Because he’s binged and purged more players then any other GM in Ranger history!

After today’s dealings, Sather has managed to purge the Rangers of every post lockout veteran except Henrik Lundqvist. While today’s signing of Ales Kotalik for 3 years at $3 million per year doesn’t exactly constitute a binge, Sather has most assuredly purged Nik Zherdev from next season’s roster. Frankly, I think Sather made the right decision. I have grown weary of having players on the Rangers who are oft described as “enigmatic”.

In an attempt to garner more players for John Tortorella’s run and gun scoring style of play, Sather has disassembled what was one of the best penalty killing units in the NHL. Gone are Sjostrom and Orr. With the signing of Brashear, one can only assume that free agent Blair Betts will not be made an offer to return. Now the question remains whether all the new additions to the Rangers can score enough goals on the powerplay to make up for what might be a much diminished penalty kill.

I suppose it makes life more interesting getting to know all the new boys, their styles of play, their personalities. I wonder if any other team has experienced such a total turnover of personal in the last four years. I remember being at the Nassau Mausoleum and phoning in the player numbers to the HockeyRodent so he could keep the fans informed about the 2005-2006 Rangers. Now, I’ll have to memorize a whole bunch of new numbers but this time I can text them to his Rodentness.

Let’s pretend today is the first day of the preseason. Who could we be seeing in September?

Ales Kotalik RW
Marian Gaborik RW
23 Chris Drury LW
Chris Higgins C
16 Sean Avery LW
Matthew Gilroy C
Donald Brashear LW
34 Aaron Voros LW
Artem Anisimov C
Nikolai Zherdev RW RFA*
29 Lauri Korpikoski LW RFA
17 Brandon Dubinsky C RFA
24 Ryan Callahan RW RFA*

6 Wade Redden D
3 Michal Rozsival D
5 Dan Girardi D
Bobby Sanguinetti D
Michael Sauer D
18 Marc Staal D

30 Lundqvist G
40 Valliquette G

Save for Chris Higgins, that’s a whole lot of right wings and centers and not many left wings. Dany Heatley is still out there but I doubt Sather has enough cap space to make that happen without unloading Rozsival and sacrificing youth. Sather has used restraint and held on to the youths. Let’s hope he can add more finesse to the top left and keep the kids, too.

Who knows how many more moves Sather will make before training camp opens?  At least it’s comforting to know that Sather isn’t in a river somewhere casting a line. He might finally be earning his keep.

And so, as Dany Heatley jerked the chain of the Senators and the other teams that would take on his headache, Glen Sather needed to bust a move on a pure goal scorer. After all, there’s fly fishing to be done and the quicker the free agent signings go, the faster Sather can slither into his hip waders. But I digress.

So Sather makes the other Marian an offer he can’t refuse and, viola, a big part of Sather’s job is done. Like everything Sather does, this signing could be minimal reward and maximum risk. After all, Glen’s giving Gaborik $250,000 more per year for the next five years then was committed to Gomez. Where’s the money going to come from to get a first pair defenseman? And while the length of the contract is not unmanageable, Gaborik has proven so far to made of glass. Glen’s a gambler. 

Notwithstanding what could turn out, barring injury, to be a decent signing, Sather defies our imagination and probably makes his worst signing so far as the Rangers GM. What in God’s name is Sather thinking, letting Colton Orr go and signing the filthiest goon of all time, Donald Brashear? I know the Rangers need a new player rep for Ice Hockey In Harlem now that Gomez is gone but this is ridiculous. I honestly think the Brashear signing is worse then Redden. Brashear will take more stupid penalties then Ryan Hollweg with about the same offensive upside as Hollweg.

I understand that with Pronger now in Philadelphia all the Atlantic Division teams had to up their enforcer quotient. I would have rolled the dice with a fan favorite like Orr rather then the most despised goon in the league. I guess Sather really isn’t going to resign Blair Betts now. How could he after what Brashear did in the playoffs? Brashear is more hated then Bobby Clarke, Dave Schultz and Ken “the Rat” Linesmen were in their day (curiously all Flyers). Donald Brashear is unworthy to wear the Ranger uniform

Surely more shoes are going to drop  as Free Agent Frenzy continues. But, in signing Brashear, one has to think a shoe was dropped on Sather’s head. It’s always one step forward and two steps back with the Glen Sather Side Show.

What the ramifications may be of having $7 million dollars more in cap space for tomorrow’s free agent free for all is anyone’s guess. Apparently, Ottawa isn’t going to move Dany Heatley before midnight to the Rangers. Sather, upon announcing the Gomez to Montreal deal, said he was done for the day. Time for a well deserved cigar.

All the qualifying offers Sather intended to make seem to have been made. How much money he’s spent is not known. How much cap space remains to sign a Gaborik or a Hossa or any other available free agents is also not known. What I do know is that Sather probably isn’t finished yet with the wheeling and the dealing.

Don’t get me wrong. I still think Sather needs to retire. But today, you done a good thing Glen, a real good thing. You wished Gomer into the cornfield and now he’s gone. 

Maybe Sather still has something left in the GM tank after all. Perhaps, after this deal, it’s Bob Gainey who is suffering from GM senile dementia. Say what you want about him but Sather is never boring. I can’t wait for noon tomorrow.

Eric and Vlad from HockeyRodent’s messageboard have rightly corrected me. Player contracts in Hartford are two way. The numbers shown below are only paid should those players perform at Madison Square Garden. In actual fact, these players make a fraction of the salaries shown below whilst playing in Hartford.

Still, it’s not the actual pay out, it’s the thought that counts. The idea that Corey Potter’s check was close to Cally’s when he was called up to play on Broadway is the point. The idea that Pyatt would make more money per diem then Dubinsky is the point.

We learned to today from Steve Zipay that Glen Sather extended qualifying offers to Dubinsky, Callahan, Korpikoski, Potter and Boyle.  The minimum offer tendered has to be a ten percent increase to keep some of these players over the $660,000 minimum. 

Brandon Dubinsky ($633,333), Ryan Callahan ($575,000) and Potter ($535,000) all earned less than $660,000. The minimum raise they are due to receive is 10 percent. Boyle, obtained Saturday from Los Angeles, earned $750,000 and is due a five percent hike. Lauri Korpikoski, at $1.017 million, had to be matched.

Their numbers have yet to be revealed but  offering 10 percent over the pittance Dubinsky and Callahan made last year would be an insult. They have the right to reject Sather’s qualifying offer, rendering them free agents. If Sather dissed me and offered the minimum, fersure I would tell Sather to take his offer and stuff it.

To put this into perspective let’s look at the salaries of some of the players in Hartford this past season:

Anisimov 821,667
Sanguinetti 855,000
Potter 542,000
Zaborsky 653,333
Sauer 846,667
Pyatt 850,000
Dupont 850,000
Hiller 750,000

With the exception of Zaborsky and Potter, the Hartford players all earned more this season then heart and soul players like Dubi and Cally. Giving them a qualifying offer is meaningless. Sather would have to have offered each of these players in excess of a million to keep them sweet, maybe more.  If he doesn’t keep them, the fan base will place his balls in a vice from which I hope he cannot wriggle out.

If Sather’s is doling out the dollars to keep the fan’s favorite kids, where’s the money going to come from to get a goal scorer and a first pair D man? Will we get the numbers before Wednesday? Or,  do we just assume because of Sather’s cap constraints and bad contracts the Rangers won’t be players in the free agent action come Wednesday?

To add insult to potential injury, apparently Colton Orr is not going to be resigned. If I had any scoring talent, I wouldn’t want ot play for the Rangers without a resident enforcer. Every single skill player in the Atlantic Division is quaking in their skates since the Flyers dealt for Pronger. I guess Sather thinks Wade Redden is going to stand up to Pronger.

Sather has treated the Rangers like a Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. It’s just too bad the Ranger fans can’t sentence Sather to 150 years in retirement.