Over the past two summers the New York Rangers have had luck
with players coming to New York having something to prove with Vinny Prospal
and Ruslan Fedotenko respectively. Both
players came to New York on cheap one year deals and outperformed their salaries
in various ways. Can the Rangers strike
gold for a third straight season and find another player that is looking to
prove there is still more in the tank than many might think at this stage of
their career. One such player to
consider would Simon Gagne of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Gagne is someone that Rangers fans are very familiar with
from his years with the rival Philadelphia Flyers and has the skill to be a top
six winger on the left side and provide the Rangers secondary scoring. In his first season in Tampa, Gagne recorded
17 goals and 23 assists in 63 games.
Over an 82 game season that is a very solid 52 point pace, but that is
precisely issue with Gagne who cannot seem to stay healthy enough to play an 82
game year.
Over the past four seasons Gagne has missed a total of 103
games and only played more than 63 games once.
The most serious of those injuries going forward is the concussion
history of Gagne. Gagne has had
significant concussion and recently had another during this year’s postseason
so counting on him for production could be detrimental to the team over the
course of the season if he cannot stay healthy.
It is that injury history though that should make Gagne a reasonably
cheap option for the Rangers to take the gamble on this summer, if they so
choose.
Personally I would avoid Gagne this summer, but if the deal
is for one year at $2 million or less, then the Rangers could certainly do
worse than gambling on the potential upside of Gagne and the secondary scoring
he could bring.
