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Good Morning New York Rangers
fans and for many it is a good morning indeed to have woken up to realize that
the trade yesterday of Michal Rozsival for Wojtek Wolski was indeed something that
actually happened and not a dream. As
with most things that seem too good to be true the night before there is the
next morning where you find out it was really as good as it looked the night
before and we have arrived at that point on the trade. The elation for Rangers fans in removing
Rozsival from New York as Jim Schmiedeberg on
Blueshirt Banter Radio (which you should all be listening to)
last night meant that they did not care if Wolski turned out to be a Polish
Sausage it was well worth the move. That
is the prevailing sentiment and I cannot fully disagree but let us ask if we
are getting a true player that can help lead a run or another Zherdev ending up in the doghouse? The answer is no one really knows, but that should make it fun to watch.
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound winger
was a first round draft pick of the Avalanche in 2004. He spent nearly five years
with the Avs before they traded him to Phoenix last season in a deal for
another talented but underproducing forward in Peter Mueller. In his time in
Colorado, Wolski, put up some spectacular numbers. In his first full season,
Wolski recorded 22 goals and 50 points in 76 games played. Following that season the expectations for
him to take the next step as a star were high, but over the following two years
the growth was not there and he appeared to have stagnated.
On pace for similar numbers last
season, though slightly improved the trigger was pulled on the trade with
Phoenix and he exploded for them netting 18 points in only 18 games. His strong play continued in the playoffs
where he put up a line of 4-1-5 in the first round playoff series against
Detroit.
Those things caused him to
received his two year contract this summer at 3.8 milllion per and have
expectations once again increased that he could repeat or exceed the 65 points
he put up last season, but that did not happen this season.
Every knock you read about
Wolski involves something that can surely be a problem here in New York which
is concerns about his effort. I have not
actually seen it yet, but the summation of the descriptions would lead you to
believe the adjective “enigmatic” is not far off in describing this talented
but inconsistent 24-year-old who has the skill of a first liner and even the
production at times but at others cannot get out of the doghouse. How exactly is that going to work with a
coach like John Tortorella who has been known to love putting people in and
never letting him out of the doghouse?
The most common name thrown out
there in the last 18 hours to describe Wolski is that of Zherdev and we all
know how that went once Torts took over the Rangers. Tortorella appears to have mellowed to some
extent since then but do not mistake that for going softer or less inclination
to lock Wolski down and throw away the key if he does not play the system. Wolski skill or not will be required to
backcheck, forecheck and overall play hard consistently. The fact that Dave Tippett who has similar
standards if not a similar external approach to Tortorella had issues with
Wolski is a red-flag on the move.
I think the key for this move is
not really Wolski himself or Tortorella but the Rangers team as a whole because
when you walk in that room and you are surrounded by the likes of Prust,
Dubinsky, Callahan, Boyle, Fedotenko and you watch the way they play the game
on both ends of the ice you feel a little more compelled to chip in that
way. Along with that I believe the room
beyond Torts demands that kind of energy and effort which can be a very good thing
for a player like Wolski.
In the end the prize you picked
up the night before might not be as sexy as you thought it was the night before
but it does not have to be because you eliminated a much uglier entrant from
the competition hoping to mold this one into a prize. Reality states that even if all Wolski ever
is for the Rangers is Zherdev 2.0 every single Rangers fan signs up for the
idea of dealing Rozsival for that and the upside makes this while still a roll
of the dice, one worth throwing your chips in on. I for one am betting that at least in the short term the light clicks for Wolski and the Rangers get a piece crucial to making them a contender.
