The other issue that is making me laugh, cry and scream all at the same time right now in regards to the fans are the ridiculous trade proposals that make wouldn’t even get through in a video game let alone the NHL. Putting aside that we don’t even need Jason Spezza right now, the idea that Ottawa would trade their 27 year old star for some of the combinations I have seen is beyond absurd. Just about every proposal I have seen involves a mish mash of all the guys Ranger fans want gone or not to play already.
The main list of guys I have seen repeated have been: Christensen, Rozsival, White, Eminger, Gilroy, even Boogaard. Other than Christensen (low salary) and Rozsival I would bet that every one of those guys would pass through waivers, so let us not act like they have actual value. I understand why all the proposal sound good to other Ranger fans because they are ridiculously lopsided and at the same time are justified by propping up guys that we say should sit from our own lineup or are scratched by our coaches. You don’t get top line talent for a quantity of scrubs. It will take at least one NHL player with upside, young, reasonable contract, a top prospect (no Jyri Niemi doesn’t count), and probably 2 high picks.
If you really want Spezza realize you are going to have to give up a package that probably includes:
One of Callahan, Dubinsky, Girardi, Anisimov
One of Werek, McDonagh, Grachev, maybe even Kreider
A purely salary cap driven player to even salaries some (White, maybe Gilroy)
And some combination of 2 2nd’s; a 2nd and a 3rd; maybe a 1st and 3rd.
I know for some Ranger fans Girardi and Dubinsky are underachievers and get offered up in trades all the time and it is treason to even mention Callahan’s name. If I was Ottawa and got offered Anisimov/Dubinsky plus Werek and 2 2nd’s I take that deal in a second. Personally that price is way too high for me to get Spezza as talented as he is, even though he is locked into a contract for the next 4 years after this one. Part of the reason for that is simply that he misses a lot of games. He has only played more than 68 games in 3 of his 6 full seasons, missing an average of 10 games a year. The other part is we are just starting to see the light at the end of the cap purgatory tunnel and throwing another 7 million dollar salary on top undoes a lot of the good we have done lately.
Realize between Gaborik, Drury, Spezza, Lundqvist, Rozsival, Staal, Girardi you would have 40.725 million committed to 7 guys with Dubinsky, Callahan, Anisimov definitely needing new deal and probably costing around 9 mil if all come back. Add in Avery, MDZ, Prust, Stepan, Biron (5.575 million total) and for those 14 guys you have already spent 55 mil of a 59 mil cap depending on which regular was dealt to get Spezza.
Realize between Gaborik, Drury, Spezza, Lundqvist, Rozsival, Staal, Girardi you would have 40.725 million committed to 7 guys with Dubinsky, Callahan, Anisimov definitely needing new deal and probably costing around 9 mil if all come back. Add in Avery, MDZ, Prust, Stepan, Biron (5.575 million total) and for those 14 guys you have already spent 55 mil of a 59 mil cap depending on which regular was dealt to get Spezza.
The main reason for my objection other than the cost in players and cap space is my simple belief that we DO NOT NEED Spezza or Brad Richards on this team. We have Anisimov and Stepan to be the top 2 centers of this team and for once it would be nice if the Ranger fans who cry about wanting the young guys to play and not to have such high salaried guys would be happy when we have cheap young guys playing big roles instead of searching for the next “big name” to come here. Appreciate the fact we have a top 2 set of centers that are 22 and 20 and make a combined 1.697 million dollars this year. Will Jason Spezza score more points per game than these two this year and probably in future years? The answer to that is probably yes, but he wont score enough to be worth 4 times this year and 2-3 times their combined salaries even after they get raises while Spezza is still under this contract.
If you want to discuss the merits of move I am all for that, but let’s do it in a way that considers all the facts in terms of what we have, what the incoming person would bring and a realistic assessment of what it would cost, not just what we would like to give away for the person.
Link to post on Anisimov, Stepan and Search for Centers: http://bleedingallblue.blogspot.com/2010/10/search-for-elusive-top-flight-centers.html
Link to post on Anisimov, Stepan and Search for Centers: http://bleedingallblue.blogspot.com/2010/10/search-for-elusive-top-flight-centers.html
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