Jaromir Jagr will not be going to Dallas, a well-placed source yesterday told The Post.
And while that in and of itself doesn’t guarantee that No. 68 is Broadway bound, Ranger chances for pulling off a blockbuster with Pittsburgh grew exponentially with the elimination of one of the few teams out there with both the financial and player personnel resources to make such a trade.
It had been believed that the Stars, who last week were willing to deal Darryl Sydor and Brendan Morrow to the Flyers for Eric Lindros, were prepared to augment that package in order to get Jagr. But a source yesterday said that Dallas’ free-agent signings of Pierre Turgeon and Donald Audette signaled the end of their summer business, though the team is nosing around Valeri Kamensky.
There is a possibility that Detroit might jump in with a package featuring Sergei Fedorov and Chris Osgood, especially if the Red Wings succeed in signing free agent Alexander Mogilny. And, silly as it may seem on the surface, there is a chance that the Blues, who still have a truckload of prospects and are barely (if at all) improved after essentially swapping Turgeon, Jochen Hecht, Marty Reasoner and Roman Turek for Doug Weight and Fred Brathwaite, will become a factor.
But if those teams stay out of the picture, the Rangers are likely to have no legitimate opposition in their bid to get the 29- year-old, four-times running Art Ross Trophy winner. In that case, it will be a matter of Glen Sather satisfying Craig Patrick.
“I phoned Craig [Sunday] and he was out mowing the lawn, so I don’t know that there’s any urgency on his part,” Sather said. “Other than that, I don’t have anything more to say about Jagr.”
Over the last 13 months, Sather and his staff have done an outstanding job of assembling a stable of young players within an organization that had been bereft of legitimate prospects. The problem is, no one really knows if any of them, and that includes both Pavel Brendl and Jamie Lundmark, will ever be able to contribute to a meaningful degree on an NHL level. But at least spots have been opened.
While the Rangers sniffed at the high-end items available upon Sunday’s opening bell of the free-agent market, they did sign mean-edged defensemen Igor Ulanov ($6M over three years) and David Karpa ($3.3M over two years).
“They’re both competitive, tough, aggressive, good-size guys and great team guys, and that’s what I was really looking for,” said Sather.
“I felt that we didn’t compete hard enough and in the right way last year. I want to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
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The Rangers, who chose to allow Brad Brown to become a free agent by not offering an $880,000 qualifier, would like to re-sign the 25-year-old defenseman at a lower rate, The Post has learned.