SENATORS at RANGERS Tonight 7:30 – MSG WFAN (660 AM)
When pressed on the Pavel Bure deal yesterday in Rye, Rangers GM Neil Smith chose his words like the rest of us choose a car.
He went over all of his options in his mind, trying to avoid any lemons.
Smith is a GM who is PC so he declined to outwardly criticize Vancouver’s Brian Burke, but his statements seem to underline his true sentiments.
On Sunday, Burke sent Bure, the Russian Rocket, along with defensemen Bret Hedican and Brad Ference and a third-round pick to the Panthers.
In return, Vancouver received defenseman Ed Jovanovski, 34-year-old center Dave Gagner, goaltender Kevin Weekes, center Mike Brown and a first-round draft choice.
“In Florida’s case, they get Bure instead of Gagner and they get Hedican instead of Jovanovski,” Smith said. “So it seems like the upgrade in Bure compared to Gagner way overwhelms the degrade of Jovanovski to Hedican, if you want to look at it that way. I think Florida improved its team.”
Bure didn’t play last night for the Panthers against the Sabres. Heading into that game, Florida stood deadlocked with the Rangers at 41 points. This made for a three-team tie – Montreal had 41 going into its game with Washington last night – for ninth place in the Eastern Conference.
The Rangers play Ottawa at the Garden tonight. On Thursday, they host Pavel’s Panthers. Bure is expected in Florida from Moscow today and should play against the Islanders at the Coliseum tomorrow night.
Smith tried not to question Burke’s judgment or motivation. He said he did not know much about the youngsters involved in the deal. So you be the judge of his statements.
On Burke’s initial comments:
“Brian started off his press conference I think by saying, ‘This may not look like enough,'” Smith said. “I guess he looks at it as a future deal. He sort of couched it right away.”
On the negotiations:
“All the way along he said that there were five or six teams involved,” Smith said. “It would be interesting to have all the different beat writers find out who the other five were.”
On how the talks went:
“He would always beat around the bush [as to what he wanted],” Smith said. “The main thing he would ask for is where I would be later, which gives you an indication that he probably didn’t want to trade him here or didn’t feel that we had what he wanted.”
While the Rangers GM pondered Burke’s mindset, 18-year-old center Manny Malhotra woke up around 9 a.m. yesterday and received peace of mind.
Malhotra is living with former Ranger Doug Sulliman and his family for the season. He walked downstairs yesterday to have a breakfast of bagels and cereal.
“It’s over,” Sulliman told Malhotra.
Malhotra, the Rangers’ No. 1 pick in the 1998 draft, would not be heading to Vancouver. The Canucks asked for him, goalie Dan Cloutier, wing/center Niklas Sundstrom, a first-round draft choice and about $1.5 million from the Rangers.
Smith refused, so the Sullimans still have another head at the breakast table.
“He was really happy, too,” Malhotra said of Sulliman. “I’ve become pretty comfortable with the family. I’m really part of the group there. It would have been hard to leave them.”
Cloutier also didn’t find out until yesterday when he arrived at Rye Playland, the Rangers’ practice facility.
“Me and Sunny were joking around, saying, ‘We’re still here,'” Cloutier, 22, said. *Defenseman Mathieu Schneider (sore groin) practiced yesterday and may play tonight.