Blueshirt Boggle

Christmas in July

A public appearance by Jaromir Jagr at an exhibition beach volleyball tournament prompted an interview with the Ranger captain by the Czech newspaper Pravo (online at Novinky.cz) which covered Jagr’s workout schedule and his feelings about the Rangers’ summer roster moves. “The truth is,” Jagr said about the signings of Chris Drury and Scott Gomez, “GM Glen Sather brought Christmas in the middle of the summer. The Rangers had to sign a centerman, so they had to embellish their offers a little, otherwise they would have no one. They hoped for one and they got both Gomez and Drury.”

Having had a couple of weeks to digest the departure of his friend Michael Nylander in favor of the two younger centers, Jagr had a different answer to the inevitable Nylander question than the one we’ve heard from him before. “From the long run perspective, it was the right decision because the additions are six, seven years younger than Nylander,” Jagr said. “The future of the organization will be built around them. Sometimes, one has to deal with things quickly. No one is irreplaceable. I don’t have time to cry about not having my centerman and I would only hurt myself [by doing so].”

Jagr diplomatically (and accurately) ducked the question of whether the Rangers are now favorites to win the Stanley Cup. “What I learned throughout my career is that names don’t win it,” he said. “The relationship [between players] is important to have good chemistry. If it’s bad, you can hardly get anywhere. When players sign such big contracts, there will be pressure. At the same time, they put pressure on themselves because they don’t want to be criticized in the papers that they don’t deserve the money. That was the problem with the Rangers six years ago -- a bunch of stars didn’t translate into points.”

He assessed the moves relative to the salary cap. “We are a team and every part is important,” he said about the Rangers still having to fit Sean Avery and Marcel Hossa under the cap (the interview took place before the Matt Cullen trade). “It’s the same thing as with human body where every organ is important. When you lose one, it’s a problem. The cap is $50 million -- there’s still some room. New deals came for players who aren’t top stars but got huge money. You don’t have to be that good -- you only have to be lucky. Many average players earn $4 million -- nobody expected that after the lockout. If a team signs someone to a long term deal, it can affect the team [as a whole]. You have to be sure that it will work out, because otherwise, you can ruin the team for a good three, four years.”

Jagr has been working out off the ice over the summer. “The workouts in hot weather are ideal for will,” he said. “It’s a good thing [too so] that I don’t put on that much weight -- although, I do have some extra pounds. But that’s normal. I go to my sister’s swimming pool and I work out in the water. It’s not about the length of an exercise, it’s all about the quality. In New York, I’m used to going to the pool prior to the game, stretching myself, it helps me. Other than that, I don’t like water much. I wouldn’t enjoy just coming some place and lying on the beach for a week.” But he is ready to get back onto the ice to prepare for next season. “Probably on Thursday,” he said. “I have a hockey school that started on Sunday. It will be certainly more pleasant than to potter around outside in the heat. Especially with this extreme weather [an unusually hot summer with temperatures around 100°]. Practice with children might not give me much, but maybe I can outplay them!”

That was just one of several of Jagr’s quips during the interview. Analyzing his ability at volleyball, he said, “Someone said I dove [for a ball], but I actually fell down. Anyway, the sun is burning the sand so I have to move even if I don’t want to.” On no longer being the highest paid player in the NHL, he said, “At least I won’t be hearing about it on every single occasion.” And on Nylander agreeing to contracts with both Edmonton and Washington, he said, “He probably wanted to become the best paid player, so he signed two contracts. Maybe he wanted to win the scoring title [by playing for two teams at the same time]. It would be a hassle, though -- he wouldn’t see those kids of his much.”

To see a video clip of Jagr playing volleyball and being interviewed in Czech, click here [WMV download]. More online versions of Jagr's interview in Czech, if you can read it, can be found at hokej.cz, iDNES.cz, and Denik Sport. Thanks again to DaTeL for a translation of the Pravo interview.

Local area reports today on yesterday’s trade of Cullen back to Carolina can be found in the Daily News, Journal News, Newsday, Post, Blue Notes, Rangers Report, NYR.com, MSG.com here and here, and NY Sports Day. More is available in the Raleigh News-Observer, AP, ESPN, and NHL.com, replete with quotes from Cullen about how happy he is to be returning back to the team he won the Stanley Cup with prior to coming to New York last season, and explaining his year with the Rangers as a learning experience in some areas (the penalty kill and face-off circle) and a disappointment in other areas (scoring).

Cullen, always candid and talkative, was expressing valid feelings about the trade -- a week ago, he shared equally valid feelings about staying in New York. The one thing we’d take issue with is his excuse about his defensive role -- he was Brendan Shanahan’s center for much of the season, failed to put up the requisite points, and had to be relegated to the third line as a result. Ultimately, given the need to clear cap space, the Rangers decided that Cullen, paid to be second line center, was too expensive to fill the role of third line center, and was a more tradable commodity than other Rangers who might be considered overpaid. It's just too bad the Rangers couldn't get players with more NHL upside in return, like the rumored Anton Babchuk.

Cullen Back to Carolina After All

The Rangers today traded Matt Cullen back to Carolina for defenseman Andrew Hutchison, prospect Joe Barnes, and a third round draft pick. In what is primarily a move to shed Cullen's remaining three years at $2.875 million out from under the salary cap, the Rangers also pick up a player in Hutchison projected as a power play quarterback, but who has yet to become an NHL regular at age 27 because of concerns about his defensive zone play and his lack of strength. Barnes, 21, is a center with size and offensive upside, but his first pro season last year was cut short after 15 games due to a major concussion.

It's the middle of the summer. The draft is over. The major free agent signings have been completed, and the salary cap depleted. And with practically no Ranger news to hold fans' interest, the response to our latest poll was in the thousands. The results can be interpreted two ways. With 80% of respondents split between standing pat and adding a defenseman, the remaining 20% want to dump a contract to create cap space. That contract is Marek Malik's. So do we throw those votes over to the "add a defenseman" camp, since dumping Malik would necessitate replacing him as our top defensive defenseman? Or do we throw those votes over to the "nothing" side of the ledger since they want to dump Malik but wait until the season starts to use the spending power freed up as a result?

Well, the question may now be moot with the news of the Cullen-Hutchison trade -- a contract other than Malik's was dumped, and a potential power play QB was added in the process, although the jury is way way out on Hutchison's ability to step right in, especially with Rozsival and Mara ahead of him. He will face stern competition from Marc Staal for a job, given his history.

The majority of the poll participation predictably came from the New York area, as well from expatriate strongholds like Florida and California, major hockey hotbeds in Canada like Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Vancouver, and even high profile cities around the world like London, Hamburg, Zurich, Vienna, Helsinki, Stockholm, and Prague where you'd expect a Ranger fan to hole up. But there were some surprises, from Malta and Morocco, to Israel and Armenia, to Hong Kong and Tokyo, to Oxford, England and Rathcoole, Ireland, to Kiev and Ceska Budejovice and the Italian Alps. Even on this side of the Atlantic, who would expect fans to check in from St-Ambroise, Quebec, Wynyard, Saskatchewan, Leavenworth, Kansas, Bon Air, Alabama, Abilene, Texas, Lake Yale, Florida, Newport, Oregon, Ashland, West Virginia, Franklin, Tennessee, Des Moines, Iowa, and Eau Claire, Wisconsin?

We're pretty sure who visited the site from Kiev, Tokyo, and Franklin, Tennessee -- our loyal subscribers in those hockey outposts. But for all you other Ranger fans in the New York metropolitan area, all across North America, and around the world, if you haven't yet discovered Blueshirt Bulletin, our monthly print publication devoted to the wide wide world of the New York Rangers, there is no better time than now to get with the program, as we head into a season where the Rangers are obviously going for the big prize. For the modest price of $30 a year for ten issues, with discounts for multi-year subscriptions (and additional postage costs outside the U.S.A.), you can get our unparalleled coverage of the Rangers and also help keep this web site going with its free daily updates and features. Click here to get more information -- we guarantee that you'll be beyond satisfied. Thanks!

For some online reading material to keep you going through these lean summer days: Hockey Rodent posted a long rant yesterday in which he remains skeptical about the Drury and Gomez signings and the readiness of our prospects. Leslie Treff reviews the Rangers' draft at Hockey's Future. Jim Schoenfeld goes "Off the Wall" at NHL.com. Even though we lost the game, John Rolfe (writing for SI.com) is on the mark with his choice of Game 5 of the 1984 playoff series between the Rangers and Islanders as the best (or at least one of the best) games ever played. Spector (who may have been the poll respondent from Prince Edward Island) reviewed the Matt Cullen pre-trade situation at FoxSports.com (timing is everything!), and Pierre Lebrun of the CP mentions Mike Peca as a possibility for the Rangers, though we find that hard to fathom.

Stan Fischler has an anecdote about John Ferguson's first day in New York at MSG.com as the centerpiece of his hommage to the recently passed Ranger GM-coach and noted NHL tough guy. "It was obvious that the media were aching for a change -- aren't they always? -- and I came in full of vim, vigor and vitality," Ferguson told Fischler about his first press conference after assuming the Rangers' helm. A mere thirty months later, New York was aching for another change, after Ferguson guided a Ranger team that had recently been a contender (and were quickly restored to contention after his departure) to three last place finishes. He traded away Rick Middleton in one of the worst trades in franchise history, he forced Rod Gilbert to retire because he was too soft, he exiled Billy Fairbairn because he was too soft, he drafted two other players ahead of Mike Bossy because Bossy was too soft, and he threw Ranger tradition out the window by changing the Rangers' uniform. We understand that it's poor form to beat up on a guy on the occasion of him losing his battle with cancer, but with everyone else singing his praises, all we remember is how he wrecked the Rangers as an opposing player and how he wrecked the Rangers as GM.

Blueshirt Bulletin Mid-Summer Poll

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Numbers Game

How's this for a double dose of class: Scott Gomez offered Blair Betts $10,000 for his #19. Betts gave him the number but did not accept the money. So Gomez donated the money to the Rangers' Garden of Dreams Foundation. All this according to a bit in the The Rumble in the New York Post. Also in the Post, in Larry Brooks's Sunday column, after the Brent Sutter lede, a couple of notes on Michal Rozsival's impending free agency next year and the increase in Ranger ticket prices. A review of the free agent season can be found today in both the Daily News and New York Times -- in the News, the three local teams are evaluated, with the Rangers ranking high compared to their suburban counterparts.

John Ferguson lost his battle to cancer yesterday (see the Toronto Sun). The NHL tough guy who tormented the Rangers as a player was GM-coach in New York from January 1976 to June 1978. Although he oversaw several of the darkest seasons in recent Ranger history, he was often given credit in hindsight for helping build the team that went to the Stanley Cup final in 1979 under GM-coach Fred Shero. And so he did, drafting Don Murdoch, Ron Duguay, Mario Marois, and Lucien Deblois. Unfortunately, he is also responsible for two of the biggest gaffes in Ranger history -- trading young Rick Middleton to Boston for aging Ken Hodge, and drafting two players (Duguay and Deblois) ahead of Mike Bossy because Bossy was supposedly too small for the NHL. A less heralded error in that same draft was taking Mike Keating in the second round ahead of John Tonelli -- Keating played one NHL game. He was also responsible for changing the Rangers' jerseys to the horrific shield design for two seasons, a change that thankfully was reversed after his departure.

Cap Clearance Can't Claim Cullen

Trade talks with Carolina that would return Matt Cullen to the team he won the Stanley Cup with have cooled now that Sheldon Souray has signed with Edmonton, according to the Raleigh News-Observer. The Rangers considered trading Cullen, according to the report, to clear cap space for Souray, but no longer need to do so. Yesterday, Cullen told the Post that he didn't want to leave New York and never told anyone that he would welcome a trade. With Souray off the table, the Rangers' summer roster appears set heading into training camp, the only open issues being new contracts for Sean Avery [pictured left, doing what he does best] and Marcel Hossa, both currently scheduled for arbitration hearings.

These three items appeared all in a row at Slam! Sports yesterday -- Alexandre Giroux signing with Atlanta, Lawrence Nycholat re-signing with Ottawa, and Jeff Taffe signing with Pittsburgh. Giroux played one game as a Ranger after spending two-plus seasons as a prospect in Hartford, having been part of the return in the 2004 veteran purge (coming from Ottawa with Karel Rachunek for Greg DeVries). He is playing for his second team in two seasons since leaving the Ranger organization as a free agent. Nycholat, signed by the Rangers as an undrafted free agent, played nine games in New York before the lockout. He too is with his second team since being allowed to leave Hartford as a free agent after a few seasons as a prospect. Taffe played two games as a Ranger the season before last after coming over from Phoenix in a trade for draft bust Jamie Lundmark. Pittsburgh will be his second team since the Rangers traded him back to Phoenix later that same season. (Lundmark, by the way, having played for four teams over the past two seasons -- Calgary and L.A. in addition to New York and Phoenix -- became a free agent last month when the Kings declined to tender him a qualifying offer and remains unsigned.)

Other moves involving marginal players forever enshrined in the Rangers' All-Time register: Chad Wiseman (six games as a Ranger) signed to play in Germany, Layne Ulmer (one game in 2003-04) is moving to Germany after one season in Finland, Mike Siklenka (one game in 2003-04) is back in Finland for a second season after two in Austria, and Paul Healy (four games in 2003-04) is going to Slovenia after two seasons in Scandinavia. Also headed to Slovenia is Alex Westlund, a goalie in Hartford and Charlotte last season who left to sign in Russia but is now Balkan bound. Jason Marshall, a nine year NHL veteran who signed with the Rangers as a free agent but never played in New York because of the lockout, has signed on for a second straight season in Germany.

Ranger draftee Dylan Reese, late of Harvard, is currently negotiating a contract with the Rangers, but is being offered less than he wants and is considering waiting until mid-August to become a free agent. Factoring into his decision is the Rangers' organizational depth at his position, defense (see the Harvard Crimson, scroll down to read about Reese). For more news from Hartford, see Bob Crawford's summertime update at the team web site. And at MSG.com, some horror show lookalikes that include a few Rangers -- how did they miss Marek Malik (aka Harry) and "Harry and the Hendersons"?

Recruiting Rangers for the Right Reasons

UPDATE (4:15 PM): The Souray watch is over -- he is reportedly going to Edmonton, per TSN.

Once, you could tell the difference between which players wanted to win and which wanted to cash in by which wanted to come to New York, where golden parachutes into retrement was readily available. The tables have turned. The Rangers are still giving out lucrative contracts left and right, but these days players are choosing the Rangers over richer offers from other teams because they believe they can win a Stanley Cup here.

New centers Chris Drury and Scott Gomez both chose the Rangers despite better offers elsewhere, according to one NHL insider, with Drury turning down offers from at least three other teams, including one that was more than $10 million richer. Brendan Shanahan and Henrik Lundqvist both re-signed for more than expected, but both made some accomodations to help the Rangers stay under the salary cap while not even listening to better offers they could have gotten elsewhere (although Larry Brooks of the Post takes a different view with respect to Lundqvist, whom he chastises for taking as much as $4.25 million).

And Sheldon Souray remains unsigned by the NHL at large because he badly wants to be a Ranger next season, according to two inside sources. Having turned down a multi-year offer from Montreal, he is said to be willing to come to New York on a one-year deal, so sure is he that the Rangers are on the cusp of bona fide Stanley Cup contention. The obstacle is of course the salary cap. To make room for what Glen Sather seems to believe is the last piece to the puzzle, Marek Malik's $2.5 million contract appears to be on the line -- he may end up in Hartford if Sather can't find any takers on the trade market, although Ranger coaches think highly of the maligned defenseman and may be pushing to keep him.

Another salary that can be shed to create more cap space is Matt Cullen's, who is reportedly front and center in trade discussions with his former team, the Hurricanes, according to both the Daily News here in New York and the Raleigh News-Observer in North Carolina -- having been happy there in the past, Cullen may very well be Steve Zipay's "player [who] has told friends he wouldn't mind being moved." One name mentioned in a potential Cullen trade is Anton Babchuk, a 6'5, 202-pound Ukrainian defenseman with offensive upside who is only 23 and has a qualifying offer just shy of $950,000 out there (he has not filed for arbitration).

Elsewhere, Jim Schoenfeld will shortly be named Ranger assistant GM, according to Bruce Berlet in the Hartford Courant today, as Mitch Beck deduced after talking to Schoenfeld at the NHL draft last month. He will retain the title of Hartford GM while Ken Gernander takes over as head coach. Hockey Rodent has a sidebar on changes in Russia's labor laws that could affect the ability of Ranger draftee Alexei Cherepanov to leave Russia, although not necessarily in an adverse way. To read more about Lundqvist, see the Journal News, Newsday, Record, NY Sports Day, and MSG.com (Sam Rosen here and David Kolb here). For more on Souray, see Spector at FoxSports.

Shanny Signed -- Lundqvist Too

With the Rangers loading up for a Stanley Cup run, key players are putting their money where their mouth is, taking one for the team in the checkbook to be part of that run. The Rangers just announced that franchise goalie Henrik Lundqvist has agreed to a one-year contract that will help the Rangers stay under the salary cap (John Dellapina was the first to alert us to this possibility in the Daily News this morning and is now confirming in Blueshirts Blog). This comes on the heels of yesterday's news that the Rangers agreed to terms with de facto co-captain Brendan Shanahan for next season (as first reported Dellapina in Blueshirts Blog).

Shanahan did his part by a) not playing the market against the Rangers, and b) allowing more than half his salary to come in the form of easily attainable bonuses that can be deferred to the following season's salary cap calculation if need be. While his bonuses ($2 million after ten games, $800,000 for making the playoffs) appear to be a lock from the warm cozy outlook of summertime, Shanahan is in fact taking a couple of risks -- one pre-season career-ending injury a la Pavel Bure and he's out $2 million, and given the Rangers' recent history of success when they load up to "win now", would you wager nearly one million dollars that they will make the playoffs? Of course Shanahan will play a big role in that, but still.

Lundqvist is taking even more of a risk in agreeing to a one-year deal for $2.5 to 3 million. He would not have been likely to get more than that via arbitration, but he did stand to get maybe double that as part of a long-term deal. But with more risk comes more reward -- come January, when contract extensions can be negotiated without affecting the current season's cap calculation, he will get an even richer long-term deal than he could have gotten by now, especially if he is once again vaulting the Rangers' no-name defense toward the top of the league's goals-against standings.

For more on Shanahan's signing, see the Times, Post, Newsday, Journal News, Sun, NY Sportscene, and NYR.com. At MSG.com, reaction from Sam Rosen here and David Kolb here. Also at NYR.com, an article on childhood friends Marc Staal and Tommy Pyatt, both now striving to reach the NHL as Rangers. If you missed it, Hockey Rodent has a translation from Czech of an interview with Petr Prucha about his new contract -- yet another Ranger who epitomizes classiness. From the Russian site Gazeta.ru, Artem Anisimov's coach confirms his participation in Ranger training camp, but there is still no confirmation that he has signed a Ranger contract other than NHLSCAP.com [thanks again to reader Shaiba for the translation]. And check out the headline on this web page, tranlated from Russian -- the Rangers are the favored NHL team in Russia, Czech (because of Jagr), and the UK.

Russian to America

Alexei Cherepanov told everyone after he was drafted in the first round by the Rangers that he will come over to North America after next season. But in an interview at Russian Hockey Prospects, Cherepanov said he plans to honor his two-year deal with Avangard Omsk. "Rumors have circulated that Cherepanov will definitely plan to leave for the NHL after this season," the interviewer said. "Your American agent said the same thing. What is your comment?" Cherepanov answered, "I don’t even know why these rumors started to circulate -- that I plan to anul my contract with my Omsk club. I have an active two year deal with Avangard, and don’t plan to get out of it and go anywhere." AC also talks about the draft, prospect camp, what he needs to work on, and the new apartment and car he got in Russia.

Fellow Russian prospect Artem Anisimov was also interviewed by a Russian web site, AllHockey.ru, where he said, "I have dreamed about the NHL since childhood and now I will do everything possible to force my way there. I count on trying my abilities in the pre-season matches. I really hope to make it to the third or fourth line." But if he has to, he said, "I will agree to go to the farm club. Right now, I am getting ready to train all summer with Lokomotiv -- in which case, it is never too late to return." [Thanks to reader Shaiba for sending in this translation.] The Rangers have neither confirmed nor denied that Anisimov has signed a three-year entry level contract with the club, responding to our query on the matter by saying only that no announcement is expected this week.

Larry Brooks of the Post, in the second part of an article about Bill Guerin being named captain of the Islanders, reports that Brendan Shanahan is close to signing a new Ranger contract that will probably carry a $2.5 million base salary that hits this year's cap along with perhaps the same amount in achievable bonuses that will not hit the cap until next year. He wants to get it done quickly to free the Rangers up to deal with other personnel issues -- considering the rumors that Sheldon Souray is waiting for the Rangers to create cap room for him while he remains unsigned this deep into the free agent season, we have to believe that a deal has already been struck, with the Rangers waiting for all the chips to fall into place before making an announcement (this is our own opinion, it is not part of the Post article).

Jagr Still Stuck in the Middle

Jaromir Jagr was asked by hokej.cz about new Ranger centers Scott Gomez and Chris Drury, specifically, which would be a better fit for him on his line. "I don't know, we’ll see," he said. "It looks good on paper but the reality on the ice is usually different. We may not click. And that would be a big problem." Jagr is as surprised as anyone, including Ranger management, that the team was able to sign both. "They were trying to sign as many centers as possible," he said. "To get at least one if the other one didn't [sign]. In the end, they got both and fit under the cap."

If he doesn't seem as enthusiastic as he should be about the splashy signings, it is because he remains disappointed about Michael Nylander leaving to sign with the Capitals. "It sure is a big loss for us," he said. "But this will become normal under the new NHL system. Players will test the market and clubs will have no choice. They have to sign other players." On the other hand, Jagr understands why Nylander had to leave. He believes that his former centerman was unable to communicate his needs to the Rangers on time and management couldn't wait any longer. For fear, Jagr explained, that "we could suddenly end up with no centerman -- that would be, let's say, the end of the season."

The Sheldon Souray watch continues today, with the Rangers still on the radar screen for the top remaining unsigned free agent, rumored to be trying to create cap space via trade so that they can sign the big point shooter they believe will complete a potent power play unit. But the Rangers still have their own free agents to worry about -- UFA Brendan Shanahan, RFAs Henrik Lundqvist and Sean Avery, who still have at least eleven days of negotiation left until arbitration hearings begin, and Marcel Hossa, fast becoming an afterthought.

Slow Sunday

Not much to report on this Sunday in July, other than a pretty decent round of golf this morning for someone who only just grew confident enough to play with other golfers. Larry Brooks has a lot to say about Kevin Lowe, none of it good, in his Sunday column in the Post, including a claim that Lowe raided Buffalo rather than the Rangers (for Henrik Lundqvist) because of his friendship with Glen Sather. Brooks also has an update on several player situations in a separate article, including the Rangers, because of their tight salary cap position, possibly going for a one-year arbitration award for Lundqvist in the $2.5 million range that they would have to make up for in subsequent years in a long-term contract. Sidearm Delivery has a translation from the original Russian of a Sport Express interview with Alexei Cherepanov. And Hockey's Future lists Ranger draftee David Skokan as the #3 Slovakian taken in the draft, but projects him as a long way from the NHL. Haven't heard back from the Rangers yet on Artem Anisimov's contract, but Brooks talks about him as if he's a certainty to be in training camp.