The New York Rangers are an amazingly incompetent franchise. They're owners are borderline disabled, and Glen Sather seems to be preparing to write a first hand account of how not to run a hockey club. The old knocks on the rangers used to be "No shutdown defenseman, and no depth at center." Well...at least now we have depth. This season saw the Rangers roster include six centers (Boyle, Dubinsky, Christensen, Prospal, Drury, and Anisimov). The blue line also began to look more promising with the emergence of Staal as a textbook shutdown defenseman, and Girardi as a steady and intelligent player. The rookie season of Michael Del Zotto shows further promise for the corps in front of Lundqvist. There's a solid nucleus at the core of this New York team. That nucleus is surrounded by s***.
Here are the steps that the New York Rangers must take to fix themselves:
1. Demote Roszival and Redden.
There is a host of Ranger fans that seem to think that Michal Roszival is not a bad hockey player...These people obviously gouge their eyes to temporarily blind themselves before watching games. Roszival is a terrible hockey player. He does not use his body, he does not get in passing lanes, he's slow, he pinches stupidly, and he has no shot. Name something a good defenseman should do, and Roszival doesn't do it. Though he may try, effort does not make up for utter lack of talent. Redden, while not a good defenseman, is not the same level of detriment to the club. What is worse though, is his salary cap hit. Depending on where you look, Redden's cap hit ranges from six to eight million dollars a year. Roszival's is about five. Together, they suck the life out of the Rangers salary cap. With Staal looking to get a huge raise this offseason, the Rangers would do well to clear this cap off the books. With Jokinen gone, and Redden and Roszival in the minors, the Rangers now have cleared up sixteen million in cap space.
2. Sign Anton Volchenkov
Volchenkov is a shutdown defenseman that loves to block shots. Nuff said. The cap space cleared from Roszival and Redden getting demoted will allow the Rangers to sign him, greatly increasing the quality of the blue line. Signing him at four or five million is a good price. Volchenkov would be paired with Staal, which would form a formidable shutdown defensive pairing that could compete with any offensive line in the league. Seriously. With the checking line of Anisimov, Shelley, and Prust, this pairing could shutdown any teams top line. Volchenkov's shot blocking would also make life easier for Henrik. Del Zotto and Girardi would form the second pairing, and Eriksson and Gilroy would form the third. For those of you who don't know, Bobby Sanguinetti, a Ranger's first round draft pick, is often discussed in plans for next season, which leads us to our next step:
3. Trade for a First Line Center (Joe Pavelski, Please).
The Rangers need a physical, hard checking, fast skating centerman to center the Gaborik line. Christensen will take the left wing to provide play making ability, and Gaborik will provide the scoring. They just need a center that can add grit, toughness, and versatility to this line. Enter Joe Pavelski, God amongst Sharks. Joe Pavelski would do everything needed for this line, but there's a problem. He is an olympian, and a current Conn Smythe contender. Here's the good part, he's going to be an RFA. The Rangers need to wrestle him away from San Jose, but the price will be steep. Steep as in give up Dubinsky, Sanguinetti, and a pick. Now you may wonder, is this such a smart idea? Dubs could be a star, and Bobby could also be very talented. And the loss of Dubs would hurt the teams grit. But it's either him or Callahan. Another option would be Tomas Plekanec. He will be a UFA this offseason, and he should be relatively affordable. Good luck getting him to leave Montreal though.
4. Get Sean Avery Back to Being Sean Avery
This is fairly simple. The Rangers need his gritty, hard skating, agitating presence back. A return to form from the 08-09 campaign would be greatly beneficial to the team.
5. Stop Line Shuffling
Torts needs to let chemistry build, and stop shaking everything up every two games. In the middle of this season Christensen had an eight game point streak centering Prospal and Gabby. The question must be asked, how was this line not kept together for the rest of the season? Yes, Prospal got injured, however, the line should have been reunited after he returned.
6. Get Callahan to Score
Callahan is a great checking forward who skates hard on the penalty kill. He's also capable of scoring 25 goals a season. Get him there, secondary scoring is vital to this team virtually devoid of snipers (except Gaborik, of course).
7. No Free Agent Fiascos
Don't go signing older free agents. There are no quick fixes to rebuilding this team. Draft good players, bring up people through the system, and sign younger agents that will be part of the nucleus for years to come.
The Rangers have a long way to go, but doing some of these things should help them at least become a playoff worthy team again.
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