The rumor mill continues to churn this morning as the weatherman of reporters Bruce Garroich has yet another rumor involving the Rangers Matt Gilroy. I have no problem with Matt Gilroy rumors as he is clearly the odd man out in the seven man defense grouping with his number of healthy scratches and following playing every game when Michal Rozsival was injured only getting 5:14 of playing time last night in Rozsival’s return to the club. So now let’s get to the rumor and then I will look at what to make of it. The rumor, in this morning’s Ottawa Sun was as follows:
My thoughts inside.If the Rangers decide to go get a centre, and they’re expected to make a move for Richards before the trade deadline, they may deal D Matt Gilroy as part of package. The 26-year-old has a cap hit of $1.75 million and will be an RFA next summer. He’s been passed on the depth chart by Steve Eminger and Michael Sauer. Gilroy is young enough that he could bring return. GM Glen Sather can’t afford to wait much longer.
The idea of moving Gilroy as I said does not bother me and the idea of bringing a center back is certainly something to consider, though I would probably just rather have a decent draft pick if I could get one. The issue with this rumor is to say that Gilroy who is 26 and proven absolutely nothing in the NHL has enough value to bring a return of value or that he would in any way be anything important to a move for Brad Richards is pretty laughable. There is no doubt that he could be in a package but that would likely be more about the Rangers have to send some salary back then the Stars truly wanting Gilroy as a piece to the package. If the Rangers did acquire Richards it would take top end pieces not a guy who cannot crack their own top 6 on defense. As many of you know I am against dealing for Richards for a multitude of reasons as I laid out here.
As I said a more likely return for the Rangers would be a team taking a flier and giving up a draft pick or maybe someone of the caliber of Erik Christensen who has some talent but is an enigma in terms of producing with the talent. There will be teams willing to take that chance on the upside of a potential puck moving D who could help a power play if used properly, just do not expect a big value for a guy who the Rangers have spent the past 100 games destroying his value.
