Redden:

In a move that surprised no one, Wade Redden passed through waivers and was bought out. The end result of that move is that the Rangers have an additional $5.6 million in dead cap space to go along with the $1.6 million from Chris Drury's buyout, each of which will be available to them next year when the cap drops nearly six million. In addition, they will be on the hook for two-thirds of Redden's salary the following year, but based on the terms of the new CBA, there will be no cap hit in 2013-14.

When the Rangers signed Redden, nearly all of us felt it was for too many years and way too much dollars and both factors have been borne out to be right. That contract also placed a ridiculous burden on Redden, which unless he was Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey combined, there was no way he could live up to the terms of the deal. If he was making less money, maybe the vitriol that ever Rangers' fan felt towards him would have minimized a bit, but the dollars along with middling production - especially for that cap hit - was even to make him public enemy number one.

I had a friends tweet me last night when he found out that Columbus may be interested to see if the Rangers get a kickback for each Blueshirt that ends up going there. I couldn't help but chuckle as the Blue Jackets are now Rangers Midwest and how interesting would it have been if Redden signed with Columbus rather than the Rangers years ago? Would his careere have played out differenty? Would Rick Nash have to have been moved and would it have needed to have been done earlier than this offseason?

I will give the NHL and NHLPA some credit for finding a solution to the "Gomez and Redden situations," even though they won't characterize the compliance buyouts as such but also believe that if either player signed elsewhere, that dollar amount should come off the cap hit taken by Montreal and New York. The move was done for the benefit of the players, while the impact to the releasing teams is that same as if they made the player sit home, so they should get some benefit for making the move now.

Richards:

After missing three days with the flu and skating on his own Wednesday, Brad Richards returned to practice Thursday. There should be a negligible impact to his absence, as he already knows the system and was already in shape. The one impact could be that it takes him a smidge longer to build up on-ice chemistry with Nash, and to a lesser extent Carl Hagelin, in that newly constituted first line. The silver lining is that Richards' illness occurred now rather than during the season, when even missing three of four days, which could translate to two games, could make a huge difference in the standings.

Power Play:

Similar to last season, the Rangers appear to be going with four forwards and one d-man on the first line PP. Michael Del Zotto is the one blueliner while Richards (point), Nash (wing), Marian Gaborik (wing) and Ryan Callahan (center) fill out the rest of the combination. The one thing I will say to everyone, especially after reading some of the tweets yesterday, is have some patience.

People were up in arms that the PP, both regular and 5-on-3, struggled in practice yesterday. Again, this was the first true session where the PP was worked on in camp. I understand that this area was a major weakness last season and possibly a large reason why the Rangers did not advance to the Stanley Cup Finals, but let's try not to overreact this early. (Yes, I know if they lose the first game or struggle out of the box partially due to PP struggles, I will be the first one to be up in arms, so this is as much a cautionary note to me as it is you). The melding of Nash onto the PP, which means learning his favorite spots, how he likes to receive the puck and seeing how that impacts Gaborik (will he be able to find the holes in the high slot or is that Nash's prime location?) all have to be resolved in this shortened training camp. For that reason, along with tweaks hopefully being made to fix some of the problems that existed last year, it wouldn't surprise me if it took a bit of time for the PP to be a well-oiled and hopefully scoring machine.

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