed there, Prucha Drury and Callahan. 3 guys who are tenacious, 3 guys who can skate well, and 3 guys who play a similar North American get pucks to the net, and shoot shoot shoot type of game. I know the general consensus among Ranger fans is that Prucha is done. I beg to differ. Give him regular time, and I think you will be surprised with what he can do. The 3rd line is taken care of, with no additional cap hit.

The 4th line right now reads Betts with no wingers. I say we finish with a trio of guys who can skate, play a nice cycle game, and all 3 are capable of putting in goals with no stone hands among them. Instead of going with a brute force line, or an energy line, I want a line that can help us win some games by either playing a strict shut down style, or by scoring. Putting Sjostrom with Betts and Korpikoski let’s you do just that. The 3 can all play all 3 zones fairly well, with Korpikoski gaining the experience to help him improve his game much like Dubinsky did last year when he started on the 4th line. I figure Sjostrom gets a raise from 775k to 1.25 mil, and Korpedos hit is 1 mil. 4th line is taken care of. Total cap hit, 2.25 additional. 13.872-2.25=11.622 Mil left.

Lets take care of the backup goalie situation since that is easy as hell to do as well. Bring back Vally, give him a modest raise from 617k to 775k. 11.622-.775=10.847 Mil

This leaves us with 3 regular defenseman we need to fill. I am going to assume Paul Mara enjoyed his tenure here enough to come back at a slight discount in salary because lets face it, he is not a 3 million dollar defenseman anymore. He gets 2 million, and if he won’t take it, we can sign any of a dozen unrestricted free agent defenseman who play an above average game. We bring in yet another kid to play on the 3rd pairing with Mara. I wanted to say it would be Baranka, but he signed with Russia, and may, or may not, even bother trying to make this team. It will be either him, or Potter. Let’s assume the bigger cap hit gets applied, which is roughly .525Mil leaving us with 1 defenseman to fill and 8.322 million dollars to spend. Now here is where one can easily say we should have spent the cash on Marian Hossa. And I can understand that. Spend on a guy who is easily worth that kind of money, and build a franchise for the long term. But we will come across the same problem that has plagued this team since the lockout. No puck moving defenseman. Nobody on the team from the back line that can genuinely scare the crap out of the opposition with their offensive skill. Nobody to lead the charge from the back line on the futile power play. Not to mention a blueline that desperately needs a little bit of high end depth to work with. I say we go for it and sign Wade Redden. Why not Campbell? Because I feel he will get at least 7 million bucks on the open market, and I do NOT want to have another 7 million dollar contract on my hands. I think Wade Redden is just the guy we need, and although we have heard a lot of crap about him since Chara left, I still feel he is an elite defenseman who is just in a funk and needs a change of scenery. Wade made 6.5Mil last year coming off of a statistically low year for him. I think he can be had for 5.5-6.5 mil, and although that is a lot of money, I like my chances with him. Give him no more than a 5 year deal (taking him till he is 35 years old), and call it a day.

Final Roster:

Avery - Dubinsky - Jagr
Dawes - Gomez - Huselius
Prucha - Drury - Callahan
Sjostrom - Betts - Korpikoski
Orr (For teams with legit heavyweights)

Staal - Redden
Tyutin - Girardi
Mara - Baranka/Potter
Pock

Lundqvist
Valliquette

Now, if we can’t bring back Jagr, I think we go in a different direction. Bring in Ryan Malone for 4.5Mil, and bring in Brooks Orpik for 4 Million (Yes, the cap works, and there is no money being rolled over).

The lineup would be the same, except Orpik in for Redden, and Malone in for Jagr.

Whew, is there anyone still with me? Probably not, but in case you are, thanks for reading this. I plan on leaving this post up for at least a week, which will likely give you just enough time to read it from start to finish.

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