I had dictated speech-to-text on the car on the way into work tomorrow a whole blog about the trade deadline. While much of it is still applicable, the tweets from Darren Dreger, Bob McKenzie and John Shannon about Martin St. Louis may trump everything I wrote originally. It's been apparent for a while and even more so lately that St. Louis wants out, Steve Yzerman knows this, the NHL knows this and Yzerman knows the only place he wants to go is the Rangers while the Rangers and Glen Sather, possibly to their detriment, have made it known just how much they want St. Louis. With the deadline about six hours away, the questions are will Yzerman actually deal St. Louis to remove the headache there, if so, can the Rangers make an offer that would be acceptable and does that include Ryan Callahan, who seemed all but certain to remain a Ranger? In addition, has Sather painted the team in a corner by placing so much focus on this deal, possibly neglecting others? Whatever happens this will be very interesting next six hours and dovetails nicely into what I wrote earlier this AM as I alluded to in the first paragraph.
The Rangers head into the trade deadline today at a possible crossroads for this season and the organization moving forward. The Callahan saga, which has played out nearly over the whole season, will come to an end one way or another today. If the Rangers choose to re-sign him, as is been rumored, the face/captain of the franchise will be set for years to come though others may have a different view as to whether not he should be here. The other option would be to trade him to avoid losing him though that as we know choosing that option could have long-term ramifications as to how the franchise is be viewed by other free agents, seeing how the organization handled the situation with their captain. Of course, a very viable option is to just allow Callahan to play out this year and see if you can retain prior to or post free agency, but this does appear to be how Sather wants to go.
The Rangers have been on both sides of the fence the last two years in free agency and at the trade deadline. The 2012, with all of us clamoring for some depth, all Sather could do was bring in John Scott. They talk about addition by attrition, but this was subtraction by addition, because Scott did nothing to help make this team better and possibly hurt them as they moved forward that season. Last year, Sather traded for Ryane Clowe the day before the deadline. That was only the first move, however, as in a surprising move at the time, Sather dealt Gaborik to Columbus for Derick Brassard, Derek Dorsett, and John Moore. This was a move nobody saw coming yet played a key role in helping New York make the playoffs last season.
This season, most of the year has been spent in terms of determining which of the teams unrestricted free agents needed to be brought back. Lundqvist was re-signed earlier in the season while Dan Girardi, the twin to Callahan in terms of self-imposed re-signing deadlines, re-upped last week. Regardless of what happens with Callahan, there are several other free agent decisions to be made on as well as the specter of amnestying Brad Richards, so it's very possible that whatever happens today - especially related to St. Louis and Callahan- will play a big role in determining how the Rangers proceed for 2014-15 and beyond.
If Callahan comes on board or more precisely, remains on board, then the Rangers may be forced to part with Richards, as we discussed in the past. Cap space is going to be at a premium and with the expectation of what Callahan will get, certain key decisions will need to be made on Richards, Brassard, Zuccarello, Kreider, J Moore, D Moore and Brian Boyle with the level and extent of the negotiations varying by player. It's interesting to say that a trade deadline will have that much of a determination as to the future of a franchise, but today could just be that day.
New York still needs more size and scoring upfront as well as possibly a physical defenseman. Given what we've crazy so far and our expectation of the cost, none of them will come cheap. The Rangers, beyond St. Louis, have been rumored to possibly be in on Chris Stewart for a while, as well as maybe Moulson, possibly Drew Stafford, with David Legwand on the fringes, but on the blue line it's been pretty much radio silence once they added Kevin Kline. I would love a sixth/seventh type d-man, but that looks to be a secondary concern.
To me, disregarding St. Louis for now, Moulson as a rental makes the most sense, especially since Kesler, possibly based on his previous relationship with AV or because he wants to go Pittsburgh, said he won’t waive his NTC. Stewart makes some sense but given he came to Buffalo in the Ryan Miller deal, the return on him might be similar to Moulson solely because he has a year at a semi-reasonable amount remaining on his contract. I don't have much interest in Stafford and Legwand, he has failed to deliver a portion of his career.
So which direction will Sather go? Will he re-sign Callahan probably for a little more than 6 million per season and therefore use a good component of the remaining open cap for next year? Will he decide to move forward and deal Callahan potentially for an asset (maybe St. Louis) to help for this year? Or would decide to just hold onto him, let it play out for the balance of the season and into free agency, and then make a determination allowing him the flexibility to sign him before or after free agency kicks and thereby freeing up the dollars to either retain the team's own free agents or use on ohers in July?
The future of the Rangers could sit in Sather's hands today. How this all plays out will be a major determinant in terms of the lineup and roster construction moving forward. They say heavy likes the head that wins the crown, today may determine if he is up to the role as GM of the franchise.