EDMONTON, Alberta — The Rangers’ sound of silence regarding Marc Staal is deafening.
The standard “nothing new” becomes more ominous by the day as it relates to the health of the 24-year-old defenseman, who apparently still is feeling after-effects of the concussion he sustained on a hit from his brother, Eric, in Carolina eight months ago today.
After signals had been sent early this week the club was preparing to announce the alternate captain would begin skating following a series of exams and treatments that included a cortisone injection in his neck on Sept. 26 and repeated acupuncture beginning the week of Oct. 10, a cone of silence has been dropped over the situation.
Secondarily, the “no news” becomes equally ominous for the team, which has managed to win two straight heading into tonight’s match against the Oilers despite spending huge portions of each of the last two contests in its own end of the ice, scrambling to get possession and clear the zone behind a blue line that’s just stretched too thin.
The condition on defense will improve when Michael Sauer, rehabbing a previously separated and later aggravated right shoulder, returns to the lineup, but there still will be a massive hole to fill.
The young pair of Michael Del Zotto and Tim Erixon had its best game in Thursday’s 3-2 overtime victory in Calgary, and indeed was the club’s steadiest tandem in the match during which the Dan Girardi-Ryan McDonagh top pair suffered through hiccups and the Steve Eminger-Jeff Woywitka duo had a rough go of it throughout.
The Rangers are getting by, but McDonagh, Del Zotto and Erixon are being asked to do more than they’re able to. This experience will be a benefit over the long haul of their respective careers, but the Rangers may not be able to adequately cope with all of the associated growing pains as the season evolves without Staal in the lineup
This is why management is expected to begin a serious hunt for a defenseman to fill a top four spot, and maybe even a top pair spot with Girardi so the team can reunite McDonagh with Sauer.
The obvious place to begin the search is in Nashville, where the Predators are facing a very difficult scenario under which defenseman Ryan Suter and goaltender Pekka Rinne are both eligible to become unrestricted free agents on July 1 while defenseman Shea Weber will become a restricted free agent coming off a $7.5 million arbitration-earned contract.
Suter carries a $3.5 million cap charge, a number easy to accommodate. The Rangers have approximately $1.55 million of space available but could add to that by placing Staal on long-term injured reserve. The team would have to do some maneuvering to gain maximum advantage and space by moving Staal’s pro-rated $3.975 million off the chart, but it can be done without all that much fuss.
There would, however, be a significant price in personnel to pay for Suter, not to mention Weber (for whom the Rangers would have to move at least one significant contract the other way), not to mention any NHL upper-echelon defenseman.
General manager Glen Sather and his personnel people, including assistant GMs Jim Schoenfeld and Jeff Gorton and coach John Tortorella, will have to weigh whether it is necessary to move young blue chippers–the Predators would obviously inquire about Del Zotto, Artem Anisimov, Brandon Dubinsky, Chris Kreider and Dylan McIlrath, presuming Erixon and Ryan Callahan are off limits)–to fill an immediate need on defense.
Listen, maybe next week there will be good news on Staal. Maybe the week after or the week after that. Maybe the Rangers won’t have to move anyone.
But maybe not. Maybe Staal won’t be able to play this year.
We sure don’t know. The Rangers don’t either. This is one case where no news is not good news, not good news at all.