Sather Looking At McCabe

We all know we’re approaching Glen Sather‘s favorite time of the year. It’s this point in the season when he can make us the most miserable, the most aggravated, and even deflate the most excited Ranger fans. Sometimes though, he makes us happy… like a blind squirrel finding a nut.

I must admit, Slats has gotten decently better at trading in the past couple seasons. He either trades away garbage and gets garbage in return, or he might actually secure something noteworthy. In fact, we’re looking at two 2nd Round draft picks next year because of him, and don’t say “meh”, either. Fedor Tyutin, Brandon Dubinsky, Derek Stepan, and Artem Anisimov were all 2nd rounders the Sather chose in the past decade. His trading skills are normally a C+, but sometimes he gets a B+. If Wolski had better production, that trade might have been an A-.

The only reason we haven’t seen another trade as of yet, is because the Rangers keep getting injured and we have yet to find a rhythm. Sather had this to say to The New York Post:

"“The last few weeks have made it a little more difficult to evaluate because first we had all those injuries and now with the guys coming back we’ve lost our rhythm,” GM Glen Sather told The Post after the match.“I think we have enough depth in the organization where if a move would make sense we would probably do that now.“But I’m not going to give up a valuable piece. I don’t think that makes any sense.”"

This guy couldn’t evaluate his own dirty laundry. Smell after smell, he’d get confused and throw money at it.
On the good side, Sather said he won’t give up a first round pick, a top prospect, or even young roster players. He sounds as demanding as Brian Burke when talking about Kaberle. Still, he look around the NHL for offers and players near their mid-life crisis. Who’s atop of this list? Bryan McCabe.

I mean why not? McCabe was only drafted a week after Stepan’s 3rd birthday. McCabe is currently in hockey hell a.k.a. the Florida Panthers and has been sentenced there since 2008 when the Panthers threw money at people in an attempt to win more than 35 games in a season. As much as anyone can rip McCabe for his age, 35, McCabe has always been a producing D-man, who saw his best years with Mats Sundin and Thomas Kaberle in his power play unit. Honestly, with our depleted defensive unit, and not one true offensive defender, I say go for it. If Florida is willing to take nothing special from us, then I could see it happening. I can see McCabe for Evgeny Grachev working out. Grachev is taking a little longer than we would like to mature and adapt, and is starting to look like the Forward version of Bobby Sanguinetti. The Panthers might want a bit more, which I’m sure we can throw a 3rd or 4th round pick in there to make it work. Either way, expect Sather to inquire about the defender, who might return from a broken jaw tomorrow, in fact, when they host the Philadelphia Flyers (Go Panthers!).

The Rangers General Manager is looking for a quarterback at the point to lead the Rangers power play into many victories. He’s been performing this search since 2000. In fact, almost every defender Sather has brought in not via the draft, has been as close to God awful as anyone could get.  In recent years, Slats drafted Michael Del Zotto to be groomed for this position. Although MDZ had his up’s at times, this has been an extremely slow transition and is currently fighting to stay out of the AHL. Before MDZ, was the huge lucrative (for him) signing of Wade Redden. Honestly, the mere mention of his name makes me so angry inside, that I want to yell obscenities and punch a small child.

But it isn’t just the quarterback position of the power-play our illustrious President has trouble looking for. This man couldn’t find a good defender if Chris Pronger himself hip-checked Slats in a hallway. I think we can all think of a few “stand-out” (not in a good way)  defenders that Glen Sather has put a Rangers jersey on. Here’s a few of my favorites:

• Darius Kasparitus – Kaspar got a 6-year, $25 million contract to push some people around, forget how to defend, and then fade away into the AHL and out of our minds. He was a poor man’s Wade Redden.
• Michal Rozsival – This underachieving, non-physical player got a four year deal of $25 million just for being Czech. Well, I don’t know of any other reason that makes sense. We all know about him, and rejoiced in his departure. Best thing about #3? We retired it, while he was on the team and forced him to change his number. Ha. Sadly, Rozy was the most successful of any Sather acquired blue-liner.
• Derek Morris – Morris was a renter who I suppose was going to propel us into the 2009 Playoffs. In 18 games he had a 8 assists and a +3. Thank god we didn’t re-sign him after that season. In what was clearly a salary dump, Morris was solely acquired for Petr Prucha (who had mild success again in Phoenix), Nigel Dawes (meh), and my next waste of a point man Sather signed…
• Dmitri Kalinin – Kalinin was Morris’s first half of the season counterpart. Dmitri was signed in the 2008 offseason after only playing 46 games the previous season on a talented Buffalo Sabres roster. Slats must have thought if Buffalo was good, that Kalinin must have been good, too. Either that or he’s dumb… nahhhhhhhh.
• Brian Leetch – no, Sather didn’t sign him, Sather was the one that got RID of him. Felt like putting it on here, because it shows he clearly dislikes good talented defensemen. Best Rangers D-man of all-time and Slats trades him for Max Kondratiev and Jarkko Immonen. Who? Exactly.
• Tom Poti – Garbage is what we traded away for Poti, and garbage is what we got in return. Poti was Sather’s first try at the power play quarterback, until Fedor Tyutin took the reins. Poti was so terrible that whenever he touched the puck Madison Square Garden rained in boo’s, and cheered whenever it was his turn to change lines. Poti was on the team for 3 and a half seasons before going to the dark side (Islanders – not like anyone cared) in 2006. And or course, that brings me to…
• Wade Redden – What can I say about Wade that hasn’t already been said? Not much. Obviously brought in to fill the gap at quarterback and instead, just fell in the gap. All I can really say is that the Rangers have to pay him $6.5 million a year until 2014, unless there is a GM out there dumber than Glen Sather willing to make the deal of the century. I mean it’s not COMPLETELY unlikely, we did once acquire Jaromir Jagr for Anson Carter and split the bill with the Capitals, too.

I could’ve kept going, but I didn’t want to make this article ridiculous. I wonder if he just throws a dart with $100’s on it at a dart board with random defenders’ faces plastered all over it. My suggestion, hire Brian Leetch as an advisor to help you find talent, because for 10 years now, it’s not working.