Blueshirt Boggle

Rangers trade Russell to Montreal

"The club has traded the rights to unsigned prospect Ryan Russell to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Montreal's seventh round pick in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft," the Rangers announced just hours before the deadline to sign players drafted in 2005. Unable to come to contract terms with Russell before the deadline, at which time Russell would re-enter the draft if still unsigned, the Rangers got what they could for him. The Habs immediately signed him to a three-year entry level deal (terms unknown at this time).

Originally drafted in the seventh round in 2005, Russell had an outstanding season this season (30 goals, 76 points in 58 games for Kootenay of the WHL). He likely wanted a deal commensurate with his recent showing rather than his low draft position. Barring that, his second choice would have been to go back into the draft, where he would no doubt have done better than the seventh round. But that's moot -- he is now part of the Montreal organization, and the Rangers get a mulligan with that seventh round pick.

Other players who remained unsigned after the deadline were 2005 draftees Dalyn Flatt (third round, 77th overall) and Trevor Koverko (fifth round, 147th overall), 2003 European draftees Ivan Dornic (sixth round, 176th overall) and Phillip Furrer (sixth round, 179th overall), and John Seymour, L.A.'s 2005 draftee (seventh round, 226th overall) who was traded to the Rangers as a minor part of the Sean Avery deal. The 1987 born Koverko and Seymour are draft eligible this year, although neither is likely to be re-drafted. Flatt, born in 1986, becomes a free agent, as do Dornic and Furrer. The Rangers have until August 15th to decide whether to sign two recent college graduates, 2003 draftees Kenny Roche and Dylan Reese.

The "other" player in the Sean Avery deal, dynamic overage (27) Czech winger Jan Marek, became a free agent when he went unsigned by L.A. by yesterday's deadline. Sidearm Delivery's translation of this Sport Express report in Russian says that Marek turned down the Kings' offer because it lacked a guarantee of making the NHL roster. Instead, he re-upped with his Russian team for a million dollar contract, according to the Manchester Union-Leader (he led his team in scoring, taking them to the Russian League championship, scoring the game winning goal in the final). Any hopes that he might return to the Ranger fold would have been dashed anyway by his NHL demand -- the Rangers are well known for not giving such guarantees (that's what kept Martin Richter in the Czech Republic all these years, and after spending this past season in Hartford without a sniff at the NHL, Richter has already decided to sign with Paradubice back in Czech for next season).

L.A. GM Dean Lombardi went to Europe to "see that Marek kid" (among others players) and came back with this report, according to a transcript at Inside the Kings: "We have to make a decision there, whether to take him or the draft pick. The key in that deal was [Ranger draftee Marc-Andre] Cliche. Now it's either [Marek] or a pick, so we went to see him play and we met with his agent to get a feel. The hard part is that they can get so much money in Russia, so there's the question of whether he even wants to try it. He's a '79 born, so he's not old. He played OK. He's a talented guy, but the thing you run into is that he's small, so you have to look at that.'' The Kings, based on Lombardi's comments, appear to be getting the Rangers' 2008 third-round pick in compensation for being unable to sign Marek.

Mess Not Ready to Apprentice With Slats

Mark Messier has not been contacted by the Rangers about the opening as Assistant GM, and he canceled a golf date yesterday with GM Glen Sather to pre-empt speculation that he was in talks with his former GM-coach in Edmonton and New York about the job. He later said that he is not yet ready to take on that kind of time commitment. See the original AP report and follow-up articles in Newsday and the Daily News. Messier also named the annual winner of his Leadership Award (Chris Chelios) -- Brendan Shanahan was the first winner of the monthly version -- and took the opportunity to make mention of the product he has been relentlessly hawking all year long.

Dave Barr, who played six games as a Ranger back in the 1983-84 season and who coached Ryan Callahan and Dan Girardi with the OHL's Guelph Storm, will be coaching Canada's under-18 team over the summer. If the Rangers were successful in trading up into the top three of the draft, who would they take? Their track record suggests that they would grab a kid who grew up as a Ranger fan if one was available -- like Hugh Jessiman and Bobby Sanguinetti, two of their past four first round draftees. This year, New Jersey native James Van Riemsdyk, projected to be one of the first three selections, fits the bill -- he talks about his interest in the Rangers in his NHL profile video, which you can watch by clicking here ("It's no surprise that his biggest dream is to help his beloved Rangers win the Stanley Cup.").

Somewhere a Village Gets Its Idiot Back

Ironically, on the day Don Maloney left New York to become GM in Phoenix, Mike Milbury resigned as Islander VP after a dozen tumultous seasons that earned him the moniker "Mad Mike" (self-imposed, actually). Maloney, as Islander GM, hired Milbury to coach, even though he was in the building the night Milbury went into the Garden stands and beat a Ranger fan with his own shoe. That hire has to count as Maloney's worst or second-worst move (the other: trading Pierre Turgeon and young Vladimir Malakhov for aging Kirk Muller and Mathieu Schneider). Milbury replaced Maloney as GM and dealt away every good player Maloney brought to the Island, including a decent list of draftees -- Ziggy Palffy, Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan McCabe, Wade Redden, Darius Kasparaitis, Brad Lukowich, Scott Lachance, Tommy Salo, and Jan Hlavac (compare Maloney's record drafting defensemen to his work as Ranger Assistant GM -- the former winger seems to have an eye for D).

But Donny need not take any offense. Milbury traded away an all-star list of players, including all but one of his own best draftees -- Zdeno Chara, Roberto Luongo, Rick DiPietro, Eric Brewer, Tim Connolly, Talyor Pyatt, Raffi Torres, and J.P. Dumont. All but Chara were selected with top ten picks -- Milbury was unable to squeeze anyone else worth mentioning (unless you're a bug Juraj Kolnik fan) out of his exactly 100 career draft picks and almost nothing in 48 picks since the 2000 top five selections of DiPietro and Torres except maybe Chris Campoli, though of course the jury is still out on his recent draftees. For a complete list of Milbury's stunning career, look here -- the relatively quiet compendium of Maloney's moves as Islander GM is here too.

Maybe the timing of Milbury's resignation was not coincidental after all -- coincidental with Maloney's move, but not with the start of the Stanley Cup final. While an Islander team that was still largely Milbury's creation barely squeaked into the playoffs on the last day of the season before bowing meekly to Buffalo in the first round, Ottawa roared into the final after dispatching that same Buffalo team thanks in large part to a top line that includes Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza. That's Dany Heatley, as in everyone's consensus first overall pick in 2000 except Milbury, who possessed that pick and opted instead to trade this year's Hart and Vezina Trophy finalist Roberto Luongo (along with Olli Jokinen in exchange for Oleg Kvasha and Mark Parrish) knowing he was going to select DiPietro. And that's Jason Spezza, as is the number two overall pick Milbury traded to Ottawa along with past Norris Trophy finalist Chara for Alexei Yashin -- DiPietro and Yashin of course being in possession of the NHL's two most insane contracts ever.

All of Canada (except Toronto and Montreal, who are rooting against Ottawa) thanks you, Mad Mike -- they are grateful that the biggest village idiot of them all worked on Long Island for all these many years. As are Ranger fans, who mourn your departure more than anyone else.

Looking at this year's draft, Kyle Woodlief of Red Line Report sees a decent crop of forwards in the range the Rangers are drafting in, forward being the Rangers' biggest need given their ample pipeline of defensemen and (unless they go ahead and trade Al Montoya) their young dynamic duo in net. Perhaps most intriguing if the Rangers retain their 17th overall pick or are able to trade down a bit is one of Woodlief's sleepers -- Maxime Tanguay, Alex's little brother. In other news, Bruce Berlet of the Courant has the final lowdown on the Wolf Pack-Civic Center deal, and also reports that Jim Schoenfeld has not talked to anyone about either Maloney's former job or his rumored move to Tampa as assistant coach. The Hockey News has a list of top hockey celebs, our Tim Robbins (my former Blackjacks teammate) making the cut.

And one-time Ranger Dave Balon, an original member of the Bulldog line with Walt Tkaczuk and Bill Fairbairn back in the 1960s and 70s, has succumbed to his long battle with multiple sclerosis. Our consdolensces to his family. John Halligan, who sent out prayers to Dave on behalf of all Ranger fans in his May edition of All Around the Rink With the Rangers in Blueshirt Bulletin, writes about him today at NHL.com. For more, see Rangers Legends.

Don Is Gone: Maloney a Coyote

After a decade as Assistant GM for the Rangers, first for Neil Smith and then for Glen Sather, Don Maloney has gone west to assume the role of General Manager for the Phoenix Coyotes. There are conflicting reports in the wake of his departure over just how much autonomy he has had over the past few years, despite the prevailing view of him as de facto GM. But one thing is clear -- having weathered an unusual working arrangement in New York, Maloney may be the one person best suited to the Phoenix situation, where the coach working under him is not only the legendary Wayne Gretzky, he is also, as part owner of the team, his boss (he may very well be going from Assistant GM acting as de facto GM to GM working as assistant to de facto GM Gretzky). The Rangers didn't let Maloney go without making an effort to retain him, as reported in both the Daily News and New York Post today. But without a shot at assuming the role of GM here, Maloney opted to move on.

Maloney going to the Coyotes adds a new wrinkle to the recent rumors of Al Montoya going to Phoenix in return for the #3 pick in the upcoming draft -- he now goes from the role of considering whether to trade away the promising young goaltender stuck behind Henrik Lundqvist in New York to deciding whether to trade for the player he drafted in the first round, sixth overall in 2004, on behalf of a team that has no goaltending to speak of with Curtis Joseph an aging UFA and Mikael Tellqvist a back-up with just 70 NHL games at age 28. Is it worth trading Montoya, who was listed just this week as the Rangers' top prospect at both NHL.com and Hockey's Future, for one of the top picks in an admittedly weak draft year?

Well, it's hard to answer that question without knowing who will be making the decision. Of course Sather is still GM either way, so the buck will stop with him. But Maloney at the very least was responsible for doing a lot of the legwork for Sather. Leading candidates to replace Maloney are Hartford GM-coach Jim Schoenfeld, chief scout Gordie Clark, Ranger GM of the future Mark Messier, and, as mentioned yesterday by Jess Rubenstein, Adam Graves. For more, see the Journal News, Newsday, Blueshirts Blog, NY Sports Day, CP, and Arizona Republic. In other news, Marc Staal was beaten out by Kris Russell for the CHL's award for top defenseman in junior hockey (see the MH News). And it's nearly official -- the Wolf Pack will announce today that they will remain in Hartford as part of a multi-year deal with the Civic Center, according to Bruce Berlet of the Courant.

The Defense Rests

Michael Sauer tends to be overlooked by Ranger fans. He does not have the resume that Marc Staal has, nor the stats that Bobby Sanguinetti has. What "Quags" as he is known does have is the bragging rights as the last player in the Ranger organization to play in this season when his Medicine Hat Tigers took on the Vancouver Giants earlier today for the right to become the 89th Memorial Cup champion. It was the ninth time this month the two teams met -- Sauer and the Tigers bested the Giants in the last three, winning Games 6 and 7 of the WHL championship (the latter in double overtime) and their first Cup match, earning a bye into this final game.

A very loud pro-Giant crowd of over 16,000 helped the host Giants come out of the gate fast, dominating the early going with a 7-1 shot advantage and hitting everything Tiger to the point where the Tigers' enforcer dropped the gloves to slow them down. That fight worked, but only temporarily -- after killing off a penalty, the Giants went back on the offensive. While dominating play, the Giants kept the Tigers bottled up in their defensive zone but were not able to get anything in despite a 17-5 first period shot advantage.

The second period saw the Tigers try to get off to a better start, but the Giants weathered another power play and kept up the pressure. They finally broke through to take a 1-0 lead. The goal seemed to wake up the Tigers, who took advantage of their next power play to tie the game. The Tigers gave the Giants their first power play of the game just 23 seconds after the tying goal, but Sauer was able to break up two Giants scoring chances to help keep the score tied as the second period came to an end.

The third period was a defensive chess match until midway though the period when both teams turned on their offense. When the Tigers failed to score on a power play, the Giants made them pay, scoring the go-ahead goal with five minutes left. The Giants put the finishing touch on their first-ever Memorial Cup with an empty net power play goal for a 3-1 final score. Congratulations to the Vancouver Giants. For Ranger fans, they can rest in the knowledge that they have one defenseman who is going to become a future captain in Marc Staal, one who will be an offensive weapon in Bobby Sanguinetti, and one in Michael Sauer who will be a shut down defender who allows Staal and Sanguinetti the freedom to do their thing. That is three rock solid defensemen helping to build a better future for the Rangers.

This report comes courtesy of Jess Rubenstein. To read about the game, see articles here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The Stanley Cup final finally gets under way tonight, and it's hard to find many people south of the Canadian border who care. But Stanley Cup time is always Mark Messier time -- John Muckler compared Daniel Alfredsson to Messier (see stories here and here), which prompted at least one observer to wonder if he was going senile (story here), something Ranger fans have been wondering ever since he coached in New York nearly a decade ago. Meanwhile, Messier took the Stanley Cup to the winner of a contest for which (if you saw them) he had to make embarrassing commercials (story here). He also had this to say about today's NHL.

Harking back to other members of the Rangers' 1994 Cup team: Larry Brooks of the Post wasn't concerned with Messier as much as he was with his sidekick Adam Graves, who he believes should have his number sent up to the Garden rafters (and we agree). A Daily News reporter recalls his first time seeing Brian Leetch. Binghamtom's local paper, now looking forward to seeing all those Binghamtom Senators in the Cup final, recalls all the Rangers who won the Cup in 1994 who had ties to Binghamtom. There was one 1994 Binghamtom Ranger not on that list -- Todd Marchant. If Stanley Cup time is Mark Messier time, it is not Todd Marchant time. Thirteen years ago, Marchant was traded away from that Stanley Cup team for a key role player who helped win that Cup (who is ironically on the Binghamtom list). Now Marchant makes his first ever appearance in a Cup final (story here).

In a Connecticut State of Mind

You might forgive Madison Square Garden if they want to wash their hands of the state of Connecticut right now -- having lost the rights to operate the Hartford Civic Center, the state yanked another venue out of their hands yesterday and gave it to the same group that supplanted them in Hartford. Nevertheless, Bruce Berlet reports in the Courant today that the Wolf Pack are a lock to stay in Hartford, with an announcement expected after the Memorial Day weekend. One product of the state of Connecticut the Rangers will not wash their hands of is Brian Leetch -- the paeans continue to pour in after the Ranger great announced his retirement as a player (see NHL.com here and here, Boston Globe, Bangor Daily News, and this great photo spread at SI.com).

Another Connecticut product was the top choice of Blueshirt Bulletin fans for second line center next year. In our first reader poll, Chris Drury of Trumbull beat out Scott Gomez 38-32% in the voting, with the promotion of a prospect from Hartford the third choice with 15% (the remaining 15% of votes were split between Daniel Briere, Peter Forsberg, other UFAs, and trade possibilities). The voting remains open over the weekend if you want to try to tip the balance -- Gomez has been closing in steadily on Drury since the poll opened. If he ever does become a Ranger, Drury won't have to worry about being dumped by Marek Malik anymore [see photo above left].

In prospect news, Brodie Dupont's hometown paper, the Winnipeg Free Press, has a nice article on him in the wake of his signing by the Rangers to a pro contract. In Vancouver, the inevitable has come to pass -- the Giants won their semi-final match against Plymouth 8-1 to advance to the Memorial Cup final against Michael Sauer and the Medicine Hat Tigers, who beat them in a seven game series for the WHL championship as well as in this tournament to earn a bye into the final. Read about it here, here, here, and here. The final is tomorrow, and Jess Rubenstein will have a report for us after it's over.

Second Number Two Heading Out Too?

One #2 left hockey yesterday, at least as a player, Brian Leetch announcing his retirement. Another #2 -- on the Rangers' management team, that is -- is reportedly close to leaving for parts west, if this Globe and Mail report about Assistant GM Don Maloney negotiating for the Phoenix Coyotes' GM position is to be believed. We're not sure how badly the Rangers want to keep him -- obviously not enough to keep him from interviewing this far along in Phoenix -- but if they did, the solution would be simple: make him GM, with Glen Sather retaining the role of President. That's pretty much how things are at this point anyway.

For more on Leetch, see the Daily News here and here, Journal News, Newsday, Times, Post, Courant, MSG.com, SNY, and NY Sports Day. And of course John Dellapina's reminiscences in Blueshirts Blog are always worth a read. Elsewhere, the Hockey News has a great list of Masterson candidates, including our Jed, and NHL.com's Shawn Roarke lists his six great Stanley Cup memories, which includes 1994. In Hartford, still no settlement of the Wolf Pack arena situation as the AHL reconvenes today to decide this and two other issues, according to Bruce Berlet at the Courant. Off the ice, movement in the lawsuit brought by a former Ranger cheerleader against MSG staff members -- see this report in Newsday on her latest filing, which comes in response to last month's MSG filing, reported by the Daily News, assailing her character.

In prospect news, Hockey's Future has an interview with Mike Sauer that touches on the Memorial Cup and his dealings with the Rangers. HF also has a review of Ranger prospects in the CHL, leading off with Marc Staal. Jess Rubenstein, who wrote our CHL prospect review for the May issue of Blueshirt Bulletin, suggested the Rangers take a look at signing Staal's undrafted D partner in Sudbury -- too late, the Penguins signed Jonathan d'Aversa yesterday. Back to the Memorial Cup, the bad blood between Sauer's Medicine Hat Tigers and the host Vancouve Giants spilled over to their mascots, according to the MH News. In an interesting dilemma, Cup co-chair Trevor Linden has well-known longstanding ties to Vancouver as an NHL player, but he is also a Medicine Hat native who led the Tigers to back to back Memorial Cups back in the 1980s (see MH News).

Remember the lockout? Remember how it was supposed to be all about the small markets? Remember Nashville owner Craig Leipold, son in law of billionaire S.C. Johnson, front and center among owners leading the charge? We said all along it was really about franchise value, and Leipold has gone and proven it, reaping a $220 million price for the Predators in a sale to a Canadian billionaire who is expected to move the team from Nashville to Canada. That's more than double the value of the franchise before the lockout, as valued at that time by Forbes, and nearly four times what Leipold paid in expansion fees a decade ago -- quite a return for someone crying poverty so loudly just two-three years ago.

Leetch Rides Off Into the Sunset

With expectations already high for the Rangers next season, fans can expect one big day for certain. Brian Leetch officially retired from the NHL today after sitting out all of last season, stuck between the possibility of one last curtain call, possibly with the Rangers, and the free time he enjoyed with his family. With his decision now firmly in the latter category, there are two things left for him to do -- plan to attend his Garden retirement party (the sooner the better for the greatest Ranger ever) and plan to attend his Hall of Fame induction ceremony (he'll have to wait the required number of years for that). John Dellapina got the scoop in Blueshirts Blog, and NYR.com has the official announcement. At left is the cover of Blueshirt Bulletin from two years ago featuring a Dellapina story on Leetch's dilemma.

The Toronto Sun had already published a story about how the the Maple Leafs gutted their future in two trades for immediate return, one of them with the Rangers for Leetch, trades that didn't put the Leafs over the top. The analysis relies heavily not on who was drafted using their picks, but on who was available at those spots. Thus, the writer does not regret the Rangers getting Lauri Korpikoski with the Leafs' first round pick, but he does regret not getting the players chosen immediately afterwards. Problem is, he doesn't factor in the Rangers using a second round pick to trade up to that point -- those players would not have been available at Toronto's original drafting position. The Rangers can regret drafting Korpikoski instead of Travis Zajac, Wojtek Wolski, or Andrej Meszaros, but the Leafs can't.

Ranger prospect Michael Sauer, who started the season playing for the very young (and therefore very awful) Portland Winter Hawks of the WHL, will be playing for the Memorial Cup in the final game Sunday afternoon with the team he was traded to in mid-season, the Medicine Hat Tigers. The Tigers beat the host Vancouver Giants, whom they bested for the WHL championship a week ago, to earn a bye into the Cup final, while Vancouver awaits a semi-final match-up with the winner of the Lewiston-Plymouth tie-breaker game. Here is Jess Rubenstein's report on the game:

The last game of the Memorial Cup round robin was also the one with the most at stake, the winner heading straight to the championship game while the loser would have to win one or two more games to get there. For the Giants, this rematch of the WHL final was also a chance for revenge. And they almost got it going with a near-goal in the first minute of the game, they took it to the Tigers in the first period, preventing any sustained attack while getting strong chances of their own, and they had numerous power play chances, including one on a Sauer interference call that led to a five on three. But they would never get a single goal in this game. Instead, the Tigers showed why they were WHL champions, keeping the Giants on the outside in killing off the five on three.

And in typical hockey fashion, when you don't score on your best chances, the other team does -- the Tigers scored on their power play, the only goal in a 1-0 game, the rest of the match featuring Tiger defensive hockey at its best. The Giants may have gotten shots on net, but they were limited in how close those shots were. The Tiger defense was textbook perfect, standing up at the blue line whenever the Giants were able to get through a disruptive controlled forecheck. The Tigers kept their shifts short, making sure they had fresh troops on the ice at every chance. The final score may have only been 1-0, but this was a quality game and a solid effort by both teams. For the Tigers the win gives them the head to head tiebreaker over the Giants and that means they get to rest up until Sunday's championship final.

Medicine won both of its games after losing their opener to Lewiston. The MAINEiacs lost their captain in that game, Ranger draftee Marc-Andre Cliche (now with the L.A. organization), and have lost both their games since (story here). For more on the game and the upcoming final, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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Mid-Week Update

Don Maloney has completed his second interview with the Phoenix Coyotes for their open GM position. A decision is expected to be announced within days after the third finalist is interviewed (see the Arizona Republic and Tribune). Plymouth beat Lewiston in yesterday's Memorial Cup action, crystalizing the picture for Ranger prospect Michael Sauer and his Medicine Hat Tigers -- if the Tigers beat Vancouver today, they win a bye to the Cup final; if they lose, they will play in the semifinal against the winner of a tie-breaking game between Plymouth and Lewiston (see the MH News, CP, Slam!, and NHL.com).