Over the years New York Rangers GM
Glen Sather has earned and taken a tremendous amount of criticism for the ways
in which he has tried to construct this team into a championship
contender. He has failed miserably in
the past by overpaying big names and hoping they could short circuit the actual
building of a team. Those plans took a
back seat over the past few years as the Rangers incorporated more and more
youth from their system, which along with key trades Sather made along the way
set a foundation for a season full of promise last year.
This summer the Rangers had to
lock down the young players that helped bring so much hope for the future and
add the elite piece they were missing to hopefully take the next step into a legitimate
contender. To open June Sather took advantage of the Calgary Flames issues signing young defensive prospect Tim Erixon by trading for a player who would have been a top-10 pick for the low price of two second rounders and prospect Roman Horak. Then, before free agency began, the buyout of Chris Drury created $3.33 million in cap space for the Rangers to sign their five key restricted free agents and go out and add other talent. The move to remove Drury goes beyond the money it saves, but also allows the Rangers to fully pass the leadership of the team to the younger core.
Now let us look at what has gone on the past week.
On July 1, Sather add Mike Rupp to help the team in the toughness department as he can fill some of the role Derek Boogaard was expected to fill before he passed away. He also brought back an underrated and underappreciated piece of the Rangers successes last season in Ruslan Fedotenko. Fedotenko is not a great offensive player by any stretch, but he brings accountability and hard work to the ice every night. His presence was most felt by the club when he was out of the lineup and during the playoffs when he was likely their forward.
Now let us look at what has gone on the past week.
On July 1, Sather add Mike Rupp to help the team in the toughness department as he can fill some of the role Derek Boogaard was expected to fill before he passed away. He also brought back an underrated and underappreciated piece of the Rangers successes last season in Ruslan Fedotenko. Fedotenko is not a great offensive player by any stretch, but he brings accountability and hard work to the ice every night. His presence was most felt by the club when he was out of the lineup and during the playoffs when he was likely their forward.
On July 2, Sather got the
biggest fish in this year’s free agent pond to sign on to a 9-year, $60 million
deal that will see him spend the rest of his career on Broadway. The deal is a gamble in the length, but there
is no questioning he filled the void of adding an elite talent to the roster,
gave Marian Gaborik a number one center to play with and used the limits of the
cap system to his advantage by getting it for under market rate.
Yesterday Sather got to work on
locking in his restricted free agents with the early news that Michael
Sauer re-signed and then the reports that Artem
Anisimov also re-signed for two years.
Sauer and Anisimov are not the biggest of the restricted names the
Rangers have, but both are critical pieces to what this team is building. Sauer used his smarts and hard work to turn
himself from an afterthought into a key piece of the Rangers young and budding
defense corps. Sauer likely would have received more from an arbitration hearing so to get a lower price and multiple years was a good move.
Anisimov improved in year two, but the ceiling for him is still much higher, and after the other restricted free agents filed for arbitration he was the only one left eligible for an offer sheet. With other teams needing to reach the floor it is conceivable they would have thrown money at the potential Anisimov has and put the Rangers in a bind as to whether they wanted to pay that price. While they are not the big names, a day where you can sign a top four defender and a second line center, who are both 23-years-old, is a good day for an organization and continues the great month Glen Sather is having.
Anisimov improved in year two, but the ceiling for him is still much higher, and after the other restricted free agents filed for arbitration he was the only one left eligible for an offer sheet. With other teams needing to reach the floor it is conceivable they would have thrown money at the potential Anisimov has and put the Rangers in a bind as to whether they wanted to pay that price. While they are not the big names, a day where you can sign a top four defender and a second line center, who are both 23-years-old, is a good day for an organization and continues the great month Glen Sather is having.
This leaves Ryan Callahan,
Brandon Dubinsky, and Brian Boyle in need of contracts, but there is no reason
to worry on any of them because of their arbitration filings earlier this
week. All three cannot be targeted by
other teams and whether through deals before a hearing or an arbitration
hearing itself, all will have contracts by early August. The Rangers offseason has been a ringing
success to this point and while we don’t know what day the other three will
sign, it is all down to years and dollars now when they sign extensions with New
York. Right now it is hard to argue that
Glen Sather could be having a better offseason with how the chips have fallen. We also cannot overlook the way the draft has
improved with Gordie Clark, development through the system and the Rangers
giving chances to young players to prove themselves at the NHL level set the
stage for Sather to make the specific moves he wanted this summer.
It has taken Sather much longer than was anticipated to make this team into a potential contender, but now the time is here and for all the criticism he justly got over the years, he must also get his due for putting the team where it is right now. The organization took steps to give them chances to win now while reasonably locking down pieces for the future and possibly most important is doing both at the right prices.
