You have to hand it to the NY media for its ridiculously uninformed pipe-dreams concerning the Rangers’ ability to pluck any player of their choosing from any team in a cap-crunch. I don’t know if this perceived sense of power comes from the fact that Glen Sather was able to unload the abyss of Scott Gomez’s contract or if it’s simply the ego of covering the team that plays in the largest market. Lest we forget, it was Sather who gave Gomez such a horribly ill-advised contract and the Rangers are hardly a model franchise or desirable landing spot for most players.
It began with the much maligned Larry Brooks suggesting that the Rangers could do the Bruins a favor by taking Marc Savard and his $5 million salary off their hands. Brooks must spend too much time reading HFboards, since he seemed to think that a top-5 assist man would be available for Brandon Dubinsky. In essence, Brooks is talking like a retard fan – “we have the goal scorer (Gaborik), all we need is the setup man!” Under Brooks’s harried logic, the Bruins should actually being trying to acquire Ovechkin to take feeds on Savard’s wing. If unsigned Dubinsky yields Savard, then Ovechkin could be had for Dennis Wideman (a respectable player, but nowhere near the level of the other guy).
Then last week, as Phil Kessel’s contract dispute lingers, it was suggested by another Post writer that the Rangers and Devils need to hurry up and try to acquire him – either by trade or by extending an offer sheet. As the article notes though, the Devils have never expressed any interest in Kessel, but they need to dammit! Unlike the Rangers, the Devils could fit Kessel under the cap, but for some reason, Mark Everson is wholly convinced that Kessel is a top-line center (ignoring those two failed seasons as a center in Boston). Unlike the Rangers, the Devils don’t really have a need there, with Travis Zajac filling that role. Everson’s line of thinking is clear – “Kessel > Zajac” – except for the flawed premise of Kessel not actually being a center. He would certainly be an upgrade on the rightwing of Zajac and Parise, but his lax defensive play and lack of physicality would certainly not endear him to the New Jersey’s new coach – neutral zone trap master Jacques Lemaire. However, Everson is mostly talking-up Kessel as the missing piece for the Rangers, seeing him as a Gaborik’s center and even touting his *ahem* “defensive skills.” Forget the boneheaded wrongness of those assumptions, since Everson never considers that the Rangers have about $1 million in free cap space, still have to sign Brandon Dubinksy, who will likely get around $3-4 million, and that the Rangers lack the necessary draft picks that would have to be ceded to the B’s if Kessel chose to play in MSG. This barrage of nonsense must be bitterness resulting from Boston’s hosting this year’s Winter Classic (even though we all know next year’s will be in Yankee Stadium).
My response the the Savy for Dubinsky thing was “F*&# You no way.”