The 2010-11 New York Rangers were a team built around a
young core with very few “veterans” on the roster. By the time the season ended the team only
had six players that were over 30-years-old left around the team. The question right now is other than Martin
Biron, who is under contract for next season, will any of them survive the
summer and still be Rangers next year or will the organization go even younger
in building around their core.
Andrew Gross at the Bergen
Record doesn’t seem to think that any of captain Chris Drury, left wing
Vinny Prospal and Avery will be back.
“Listening to John Tortorella, you got the strong feeling captain Chris Drury, left wing Vinny Prospal and Avery had played their last games as Rangers. The coach, of course, doesn’t have final say but it will be no surprise if Drury is bought out, Prospal not re-signed and Avery somehow moved, through a buyout, demotion to the AHL or trade. Avery does have a full no-trade clause from July 1 to Aug. 14, otherwise he can list 10 teams he wishes not to be dealt to.”
Add to that the certain departure of Bryan McCabe that would
only leave Ruslan Fedotenko as possibly returning to join the over 30 crowd
with Biron. None of the names that Gross
mentions are surprising in possibly being gone next season. There has been talk about a Drury buyout for
months given the $3.33 million the team can save making the move and the
albatross that is contract compared to what he currently brings the team. The idea of the Drury
buyout is something that was discussed here back in January and I fully
support the move, but much like the Redden demotion last summer, until it
happens I will not be banking on that money.
There is still a lot of respect within the organization for Drury and
buying out the captain of your team is never an easy move to make.
Prospal is an interesting case to make to stay or go because
despite his injuries this year he was productive when on the ice. In 29 games this season, Prospal scored nine
goals and had 14 assists to give him the second highest point-per-game average
on the team (.793), trailing only Ryan Callahan. There were times where the amount of struggle
Prospal was having to skate was painful to watch and showed how bad the knee
might really be, but his experience and guile allowed him to get by and
produce. In addition it is impossible to
understate the value of his attitude and work ethic around a young group of
players.
In terms of Avery, despite his playoff performance, there is
no surprise he would be on the list of players potentially headed out of
town. He was ineffective for much of the
year because of the style he was playing at.
The skill level is still there to be an effective distributor and so is
his ability to agitate, but it was his reluctance to play the agitating role
this season that caused a decline in his effectiveness. Where Avery is concerned, I think the most
likely scenario is a demotion to the AHL because a buyout to eat some, even if
only marginal cap space makes little sense for the Rangers when they could send
him down for nothing. It is unlikely
that given the issues he had in Dallas, and the decreased effectiveness of his
game that someone would trade for him, but it is certainly possible someone
would take the risk for a cheap price and have the ability to send him down
themselves.
The Rangers have been transitioning to more homegrown players over the past few years and if these three, along with McCabe are shown the door it will open more spots for youth, but at some point there also have to be some veterans sprinkled in around them. Then again, much of the Rangers core has been around long enough that despite their status as being under 30-years-old they are veterans of the league.
