LOS ANGELES — It’s done. For better or worse, Olli Jokinen is a Ranger.
In a trade that seemed to take longer to complete than the one that sent Wayne Gretzky from Edmonton to L.A. back in 1988, the Rangers late last night acquired Jokinen and Brandon Prust from Calgary in exchange for Ales Kotalik and Christopher Higgins.
The deal, announced in the wee hours Eastern time, had had been held up for a couple of days while Kotalik played Hamlet, pondering whether to waive his three-team no-trade clause that included the Flames.
Jokinen and Prust, who both played in the Flames’ 3-0 loss to the Flyers in Calgary last night before the transaction was announced — how bizarre is that? — are expected to join the Blueshirts for tonight’s game against the Kings.
The key player in the deal for the offense-challenged Blueshirts is Jokinen, the very talented 31-year-old center who has scored 34 goals or more in four seasons, but who also has a terrible reputation around the league as a selfish player who also is a bad teammate.
GM Glen Sather did well to move Kotalik, whom he signed to a three-year, $9 million free-agent contract over the summer who but fell quickly out of favor with head coach John Tortorella and became a shell of himself over the last month.
Higgins, who came to the Rangers from Montreal over the summer in the Scott Gomez trade, has struggled mightily, recording only 14 points (6-8), while seemingly losing all confidence around the net.
Still, even if the Rangers don’t seem to be subtracting all that much of immediate value, one wonders what the dynamic will be like with Jokinen, who was unable to develop any sort of rapport with All-Star right winger Jarome Iginla after joining the Flames at last year’s trade deadline.
Jokinen, who has scored 34 goals or more in four of his 10 NHL seasons, including a 39-goal and 91-point season three years ago for the Panthers, has 35 points (11-24) in 56 games this season.
That point total places him third on the Rangers behind Marian Gaborik (33-32–65) and Vinny Prospal (9-30–39), the wingers he is likely to skate between on the club’s first line.
Prust, who will turn 26 next month, has engaged in 18 fights this season, second in the NHL to Tampa Bay’s Zenon Konopka. His acquisition certainly will have an impact on incumbent fourth-line pugilist Aaron Voros, extremely popular and respected in the room, and on Donald Brashear, who has been scratched from eight of the last nine games.
Jokinen, who carries a cap hit of $5.25M, is a rental for the Rangers, eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer.