|
|
By Zach Schiff  November 8, 2009, at 2:34 am  I started compiling this list after I was at the Ranger-Islander game at the Coliseum last Wednesday and saw Nikolai Zherdev and Lauri Korpikoski standing next to each other. Of course, it wasn’t actually them, but two people who paid a combined $360 for the jerseys of two players who no longer play on the Rangers.
Yet, some players no longer play in New York, but you can still wear their jersey and be proud of it. And even further, there are some players who play here whose jersey should not be worn, and if it is, you should be ridiculed.
Think you’re safe? Check the list…
Good (Wear Proudly)
Jaromir Jagr #68 (had a great resurgence in NY; since he didn’t win a Cup, you have about 2 more years with this jersey before you should move on)
Brendan Shanahan #14 (I would never fault someone for having a Shanny jersey)
Henrik Lundqvist #30
Blair Betts #15/19; Jed Ortmeyer #41 (you can wear there jerseys for years and they would be appropriate)
Nigel Dawes #10 ; Petr Prucha #25 (it’s not your fault they were traded)
Sean Avery #16
Dan Girardi #5; Brandon Dubinsky #17; Marc Staal #18; Ryan Callahan #24; Artem Anisimov #42
Mike Del Zotto #4; Matt Gilroy #97 (buy with no hesitation; there two will be around a while)
Marian Gaborik #10
Steve Rucchin #20 (because I have one, and every once in a while, I still wear it)
Petr Nedved #93
Brian Leetch #2; Adam Graves #9; Mark Messier #11; Mike Richter #35
Jeff Beukeboom #23 (or mostly any member from the 1994 Cup team)
Ales Kotalik #12; Vinny Prospal #20; Martin Straka #82; Michael Nylander #92 (not the superstar of the team, but they compliment a Jagr or Gaborik well)
Eddie Giacomin #1; Rod Gilbert #7; Andy Bathgate #9; Ron Duguay #10 (or any other number he wore); Phil Esposito #77 (if you were old enough to watch these players play)
Iffy (Wear Cautiously)
Darius Kasparaitis #6; Pavel Bure #9; Theo Fleury #14 (I don’t mind the players, but it’s time for a new one, don’t you think?)
#28 Colton Orr (had a solid season last year, but there weren’t other choices?)
#99 Wayne Gretzky (can’t fault a Gretzky jersey, but it has been a decade since he left and he was in the twilight of his great career here. If he won a Cup, that would be different, of course.)
Alex Kovalev #27 (hey, he still might come back, and after all, he did win the Cup here as a rookie)
Chris Drury #23 (you obviously bought it during the summer of 2007 when you thought he’d be a superstar in New York, but he plays hard enough most of the time to warrant wearing him on your back… sometimes)
Bad (Give Them Away to the Garden of Dreams Foundation)
(Before you ask, yes, I have seen all of these jerseys recently.)
Dale Purinton #5 (seriously, I once saw one)
Andy Bathgate #9 (if you were born after 1955, you should not wear a Bathgate jersey. If you have seen him play in person, go for it.)
Lauri Korpikoski #29; Fedor Tyutin #51 (while it’s not your fault they were traded, it’s your fault for buying one in the first place)
Wade Redden #6 (must’ve been a present)
Ivan Baranka #21 (one NHL game and you have a jersey?)
Steve Valiquette #40 (you got it to be different, admit it)
Michal Rozsival #33
Eric Lindros #88 (Only one other jersey makes me madder, and I even have a Lindros jersey… safely in my closet. While Lindros, the player, wasn’t awful, this jersey symbolizes a horrible stretch of time in Rangers history and wearing it only brings up good memories. No one goes, “Oh, the Lindros Era! What a jolly time!”)
Luc Robitaille #20 (he wasn’t here long enough/didn’t play good enough to warrant having his jersey still 10 years later)
Chris Higgins #21 (until he proves otherwise)
Nik Zherdev #13
Markus Naslund #91
Ryan Hollweg #44 (Yes, I have one – I got it after his great 2005-06 season – and no, I’ll probably never wear it again, even though about 15 players have signed it)
Tom Poti #3/16
Dan Blackburn #31 (by this logic, you should’ve gotten a Lundqvist when he first came up)
And the worst Rangers jersey to wear…
Scott Gomez #19 (You bought it when he was signed. He never did anything in New York except play well against them. Everyone sighed when he was finally traded. Yet, you continue to wear this on your back when real players like Prospal and Gaborik actually show up to play. If you have a Scott Gomez jersey, please don’t wear it. No one wants to see it, no one wants to remember him.)
By Zach Schiff August 18, 2009, at 1:06 am If Vinny Prospal actually does become 1st-line center and has a pretty decent year, it will be a huge bargain.
A “pretty decent year” for a 1st-line center in the Rangers’ eyes is probably somewhere over 60 points, seeing as Scott Gomez had 58 last year (in 77 games). As in, “Oh, well, it was an improvement over Gomez.”
A “pretty decent year” for someone making only $1.1M/year is somewhere around 30 points. As in, “Prospal played 3rd-line winger and scored 30 points. Not bad for 1.1 mill.”
So imagine if he does score 65-70 points at only $1.1M? It will make a failure to trade for Brad Richards – a highly rumored, if possibly majorly incorrect school-of-thought – seem like the best thing that never happened.
No, before you attack and ask how many points Gomez would’ve had with Gaborik on his wing instead of the Ukranian Harry Houdini and an older, slower version of Markus Naslund, the answer is “a lot.”
Gomez probably would’ve hit 80 points with Gaborik knocking the low-angle shots from the perimeter that he always took. But, with Gomez’s money on the books, there is no way Gaborik in Manhattan ever would’ve happen. Thanks to the Great Fleece of ‘09, Gomez is wearing #91 next year in Quebec and Gaborik resumes the storied career of #10 on Broadway (as long as he triples Nigel Dawes’ career-high of 29 points, I’ll be happy).
Okay, I’ve said enough. All I meant today was that I do like the thought of Prospal playing for the Rangers, and if he happens to bounce back from a poor year last year (to be fair, everyone in Tampa Bay had a poor year – St. Louis, 80 points, Lecavalier, 67 points) than that would be fantastic.
And, yes, a great deal.
By Zach Schiff August 4, 2009, at 12:33 pm After Nik Zherdev was awarded a $3.9M, one-year contract by an arbitrator, Glen Sather had this to say.
“[He] will score as many goals in 2009-10 in a Rangers uniform as he did in April of 2009 in a Rangers uniform. None.”
Okay, that is a fake quote. I admit it. But, true, no?
Imagine Zherdev’s last goal as a Ranger wasn’t in a late-March shootout loss to an atrocious Atlanta team. Imagine he scored in the stretch-drive to the playoffs. Imagine he at least registered an assist in 7 playoff games. What if he scored when Game 7 was tied 1-1? What if he popped one in with 6 minutes left in the 3rd period in that game, changing the outcome, and the Rangers went on the play the Bruins in Round 2?
I assume if any of those happened, Sather would’ve atleast given his award a 2nd thought. We can assume that once the award went above, say, $3.5M, Zherdev was history.
All those sites saying “sign & trade” since even before the arbitration hearing? Maybe it was a thought, but it was never feasible. Why would a team, any team, do that, when they can have him for just money a day or two later? Maybe so a different team won’t sign him. But I can only see that if this is a Joe Sakic, a Jay Bouwmeester, even a Ryan Callahan. But is any team really that desperate for a sometimes-there-sometimes-not winger who scored 58 points last season?
In all honesty, all Zherdev is is a highly-touted winger from Russia who plays great 20 games out of the year. He has never scored more than 61 points in a season, and 58 represents his second best season ever.
For the record, I completely loved the deal when he came from Columbus. Fedor Tyutin was serviceable but never would live up to his potential. Christian Backman was a bum who I would’ve been happy if he was given away to a team. So you were saying we got rid of those 2 and got Dan Fritsche and Zherdev? Great.
However, he lost me down the stretch. No points in 7 playoff games, and he wants a raise? Get real. Maybe in non-Salary Cap world, but when better talent is available for cheaper or equal value, Zherdev is entirely expendable. Why waste almost $4M on him when you need someone to pass the puck to Marian Gaborik?
Sather is completely correct in walking away from this contract. Any other GM might be nuts to sign him for so much when he has shown so little. I mean, if Sather thought it was too high… after all, this is the man who thought a 31-year old Wade Redden was worthy of not only $6.5M/year, but a 6-year contract.
Update: 4:52 P.M.: Just my two cents on where I think Zherdev will land, if he does play in the NHL. I’d expect him to go to one of the 4 crappy Southern teams on a one-year deal: Atlanta, Phoenix, Tampa Bay, or Florida.
By Zach Schiff July 29, 2009, at 9:05 pm Yes, we are still alive. However, with temperatures in the mid 80s and rain escaping us (save for the lightning storms we are currently having), nothing has been going on in the hockey world, and we’ve been on mini-hiatus.
Two things of note though. With the money saved on Nik Zherdev, who is probably 90% not returning after the Rangers low-balled him (the arbitration process is simply going through the motions, I would think, to sever ties with him), the Rangers got Ales Kotalik. Wouldn’t it also be nice to sign Alex Tanguay to a 1- or 2-year deal in the $3M range? Don’t you think he’d rather play with Marian Gaborik in Manhattan than with Kyle Turris in the desert?
And about Phoenix: Why is the NHL so intent on making this mistake work? I wrote about it two months ago, and it still stands. This team has lost $60M over the past season. It won’t get better, no matter who is running the show. It’s hockey. It’s a desert. The only desert city I can see with hockey is Las Vegas. Not Phoenix (or Glendale, or Scottsdale, or Sedona). Time to move.
Yet the NHL doesn’t accept Jim Balsillie’s bid again, even though he offered over $200M, $40M more than the guy whose bid was accepted (Jerry Reinsdorf, who owns the Bulls and White Sox).
Something’s going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about. Think about it: Let’s say you have a broken car 2,000 miles away, and 2 people wanted to buy it. One person was going to keep it in the same crappy lot and pay you $1,600 for it; one person was going to move it to an area where he could fix the car AND he’d pay you $2,100 for it. No-brainer, no?
No.
Odd.
|
|
Tags: 
