Many sources are coming out of the woodwork (most seem to stem from ESPN – which is a good thing) claiming that Alexander Frolov is very close to signing a deal with the New York Rangers. Supposedly, a deal will be worked out today, tomorrow, or very soon.

Frolov, who has always been a Los Angeles King up until this offseason, never received an offer from his previous team. Apparently, he contemplated returning to his home country, Russia, to play in the KHL, but clearly Glen Sather stopped that thought process.

You probably have heard it enough, but the main complaints of Frolov is his large inconsistency and his questionable will to play. Obviously he needs new scenery, but is NY the spot for that? I won’t lie that I have my reservations about this signing. I mean, I like Frolov… when he’s playing hockey.

Hopefully John Tortorella can turn him around, if he does become a Ranger, because I’d hate for us to sign Nikolai Zherdev 2.0.

Frolov’s stats via HockeyDB

*Update – Frolov signs this early afternoon for one year at $3M.

When it comes to the Rangers defensive core, we all knew going into this offseason that some things were going to have to be changed. There were large question marks placed next to certain players and others that seemed concrete were made into question marks. Some issues have been resolved, most are still pending.

Gilroy and MDZ

In fact, the only defenders from last year that have been: not talked about, untouched, unscathed, and able to dodge every questionable topic have been Michael Del Zotto and Matt Gilroy. These two young defenders that are almost guaranteed to start next season are the only ones that haven’t been questioned, shuffled, traded, or talk of any of the above occurring. And I agree. Most believe that MDZ will be on the Rangers for years and years to come. Gilroy still has a lot to prove and I wouldn’t be shocked if he finds his way back to the Wolf Pack for a stint again. And not because he doesn’t play well, but more that our defensive core is more stacked than ever.

Which brings me to my point, who is going to start come October?

The major question marks at this point of the offseason rely on three men: Michal Rozsival, Wade Redden, and Marc Staal.

Rozsival did well towards the last half of the season and picked up his game. I use to be a fan of Rozsival, but I feel like he always does this. He’ll be terrible, then play good for a little while just so you don’t make big waves to get him off the team. He goes back and forth so often, that for the money he’s making, I’d rather him just be gone. Luckily, he played well enough towards the end of last season to have some trade value. In the beginning of the offseason, the idea of Rozsival being traded was a pipe dream, but as time goes on it seems more of a reality to happen.

What’s been said about Redden has already been said over and over again and regurgitated countless times. Most fans want him gone, and from the message we heard from Sather earlier this offseason that a contract “will not dictate a roster spot”, we can assume that’s directed at him. There have been rumors that Team Renney over in Edmonton was interested in trading for him, but those ramblings quieted down. More than likely, as everyone and their mother has been saying, Redden will be kicked down to the AHL before October 1st to prevent his salary from hurting anymore fine players.

Staal on Staal Action

If the Rangers were run by Bleacher Report, Marc Staal wouldn’t be a Ranger. Well thank God for small miracles that they haven’t acquired the funds yet to purchase the team from the All Mighty Dolan. They say: Trade Staal. Guess what? It ain’t happening. Glen Sather is not going to trade Staal. He’s head over heels in love with him. He also loved Dan Girardi and he threw buckets of money at him. Sather publicly said if anyone puts an offer sheet on him they’ll automatically match it. We’re keeping Staal, even if we have to dunk him in a pool of benjamins. And with Sather at the reins, that’s entirely possible.

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With Steve Eminger acquired via trade a couple weeks ago from the Anaheim Ducks, that makes it appear as though five spots are already taken up.
*This also going on the assumption that Marc Staal will be a Ranger by the start of the season and that Rozsival will indeed be traded.

Staal – Girardi
MDZ – Gilroy
Eminger – ???

That is where these smaller question marks come into play. They are placed upon more than a few defenders: Ryan McDonagh, Michael Sauer, Matt McCue, Pavel Valentenko, and Jyri Niemi.

Ryan McDonagh playing for the Badgers

Proceeding with the assumption from above, McDonagh looks as the favorite to fill that 6th spot. Most of the Rangers World was in anticipation for his announcement of becoming a professional.  To my amazement, Donuts has impressed everyone and there’s heavy talk of him playing this season, even starting the season on the Blueshirts. Even if Rozsival is still on the team by the start of the season, expect McDonagh to be called up sometime in 2010/2011. Most prospect reports on him put him as a future first line defenseman.

Michael Sauer was a surprise re-signing to me. I figured he was already given his chance to prove himself and with abundance of defensive prospects, it just seemed like he was a goner like Corey Potter (who a week ago was signed by Pittsburgh Penguins). Clearly, the Rangers are not done with Sauer and plan on utilizing him. Hockey’s Future has Sauer ranked as our 2nd best defensive prospect. This is Sauer’s “put up or shut up” contract, which could mean that we’ll also see him sometime on Tortorella’s team.

McCue was another player just recently acquired via trade with the Ducks for potato chips and a Mars bar. Well not exactly, but the trade seems like a steal at the moment. McCue, who spent most of last season between the ECHL and the AHL, has talk behind him of coming up to the NHL sometime this season. And this was when he was on the Ducks. Now that the Rangers have him, he’ll more than likely be Wolf Pack depth. Although, don’t be shocked if he comes up for a game or two. With his size, he could become quite handy in the NHL.

Earlier in June it was announced that one of our bigger prospects, Valentenko, was coming back from Russia to play in the NHL. Little did he know that he has to compete for a spot on a team riddled with defensive talent.

Jyri Niemi playing for Finland

This was also before free agency began and any trades were made. I wouldn’t put him at the top of the list, and more than likely he’ll spend most of the season on Hartford. But don’t get me wrong either, his name is still up there as a possibility to see some time in New York, especially considering he’s going into a contract season.

The trade to acquire Niemi in June added more depth to the Rangers blue line. Niemi who has, up until this upcoming season solely played in the WHL, will more than likely make the move to the AHL this year. Of course he’s further down the depth chart, but his offensive prowess will make people take notes. And with the lack of offensive defensemen, Niemi has a little bit of a niche in the Rangers organization. I think he’ll also spend most, if not all, of his season on the Wolf Pack, but there’s talk of him having a shot to come up as well.

As the offseason progresses, only time will tell as to what the situation of the Rangers’ blue line will become. Like Sather said though, he still has some tinkering to do and we’re not close to finished. But after going over who we have at the time being and what their capabilities are, I think we have a better understanding of where we’re going to be at the start of the season.

According to Bleacher Report (HA!), Glen Sather is seriously looking into trading Marian Gaborik to the Los Angeles Kings to make room to sign Ilya Kovalchuk. The rumor says that the Kings are willing to Justin Williams and two prospects for Gaborik. There was also talk of the Maple Leafs being interested in a trade but the validity of even that stretch can’t be made.  Before we even get into how utterly stupid this trade would be, especially considering we just signed Gaborik last offseason, lets attack look at who we’re dealing with here.

This is Bleacher Report, you’re lucky if these guys know what a decent rumor even looks like. These are the same guys that were excited about the Dan Girardi signing and think we should get rid of Marc Staal.
BR’s source of this particular rumor is Hockey Buzz’s writer, Eklund. The article started yesterday on Hockey Buzz’s website and then Bleacher Report got a hold of it so of course from there it spreads like wildfire. Eklund is shady enough on his own account. Many readers believe that Eklund, himself, creates these rumors to get views. All in all, he’s wrong a large majority of the time. Personally, I haven’t followed Eklund enough to develop an opinion on him, but I did a lot of research on this rumor, it’s sources, and its validity.

Now back to the rumor itself. Right off the bat, it sounds preposterous and usually, something that sounds that ridiculous, is really just that ridiculous. As a Ranger fan though, you’re weary, because its not like Glen Sather hasn’t performed crazy retarded acts before. So almost anything sounds like a possibility as long as you put Rangers in the title. It could read “Rangers Sign Gretzky Lindros Bure at End of Career”, oh yeah, it did… Case in point. Clearly, we’re prone to situations that just don’t apply to your normal hockey club.
Regardless, why would we go after someone who most of NY loves, is one of the few bright spots, is one of the only “rights” amid a cluster of “wrongs” in Sather’s repertoire, and who is probably a better overall player for Kovalchuk?  It just doesn’t make sense, almost no fans want to see this occur. When Gaborik is healthy, he can put up virtually the same numbers that Kovy can and seeing that he played 78 games last year (a lot of those hurt), I think he’s fine where he is. Not to mention the extra $1-3 million dollars extra that Kovalchuk will add to our salary cap (in comparison to Gaborik’s $7.5 hit) because he thinks he’s God’s gift to hockey.
Don’t get me wrong, if this were last year and both were free agents, and we had the ability to choose from both looking at them going into their respective free agencies, I’d rather us sign Kovy than Gaborik. I think most people would agree with me here, solely regarding the fact that Kovy is much less injury prone than Gaborik is. But now that we have Gaborik, I’m happy, this isn’t yesteryear, you can’t go by what if’s. We have Gaborik, we like him, we want to build develop around him.

Even if this rumor were true, which in high probability it is not, the situation itself is just not physically possible yet. Thanks to a reader on BR, Scott R, he posted and broke down why Kovy going anywhere other than NJ is just not possible at the moment, let alone “a deal made by the end of the night”.

If the NHLPA does not timely dispute and refer to the
Arbitrator such rejection in the manner set forth in Section 11.5(g) above (5 days), then
immediately upon the expiration of the time period within which the NHLPA may
dispute and refer to the Arbitrator such rejection, the SPC or Offer Sheet, as the
case may be, will be deemed null and void

As stated before it is NOT null and void yet. This is the same as fighting a suspension, the player can still play after being suspended if he is fighting it.
Here is how Kovy becomes UFA. ANY of these happen

A. NHLPA does not file, and the Devils don’t ask them to, after 5 days Kovy is UFA
B. If they do file, and after an arbitrator is selected, and they eventually lose, Kovy is UFA
C. NHLPA does file and Kovy decides he does not want to file, a reason could be this thing will be dragged out for weeks and Kovy will be in a flux,
not on a team, but can’t talk to other teams because he is technically signed to the Devils, then he is a UFA

-Scott R

This only goes to add to my statement the other day, don’t believe everything you read from Bleacher Report. And I’m not saying you do, I just hear it being quoted as a guidebook sometimes, when it clearly shouldn’t be.

We can only hope that this is one rumor that certainly is NOT true.

Glen Sather was busy recently adding depth and talent to our Wolf Pack and maybe future Rangers this season.

Lately Sather re-signed Michael Sauer and Brodie Dupont back to the Rangers organization.

Dupont has had his struggles since being drafted by the Rangers in the 3rd Round in 2005. The Left Winger excelled in the WHL, but once he came to the Wolf Pack he just couldn’t put anywhere near the same numbers having his best year in the AHL in the 2008/09 season with 18 goals and 42 points in 79 games. He has yet to play one NHL game, but it looks as though Sather isn’t giving up on him yet by making this contract.

Sauer, another 2005 draft pick taken in the 2nd Round was also given an extended stay by Slats. Sauer is one of our top defensive prospects, but his only problem is he’s on a defensive heavy team. Ryan McDonagh becoming a professional only made that process take longer as McDonuts will probably be on the Rangers at some point this season. Depending on the Redden/Roszival situation, Sauer could see some chances this season. And that wouldn’t be a bad thing considering this man had a +29 plus/minus last season on the Wolf Pack.

Also adding to Wolf Pack depth the Rangers made another trade with the Anaheim Ducks acquiring defensive prospect Matt McCue. McCue was undrafted but has great size (6′5″, 220 lbs). The Rangers traded Tomas Zaborsky, a 5th Round pick from 2006, for McCue who is sure to just take the roster spot that seems like Corey Potter will leave open. Last season, McCue spent his season going back and forth between the ECHL and the AHL, so don’t expect to see him in a Rangers uniform during the regular season anytime soon.

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Marc Staal (STILL not signed) was at least almost verified to be a Ranger regardless of what happens. This today on rangers.nhl.com:

“Obviously we want to get Marc Staal signed,” said Sather. “If someone comes along and gives him an offer sheet, which is always possible, we’ll match it. But we are going to keep negotiating with him.”

That’s good to hear. Which brings me to my next point. According to Bleacher Report, we should let Staal go. I’ve heard many complaints about Bleacher Report, one even asking “Does Bleacher Report ever know what they’re talking about?” I sometimes use Bleacher Report for updates and news, but their opinions are sometimes just mind boggling. I don’t recommend them as a place to go to for opinions on almost anything. They’re not bad for rumors, and their Top lists, but I’ve heard from many people that they don’t understand how the writers their got their jobs. Read at your own risk. Ha.

When I interned at the New York Islanders it was quite clear from the thoughts of everyone there that the Lighthouse Project would probably never happen. They advertise it often enough, and I won’t name names of course, but virtually none of the employees thought the Lighthouse would ever take off. It has now become a figurative pissing contest between Mr. Charles Wang (pronounced Wong), owner of the Islanders, and Kate Murray, the supervisor for the Town of Hempstead (the township the Islanders play in – Uniondale is in Hempstead which is in Nassau County). And it seems neither side is budging.

How is this related to the Rangers?

Simple. Besides being a division rival, as a Long Islander, its nice to actually have a Long Island franchise (NO, THE METS DON’T COUNT – THEY’RE IN QUEENS, NOT LONG ISLAND).  The Coliseum is easy to get to, and not nearly as much traffic getting to a game, whether it be for the now defunct New York Dragons or an Islander game. Trust me, there are A LOT of Ranger fans out here on the Island. Nassau and Suffolk Counties alone account for over 3 million people. Many of them sports fans, because as we all know, New York is a sports haven. Plus, when the Islanders play the Rangers, Nassau Coliseum always sells out and the fan population becomes 50/50 representation of fans. Often, Ranger fans even out populate Islander fans in their own arena, no joke. In fact, they are the only tickets during the season that are impossible to get free tickets to. When I say free tickets, I don’t mean the team giving them to fans either. No fan can redeem free tickets for a Ranger/Islander game and no employee from the Islanders ocan even give free tickets to friends, family, or even clients. Talking to an employee during my time there he said it would take two season for Islander fans to out populate Ranger fans in the Coliseum during games. This is because those games are the first to sell out in the beginning of the season and the Islanders would have to have an amazing season and THEN next year’s ticket sales would improve so that the games can be better distributed in home team favor. Highly unlikely for awhile. The NHL is the only league to have 3 teams bleed one market, and for the longest time it was working, until recently. The Islanders organization loses around $30 million a year every year. A large part is due to their contract with the owners of Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The Islanders do not own the arena they play in, the County of Nassau owns Nassau Coliseum, and they have Spectacor Management Group (SMG) manage the facility.  The deal they have with them, is that the Islanders don’t make money on parking or concessions (two LARGE sources of revenue for any sporting organization). That means the only main real sources of revenue streams they have come from ticket sales and merchandise. Two things that are hinging on the team’s performance. And when the team has only made the playoffs once in the past 5 seasons, their ticket sales are not booming.

Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum a.k.a. "The Barn"

What also doesn’t help this factor? The fact that the “barn” they play in is now the second oldest arena in hockey, behind, of course, Madison Square Garden. Huge difference between the two arenas, though, as most people know. Nassau Coliseum is an old ratty building showing the signs of old age. For one, the seats are terrible. Most of them are cushions with wooden arm bars. Consider yourself lucky if you have an arm-bar at all and there isn’t a spring sticking in your ass. When you get down to the more expensive seats, the 100’s (which are a joke – I wouldn’t pay more than $25 for these seats), you start walking on metal extensions. These things are flimsy at best, and at some points just sink down. I mean if this was 1979, it would be a fine place to watch a hockey game, but the Coliseum is INCREDIBLY BEHIND the times and desperately needs an overhaul. This is part of the reason Mr. Wang bought the team in the first place. He was under the impression that he’d be able to work with the town to build a new arena and revitalize the area and the organization. Cut to 10 years later, a partner down from the original purchase, a failing system (thanks in large part to Mike Milbury), a public regret of buying the team at all, and Mr. Wang is no closer than when he began. He’s a business man, he owns(ed) many corporations and is very smart at making them great. Why not trust this man with the land in front of him? He wants to make a large overhaul to the area surrounding Nassau Coliseum, and no they would not be knocking it down and starting anew. Its a large renovation that would take years/seasons to finish. Murray pissed on these dreams last season when in early October, Wang gave her a deadline, it came and went and then he announced he was open to selling the team, moving the team, he just didn’t care anymore. On Tuesday, Murray sent Wang a new revised plan of his original Lighthouse Project that he called “economically unviable”. Both parties are extremely stubborn on the matter and probably won’t be shaking hands any time soon. The proposed plan still calls for the Coliseum renovation, but severely scales down the high-rises and housing units that are also included in the project. Granted he’s asking for quite a bit, but can’t we just agree to renovate the Coliseum and then negotiate your other ridiculous demands? Islander fans will be happy enough with the renovated arena to come back. Hockey fans don’t care about your housing units and your future vision for Nassau County.

Now what seemed as ridiculous ideas, could be very possible solutions in the Islanders moving. There are two popular opinions on where the Islanders could be going. One is the well known and commonly talked about move to Willits Point where the New York Mets play. Jeff Wilpon, owner of the Mets, has been basically open-arms to the Islanders move over there. This is very possible, and benifits both parties. The only people it screws are the actual Long Islanders. You’re now in the city, although it’d be hilarious, you might as well call yourself the New York Queens at that point. Oh boy, I can hear the Ranger fans chanting “NEW YORK QUEENS” already. Loving it.
The other option, that would help them stay is if the Shinnecock nation comes to the rescue and says that the land where they currently play in Hempstead is what they want and work with Wang to build the Lighthouse project. This is very possible as well as the Shinnecock nation has recently won a long standing battle and to sum it up, basically get to choose anywhere they want to build a casino or whateverhaveyou that they want. Islander fans have been waiting for their win hoping to see a light at the end of their tunnel. Problem is, Shinnecock has the open possibility of anywhere they want, including much more viable options than Uniondale. Also, its believed they may want to build something close to the liking of the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, and if that’s true, than the Lighthouse Project is not down their alley. To add to the insurmountable options that they already have, the Shinnecock nation has been getting crap from the Town of Southampton for over 350 years, so you could see them going after the thorn in their side for all we know. Only time will tell for this story.

What I do know though, as a Ranger fan, and more importantly as a Long Islander, I don’t want to see the New York Islanders move anywhere off the island. In fact, despite our hatred for the Islanders and Islander fans especially, no Ranger fan I know, wants to see them move far away. We want them right where they are, so we can continue hating them and chant “FISHSTICKS!” and “POTVIN SUCKS” whenever possible.

Now enjoy your corny Lighthouse Project viral video.

Today the Rangers signed 26 year old right winger Jeremy Williams. Details of the contract are not known at this time.

It would appear this signing was to add depth to the Hartford Wolf Pack, but I would have to say that this has promise. In his short 4 year career he has played 31 NHL games accumulating 9 goals and 11 points with a 22% shooting percentage.  These are actually decent numbers, and its quite surprising that Toronto never gave him a chance. He was then acquired by the Detroit Red Wings organization, but never played an NHL game staying on their AHL affiliate, Grand Rapids Griffins. On the Griffins he put up 63 Points, 32 of them being goals in 77 games.

Granted he’ll be a Wolf Pack member, but I would not be sad to see him come up when there’s an injury.

On another interesting note, Williams played on the Griffins with other Ranger free agent signing Kris Newbury. That teamwork will come in handy in Hartford.

Click here to see his NHL goals…

Williams scores while on Grand Rapids

Nikolai Zherdev is back in the National Hockey League, but this time he’ll be in a new uniform.

The Philadelphia Flyers doing more to build up their team signed Zherdev yesterday late afternoon to a one year deal worth $2 million. He’ll definitely have to re-build his reputation after the year he had with the Rangers and even his year off in the KHL putting up mediocre numbers (52GP – 13 G – 39 P). His stats on the Rangers were not terrible (82GP – 23G – 58P) and weren’t a major drop off from his Blue Jacket years, but fans and the team wanted more out of him, especially out of his defensive play. Even though he put up good numbers and scored over 20 Goals, he seemed to not care about the team, he played for himself, and was utterly useless once the playoffs came. Then, kind of what like Illya Kovalchuk is doing now, priced himself out of the league by asking for an exorbitant amount of money which he did not deserve.

Must be a Russian thing.

Now after a year out of the NHL, he’s been forced to take a drastic pay cut from his previous desired salary and even from the one he was actually getting. Only he can redeem himself, and at still only 25 years old, he has plenty of time. It’d be nice to see him resurrect his career. He’s a fun player to watch when he’s on his game and wants to play (rare).

This move also appears to be the final shove in “Pushing Simon Gagne Out Game”. Zherdev’s $2 mil hit on the Flyers cap puts them over by $1.5 mil and Gagne’s hefty $5.25 million brick of a contract is just holding the team down. Look for him to be dealt sometime this offseason.
Now to make this really fun, Gagne has a no-trade clause so this good get ugly if he doesn’t want to leave.

Boy, who wouldn’t love the Flyers to implode on each other? Cat fight!

Just announced via NY Rangers Twitter, the New York Rangers trade LW Aaron Voros and LW Ryan Hillier to the Anaheim Ducks for D Steve Eminger.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of Eminger’s since he was on the Washington Capitals. He’s a stay at home defenseman and still decently young at 26 (turns 27 on Halloween). I’m ecstatic about this trade. This is a good solid trade, especially considering Voros’s career in NY was virtually over and Hillier was a 3rd Round pick in 2006 that never really amounted to anything.

Eminger was likely acquired to take the place of the hole that Wade Redden will create when we shove his lump down to Hartford. Considering the high priced signings, it looks almost for certain that Redden will be put on the Wolf Pack before October 1st. But if by some miracle and Redden stays, look for Eminger to take the spot of maybe Michael Del Zotto or Matt Gilroy. They’ve been going back and forth from the Pack late last season.