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Bruce Garrioch conveys in the Ottawa
Sun that Los Angeles Kings GM Dean Lombardi called the New York Rangers to check
on the availability of sniper Marian Gaborik.
To be clear it was the Kings who called the Rangers, so this should not
turn into a story of the Rangers shopping Gaborik because they are not doing
so. I am not usually a believer in
Garrioch rumors as he is as bad as some of the others who will not be named,
but the fact that this call would have taken place makes a lot of sense to me.
This is a scenario of LA who has been looking for a top
flight winger for multiple seasons with no success trying to see if the Rangers
are willing to shop their immensely talented, but underachieving scorer. I am scared to say that I agree with Garrioch
twice in the same column, but I do when he looked at it from the Rangers side.
It’s doubtful New York — which is also fighting to stay in
the playoff race — would deal one of its few offensive weapons unless Sather
receives a tremendous offer from Lombardi.
Despite his struggles this season, the Rangers position
makes moving Marian Gaborik extremely unlikely unless they get something
significant that can help them right now.
Gaborik showed against Toronto what he is capable of with his four goal,
five point performance and there is a premium on guys who can have those kinds
of nights. Unfortunately for the Rangers
he has not had them consistently and has since gone back to the invisible
stage.
The thinking for Lombardi
has to be that if he pairs Gaborik with a playmaker like Kopitar then the
magical version of Marian will stick around and help carry their club. It is much the same thinking the Rangers fans
have about adding Brad Richards to the Rangers either via trade or this
offseason in free agency. If Glen Sather could get a package that
starts around Dustin Brown then he should start listening intently as I feel
Brown would be a perfect fit for this system and is locked up at a very
reasonable rate for the long term. I
doubt that LA would be willing to move Brown, so in the end this will end up as
one GM doing his due diligence in checking on the possible availability of an
asset to help his club and the other informing him Gaborik is staying put.
