Blueshirt Boggle

More RFA Signings

Rangers just announced three more signings (re-signings actually) -- Jamie Lundmark, Garth Murray, and Chad Wiseman. All three played for Hartford last season and all three have a chance to make the Rangers this season. Lundmark's NHL job is probably his to lose, Wiseman will probably have to win a job in training camp, and Murray is probably somewhere in between them on the probability spectrum.

Signings and Salaries

The Rangers confirmed the signing of Petr Prucha that Hockey Rodent first reported two days ago. Today, Hockey Rodent has a lenghty analysis of Prucha, as well as some reaction from his former team. He also clarifies Jan Marek's situation -- we interpreted the original report as Marek gaining permission to negotiate with the Rangers, but in fact Marek has granted permission to his agent to contact the Rangers.

We have been able to confirm that Martin Rucinsky is in fact signed to a one year contract at $3 million. Why the Rangers nearly doubled Rucinsky's last contract (more than doubled its rolled-back value) is simply beyond us. He will turn 35 during the course of this coming season and is coming off a 14-goal, 43-point season. The sound you hear is the collective scratching of heads.

The Rangers also announced that they have signed Chris Holt, the 20 year old goaltender from the University of Nebraska-Omaha that they are high on. Glen Sather said in his Q&A that Holt will compete for Ranger netminding duties: "Certainly with Kevin Weekes' experience, he has an excellent chance of being the number-one goaltender. However, Henrik Lundqvist along with Al Montoya and possibly Chris Holt will have the ability to come in and compete with Kevin for the job." At the very least, he will end up in Hartford.

Finnish defenseman Hannu Pikkarainen, a free agent, has also been added to the Ranger stable of prospects. Blueshirt Bulletin analyst Anthony Mastantuoni says of him: "Pikkarainen, born October 13, 1983, is 6-1, 187 pounds. He was a teammate of 2002 draftee Kim Hirschovits at HIFK Helsinki. Another one of his HIFK teammates was Marek Zidlicky, traded to Nashville as part of the Mike Dunham deal. He appears to be another one of those defensemen that Glen Sather is stockpiling -- a blueliner who can move the puck but is not overly physical. Slats appears to be banking on the NHL’s new rules to open up the game and require defensemen to be puck movers first, and a physical presence second."

Don Maloney sings the praises of Brandon Dubinsky from the USA's WJC camp at Lake Placid, as does Ranger scout Ray Clearwater.

Curtis Joseph's $900,000 contract to play for Phoenix represents the single biggest pay cut taken by any NHL player, a drop of more than $7 million from his gross 2003-04 salary, of more than $5 million from the rolled-back value of that contract. If he hits all of his bonuses, he will make $1.5 million, which would tie him with Jason Allison for biggest pay cut, although Allison as an injured player will have achievable bonuses that will make CuJo once again the top loser under the new CBA.

Overall, NHL teams have saved over $185 million from 2003-04 payroll levels, but have increased rolled-back salaries by more than $75 million (these figures do not include a significant number of undisclosed RFA contracts which would push both numbers even higher). UFA signees alone account for about half the $185 million savings. Nearly two-thirds of those UFA savings comes out of the pockets of seventeen of the twenty-two UFAs who earned $4 million or more in 2003-04, the smallest pay cut in that group amounting to $2 million. Which means there has been a major shift in income from over-30 stars (many of them fading stars) to the league's rising stars (Rick Nash and Vincent Lecavalier got the top raises of over $4 million each.) Which is a good thing, in our book.

OLN gets the NHL from ESPN. If all those acronyms don't tell you the whole story, the president of ESPN tells you a major part of it: "Given the prolonged work stoppage and the league's TV ratings history, no financial model even remotely supports the contract terms offered." The other part of the story remains unreported: OLN is owned by the same company that owns the Philadelphia Flyers.

Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun asks: "Will Mark Messier's No. 11 be retired by the Edmonton Oilers -- or will he wear it for an NHL record-tying 26th season?"

Tip of the Cap to Lou!

That's a pig you saw flying across the blue moon last night. And the Devils went over the salary cap in signing Alexander Mogilny, coming off two hip surgeries at age 36, to a two-year contract worth $3.5 million per year. Lou Lamoriello was one of the most successful team builders under the old CBA, steadfastly refusing to break the bank for players, especially older free agents. But under a new restrictive CBA which he was instrumental in negotiating, Lamoriello has overpaid for fading overage Mogilny and Malakhov. He now has to find ways to cut players out from under his cap while re-signing RFAs Jeff Friesen, David Hale, Paul Martin, Colin White, and (eventually, when he regains his health) Patrik Elias -- and that doesn't even include Scott Stevens, should he decide to return rather than retire.

Hockey Rodent, always keeping an eye on Czech news reports, tells us that Petr Prucha, the soon to be 23 year old forward who emerged in a big way in last season's Czech Extraliga playoffs, has signed a contract with the Rangers. He also says that 25 year old mighty mite Jan Marek, an Extraliga veteran whom Jes Gőlbez profiled for us last spring [see photo above], has received permission from his team to negotiate with the Rangers. If these players can bring to the Rangers the talent they exhibited in their native country, the club's prospects will ratchet up a significant notch.

In his most recent installment of Blue Lines, Stan Fischler writes that "Brian Leetch didn’t overly impress Mike Milbury. Turns out that Milbury is better off with Brad Lukowich." I wonder how impressed Brian Leetch was with Mike Milbury? Fischler also suggests that teams ought to pursue, among others, free agents Vladimir Orszagh and Roman Cechmanek -- Orszagh became unrestricted and has remained unsigned because he is out with a significant injury that will likely cost him the entire season, and Cechmanek has signed a contract back home in the Czech Extraliga.

Anson Carter will be getting a million dollars to play with Vancouver this season. Our friend Tom Benjamin at Canuck's Corner is underwhelmed -- and that despite describing an Anson Carter infinitely superior to the somnambulist who wore the Broadway Blueshirt.

Still Some Unanswered Questions

Glen Sather's Q&A with Ranger fans leads the Ranger web site today. Sather sticks doggedly to the team's party line and never goes out on a limb with anything other than a stock answer. The good news is, they're committed more than ever to their rebuilding program. The bad news is, that's because the rest of their long term strategy has been blown out of the water, with next year's UFA crop now well locked up by long term contracts. Vincent Lecavalier became the latest to join the list, following Patrick Marleau last week, and many others before them. The only ones currently unsigned are Martin St. Louis and several Senators.

There are two other weaknesses in the plan that Sather betrays in his answers. "We will be looking at players who can help us through this transition period" he tells one fan asking about UFAs. "Our plan is to put a competitive team on the ice" he tells another fan asking the same thing. Neil Smith tried that plan and ended up fired for it, even though he successfully brought along a number of young players in the process. "The hardest part for everyone will be to stay patient," Sather says to another fan -- team management and ownership most of all, we might add.

The other weakness can be seen in his response to a question about what the Rangers look for in young defensemen: "With the new rules in place, skating and the ability to pass the puck will be vital. Successful teams will have to have a mobile defense with the ability to make the first outlet pass." Sather has looked for this quality almost exclusively in defensemen for years, and he has left the Rangers without any good crease-clearing stay at home types. Now, he is even more convinced of that. He forgets that even in the free-wheeling 80s, teams needed Beukebooms to protect the slot. That will never change, no matter what the rules.

There is a possible third weakness in Sather's long range strategy. "With the steps we’ve taken to re-stock our organization, we feel well positioned for the future... We are encouraged with the many young players we now have... Rhe depth of prospects we have coming can compete with any team." Only time will tell, but there are some doubts among fans about the quality of the current crop of prospects.

The Rangers announced the re-signings of Tom Poti and Jozef Balej, even though the NHLPA web site had them listed as signed since late last week. Poti will make $2.356 million (which is incredibly a raise from his rolled back 2003-04 salary of $2.072 million). Balej was originally listed at the league minimum of $450,000, but is now listed as "undisclosed".

It's hard to figure where the Rangers are under the cap because a) we don't know which minor leaguers will make the roster, b) we don't know what bonuses are counted under the cap, and c) some key player contracts remain unknown (a couple of Ranger fan web sites list Martin Rucinsky's salary at $3 million, but we find no evidence of that anywhere, nor do we find it remotely plausible that Sather would pay him that much under the new CBA when he only gave him $1.65 million in signing him to his most recent UFA contract under the last CBA). With all this guesswork, we believe the Rangers still have $10-15 million of room under the cap, with five or six forwards still to be added (though many of those will be at or near the minimum).

Poor Little Rich Flames

Under the old CBA, Calgary reached the Stanley Cup finals with a $36.4 million payroll. Still, the team cried poverty, despite an ownership group comprised of hyper-wealthy oil men and financiers. The new CBA, won in part with the goal of protecting Canadian franchises like Calgary from the evil spendthrifts in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Denver, got them a 24% rollback in all existing contracts and a hard salary cap that gave them tremendous leverage in contract negotiations ("You're worth every penny of the $10 million a season you're asking for, Jarome, but our hands are tied!"). And it gave them a chance to sign guys like Tony Amonte and Darren McCarty that the evil spendthrifts in Philly and Detroit had to buy out to get under the cap.

So what do they do next? The give Roman Hamrlik, with 42 career playoff games in 13 NHL seasons, a raise from his rolled back 2003-04 salary to $3.5 million, just about to where it was previously with the low-revenue Islanders. This pushes their 2005-06 salary over $34 million, which means they'll start the season close to their 2003-04 payroll level once they sign Chuck Kobasew and Matt Lombardi as they attempt to take the last step toward winning the Cup. Meanwhile, some of their top competitors in the West -- Detroit, Colorado, Vancouver, and Dallas -- have struggled to retain some of their core players.

Guess who's chairman of the NHL Board of Governors? Calgary owner Harley Hotchkiss. Ranger fans can tell Mr. Hotchkiss what happens when you try to buy your way to the Stanley Cup. We're placing our bets on the smart guy who runs the Avalanche (we would have said the same thing about the Canucks, but they fired the smart guy who ran their team).

The only Ranger-related news today comes from Bruce Berlet of the Hartford Courant, who talked to Ranger farmhand Colby Genoway, most recently of the University of North Dakota.

Restricted Area

RFA offer sheets are more than just an attractive means of obtaining players. They are, as Alan Hahn of Newsday reminds us, a tool to manipulate other teams' cap space -- even if a team matches, it does so at a number it has not necessarily planned for, and may be forced into an unwanted trade. While Marian Hossa is not currently a target -- as Hahn says, you "can't sign a player to an offer sheet if he files for arbitration" -- Martin St. Louis [left] is among a small group of vulnerable players. St. Louis, who lives in Connecticut, is a present-day rarity, a player who prefers New York over other teams. A couple of young Wings are also vulnerable, with Detroit so close to the cap.

Vinny Lecavalier is unlikely to be a target, either as RFA or UFA, reports Larry Brooks in the Post, as he has received a better offer to stay in Tampa than Joe Thornton got to stay in Boston. Brooks also comments on Eric Lindros going to Toronto, noting that Lindros has a grievance against the Rangers for injury pay, saying he was sidelined by a shoulder injury, not a concussion -- even though he left the line-up due to concussion and never returned. The noive! Brooks has detailed and complex information on how the cap is calculated. The key point in terms of the Rangers is that bonuses are figured in, meaning that the rookie goalie (whichever one makes the NHL roster) will use up about $2 million in cap space, not his nearly $1 million base salary.

As expected, no Ranger made Hockey's Future's list of Top 10 Prospects. Unexpectedly, they barely made a dent in the Best of the Rest list -- with an additional forty players considered, Marc Staal sneaking into the 30th and final spot on defense was the only Ranger representative (three Ranger prospects, Fedor Tyutin, Henrik Lundqvist, and Al Montoya, were already in the Top 50).

Return of the Hybrid Theory

Tom Poti [left] accepted his qualifying offer yesterday, the last day before the deadline to do so. That bit of info appears as a footnote to Andrew Gross's article on former Rangers Adam Graves and Ulf Samuelsson returning to the ice for the club in an advisory or coaching capacity. The Rangers now have seventeen players under contract, though two or three are almost certain to end up in Hartford. Either way, they have somewhere around $12-14 million of room left under the salary cap. Jamie Lundmark remains the only significant RFA yet to be signed -- a number of others (like Jed Ortmeyer) will eventually sign at or near the league minimum, leaving the Rangers with a lot of cap room even as their roster fills up.

There are still a couple hundred unrestricted free agents available, including some notable names, but the Rangers remain unlikely to pursue them. One they were reportedly courting, Chris Gratton, signed on for his third go-round with Florida. Another, Russian winger Maxim Sushinski, joined the Rangers in denying that he is coming to New York (translation at Hockey Rodent, along with a translation of a Czech interview with Jaromir Jagr).

It remains to be seen whether the Rangers have plans to go after younger, more productive restricted free agents like Pavel Datsyuk, as Spector suggests in an article that all but singles out the Rangers specifically as the team in best position to do so, or Marian Hossa, as we would like to see. But that is unlikely as well.

All of which means, with the defense and goaltending just about set, that some of Hartford's top forwards last season -- Alexandre Giroux, Dominic Moore, Garth Murray, and Chad Wiseman -- might actually get a serious look in training camp, which opens in 30 days. Neil Smith was the one who first tried the hybrid approach of trying to make the playoffs today with veteran signees while bringing young players along at the bottom of the depth chart -- how ironic that Glen Sather has now embraced that philosophy to an extreme.

Strategies: Past, Present and Future

It's official -- Eric Lindros is a Leaf. Kim Johnsson, meanwhile, is still a Flyer. Atlanta has re-signed Tomas Kloucek. Marek Zidilicky, who went to Nashville with Kloucek for Mike Dunham, is still a Predator. Last we looked, Dunham is still an unsigned free agent who has no future with the Rangers. So much for the Rangers' past strategy.

Joe Thornton is still a Bruin, and will remain one for a long time. Vinny Lecavalier will probably start out with a one-year contract, but his agent says he will be working on a long-term deal to keep him in Tampa. Ottawa is working to avoid going to arbitration with Marian Hossa and locking him up long-term. So much for the Rangers' new CBA strategy.

Fedor Tyutin remains in nearly the same spot (#17) in Hockey's Future's Top 50 Prospects as he was last fall. Al Montoya plummets from #20 to #49, superceded by Henrik Lundqvist at #27. Will the Rangers' future strategy be given a chance?

Now's the Time to Be a Lion For a Day

Yesterday, Blueshirt Bulletin readers suggested the Rangers start thinkng about poaching big name RFAs from other teams, and of targeting some of Ottawa's impending free agents next year. The two ideas have merged, as Marian Hossa turned down an offer from the Senators that averages nearly $4 million a year and filed for arbitration. He is seeking a Jarome Iginla-like contract near the individual player maximum. If the Rangers are saving cap space for franchise players due to be UFA next year, they will be disappointed, as those players are signing long-term deals one by one. Now is the time to make a play for Hossa, either by trade or via an offer sheet.

Instead of that type of move, the Rangers are reportedly going after career disappointment Chris Gratton, bought out of his contract by Colorado. At age 30, the large but motivationally challenged center is not about to break out. But he qualifies as Ranger material based on his history of having played with six different teams over the last eight seasons, three different teams over the past two seasons. Glen Sather always loved reclamation projects, even though none have ever borne out, at least not as Rangers. The Post also reports that the Rangers are denying that they have signed high scoring Russian winger Maxim Sushinsky (a Russian web site claims they have). An Omsk teammate of Jaromir Jagr's recommended to the Rangers by Jagr, Sushinsky (age 31) has 30 games of NHL experience in Minnesota as an overage draftee in 2000.

Eric Lindros, one of Sather's most notable and notorious reclamation projects, is reportedly close to signing a contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team he always wanted to play for. He is also reportedly close to regaining his playing shape after being rumored to have topped 300 pounds during the lockout. Kim Johnsson, the key player traded by the Rangers when they acquired Lindros (and who right now would look a whole heck of lot better on the power play point than Tom Poti), will likely earn more this season than the once-heralded "Next One".

The Hartford Wolf Pack had two AHL all-stars last season, both voted in as starters. Both became NHL free agents and have signed elsewhere, the latest being Lawrence Nycholat (who played nine games as a Ranger in 2004), who joined the Caps earlier this week. Jason LaBarbera, the other Hartford all-star, had previously signed with the L.A. Kings. On the other hand, the Rangers inked Joe Rullier, a 25 year old penalty king defenseman who was previously with the Manchester Monarchs.

ESPN analysts threw a one-two at the Rangers for their tepid off-season, in which they don't seem to be sure if they are rebuilding with youth or going for the playoffs with thirtysomething Czechs. John Bucigross writes, "Clear cap space, develop players who want to be Rangers, hope you win next year's ping-pong ball contest, draft Kessel, and let Joe Thornton and Vincent Lecavalier's people covertly know that huge money and term years await these Broadway-bound darlings next summer. Does Glen Sather even think this way? Or is he thinking about his next cigar and next fishing expedition? Martin Straka? Are you kidding me?" Scott Burnside, rating free agency's winners and losers on a scale from one to five, gives the Rangers a sub-par two pucks: "The Rangers are trapped between being a big-market power and building from the ground up, which explains the signings of injury-prone Martin Straka, mercurial Ville Nieminen and aging Martin Rucinsky, among other second-tier free agents. Kevin Weekes better get used to a ton of rubber being tossed his way."

No News, Plenty of Views

No news in the Rangersphere today, so here are some views from Blueshirt Bulletin readers:

Mark Sblendorio says, "Everyone's talking about Thorton and Lecavelier as the big possible UFAs for next off-season. But I would forget about them. I would try to find a way to sneak some discussions with the Senators' Marian Hossa, Wade Redden, and Zdeno Chara. All three are eligible to be unrestricted next season." To which we add: The Sens currently have about $23 million committed to ten players and still have to pay Hossa, Havlat, and Spezza decent salaries (they earned a collective $4 million in 2003-04), and also re-sign Mike Fisher and eight or nine others to fill out their roster.

Bob Merchant says, "I see the Flyer's just re-signed Simon Gagne for 2 mil on a qualifying offer. That is exactly the player I would have run the register up to acquire. Philly's payroll is maxing out, they would not have been able to match. If we pay 2 million to washed up over the hill 10 goal scorers, why not pay 3 mil to a youngster who will net 25 goals?" To which we add: If the Sens are trying to force their big three RFAs to accept their QOs, the Ranger might think about going after one of them with an offer Ottawa might not be able to match.

Lenny Schlegel writes to us about his participation as a Blueshirt Bulletin invitee to NextShift's hockey camp last month: "I just wanted to thank you and Blueshirt Bulletin for giving me the opportunity to participate in the Pucks, Putters & Poker event. As an experienced street and deck hockey player, and a novice ice hockey player, I was concerned with whether or not I'd be out of place. Turns out my fears were unwarranted. Everyone, from the instructors, to the pro hockey players, to the amateur hockey players, was very supportive and helpful and really made me feel part of the team.

"There's something about sitting in a locker room, suiting up for a game, and hearing guys like Bob Sweeney and Rich Pilon telling story after story about their experiences in the NHL. There's something about skating on a line with Randy Burridge and Rick Middleton and scoring a goal. There's something about lining up for a faceoff and getting bumped by a big moose like Lyndon Byers or Jim McKenzie. As a big Ranger fan, and hockey enthusiast, it's things like these that I'll never forget for the rest of my life.

"But enough of the sentimentality. I'll just say this. I hope that the next time something like this comes along, more people take advantage of the opportunity. I guarantee the memories will last a lifetime."

[Pictured above: Rick Middleton and Rich Pilon in the locker room after a game]