It was arguably the biggest trade-deadline move in franchise history, and now the Rangers have to hope it pays off.
Before Wednesday night’s 6-1 win over the first-place Penguins, the team sent slumping star winger Marian Gaborik, along with minor league defensemen Steven Delisle and Blake Parlett, to the Blue Jackets for center Derick Brassard, defenseman John Moore and winger Derek Dorsett, plus a sixth-round pick.
Brassard and Moore, who scored twice last night, were both in the lineup at the Garden — Dorsett is injured with a broken collarbone, and expected back by season’s end.
“I’m hoping it’s going to help us with some new juice,” coach John Tortorella said before the game. “It’s part of the game, it happens a lot at deadlines, and it’s just time to play.”
After leading the team with 41 regular-season goals last year, Gaborik had nine goals through 33 games in this lockout-shortened season and that was not enough. Things came to a head with Tortorella in Ottawa last Friday when the two had a lengthy, animated conversation on the practice ice at Carleton University, but the coach does not want their relationship to be taken out of context.
“Gabby and I have a great relationship,” Tortorella said. “… He’s a good man and I’ll miss him.”
What the team won’t miss is Gaborik’s $7.5 million cap hit, which would go for next season, as well. With the cap ceiling coming down about $6 million to $64.3 million for next year, the Rangers are most concerned with getting deals done for important restricted free agents Ryan McDonagh, Derek Stepan and Carl Hagelin.
The other recent trade acquisition, power forward Ryane Clowe, will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, and is expected to at least have conversations about an extension. Clowe, 30, made his Blueshirts debut last night, as well, and also contributed a pair of goals.
Leading the new group is Brassard, 25, who was the sixth overall pick of the Blue Jackets in 2006 and had centered star winger Rick Nash in Columbus before last summer’s deal which brought Nash to Broadway.
Moore, 22, is still a work in progress on the blue line, but is noted as a fantastic skater who can add some depth to a defensive corps made shallow by Marc Staal’s absence.
As Gaborik said on a conference call, “it’s nice to be on a team that wants me,” and that might not always have been evident during his tenure in New York. At times Tortorella relegated him to the fourth line, and at times benched him entirely.