Sunday, January 30, 2011

Rangers Recall Newbury, Grachev, Del Zotto. Good Move?


The CT Whale have tweeted that the Rangers have called up Evgeny Grachev, Michael Del Zotto and Kris Newbury.  The move is also listed on the AHL transactions page. 

The recall of Newbury was to be expected, but bringing back Grachev and Del Zotto are both surprising to me.  In terms of Del Zotto there are six guys who are all clearly ahead of him in terms of their play, so unless Girardi is not responding well to his injury, then MDZ should be sticking with the Whale and continuing to work on his game.  Grachev has been tearing up the AHL, but has not shown any real flash of being ready at the NHL level.  To further that, with the expected return of Callahan on Tuesday, Grachev is likely being called up for a fourth line role which is a mistake and will only further hinder his development to get 8 minutes a games instead of playing big minutes for the Whale.