New York Rangers
If soon-to-be ex-Rangers center Michael Nylander had accepted the club's three-year contract offer several weeks ago, this day might have been a lot different for the Blueshirts.
Instead of trying to please Nylander, who had been a nice fit with Jaromir Jagr, GM Glen Sather decided to go big-game hunting. A little more than six hours into free agency, he bagged Scott Gomez (seven years, $7.36 million cap hit) and Chris Drury (five years, $7.05 million).
Gomez figures to work on a top line with Jagr. There is some irony in that because it was Gomez that Jagr was trying to hit (in the first game of the 2006 conference quarterfinals series between the Rangers and Devils) when he suffered a shoulder injury that required surgery to repair. Now, Gomez will be looking to hit Jagr … with passes.
Drury fits as a perfect all-purpose No. 2 center. Rangers coach Tom Renney likely will be spending hours thinking of all the ways he might use Drury.
Sather will have to figure out a way to get his key unsigned players (restricted free agents Henrik Lundqvist, Sean Avery and Petr Prucha and unrestricted veteran Brendan Shanahan) into the fold and under the cap. Remember, teams don't have to be totally cap-compliant until opening night. Between now and then, clubs can carry a payroll of as much as $55M. Sather didn't sound too worried about it Sunday night.
"We've calculated it out," Sather said. "I think we can get it done."
The Rangers might want to see about trading for another defenseman. Right now, they seem a little light in that department, even with the likely promotion of young and highly touted Marc Staal from the junior level.