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| Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images |
There
is a little over a month left until the frenzy that is free agency begins and
the New York Rangers will certainly be looking for offense when the market opens on July
1. The fact that Brad Richards is going to be the number one priority
outside of the organization is not surprising, but there are other ways the
Rangers can help themselves in the free agent market. With the Rangers
offensive inconsistency much of the focus has been on how the team can sign
forwards to give the team more scoring and there has been a look at Brad Richards fit for the Rangers already. However, as the playoffs have
shown, offensive help can come from the defense as well. There are numerous viable
defenseman that could boost the Rangers scoring from the blue line for next
season available in the free agent market. One such player is James
Wisniewski as he can score for himself, facilitate for others and maybe most
importantly add to the anemic power play the Blueshirts have possessed.
At
first it might seem strange to look into spending significant money on the
Rangers defense having an excellent top four as the Rangers do, but the unit
severely lacks offensive threats right now. As a whole the Rangers defense only
accounted for 27 goals and 106 assists in 494 combined games played this
year. The defensive core is one that is
built around the four shutdown defenders they have and there is no questioning
that the Rangers defense is set at four spots with Marc Staal, Dan Girardi,
Ryan McDonagh and Michael Sauer all entrenched and under 28-years old. Having
four defenders who are that good defensively is a great luxury for the
organization, but it still needs to have some threats to score from the back
end of the ice.
While
the hope is that Michael Del Zotto will rebound from a subpar sophomore season
and reclaim his spot permanently and add a puck-moving defenseman to the
excellent defensive guys they already have, it is tough to rely on that
happening right now. Signing a Wisnewski, especially since he plays the
right side, would not limit Del Zotto at all and would only add to the Rangers
flexibility. Wisniewski could either be used as a third pair player
leaving the current top four together or be paired with a Ryan McDonagh, thus
allowing coach John Tortorella to use Michael Sauer as a safety net of sorts
with Del Zotto next year.
Wisniewski
is coming off a career year in which he scored 10 goals and had 41 assists in
75 games, which were split between the Isles and Montreal this past
season. The 51 points would have ranked Wisniewski second on the Rangers,
behind only Brandon Dubinsky’s 54 for the 2010-11 season. More important
than the overall numbers was what Wisniewski did both on the power play and
when he was surrounded by better talent following the trade. Wisniewski
put up seven goals and 22 assists with the man advantage while no Rangers
player, forward or defenseman, had more than 16 total points on the power play.
Wisniewski’s power play points alone would have tied him for second among
defenders on the team with 29 points, two behind Dan Girardi.
With
the NHL salary cap potentially increasing to as high as $63.5 million it is
possible for the Rangers to sign Wisniewski in addition to Brad Richards and
dramatically reshape their power play this summer. Having Richards at the
left point and Wisniewski on the right point would give the Rangers a dangerous
pairing and allow the forwards to have tremendous space down low to work.
The moves would also allow Del Zotto to gain experience working the power play
without the pressure of having to be the man running the first unit.
Signing Wisniewski for $4-4.5 million would lock down the Rangers defense for
years to come and give them an excellent balance of bother shutdown defenders
and offensive threats assuming Del Zotto returns to form and the gradual
addition of offense to the others.
