The window of opportunity is closing on Glen Sather as the general manager looks for a team to take Donald Brashear and his over-35, $1.4 million albatross of a cap charge off the Rangers’ books.
For if Sather, who told Slap Shots two weeks ago that Brashear never again would play for the Blueshirts following last year’s debacle, is going to be able to move the faded 38-year-old enforcer, his best chance is to do it this week, so the acquiring team has time to buy out Brashear by the June 30 deadline.
Look, the only conceivable way Sather will be able to move Brashear is by taking back a bad contract of greater value from a low-revenue team hovering around the cap floor. The Rangers could then bury that contract in the AHL, if necessary, while gaining $1.4M in critical cap space.
The acquiring team, which would suffer no harm from carrying that cap charge through the season, could then buy out the final year of Brashear’s contract for $866,667, and thus save a fair amount of cash.
We’ve located two such potential trading partners for Sather and the Rangers, who never quite have been willing to exploit the minor-league option for bad contracts that is the sole advantage available to large-market teams in this CBA.
One option is the Islanders, who would love to find a way to shed their $2.5M obligation to 35-year-old defenseman Brendan Witt, who finished the season with AHL Bridgeport after being waived through the NHL.
The other is Colorado, which would seem anxious to eliminate its $2.75M obligation to 31-year-old defenseman Tom Preissing, who played nearly all of last season with AHL Lake Erie after clearing NHL waivers.
The Islanders would save approximately $1.633M in cash by making the deal and going through with the buyout. The Avalanche would save approximately $1.883M under the same scenario.
(Yes, you are correct. Slap Shots is operating under the assumption that is inconceivable that any team in the league would actually make a straight-up trade to add Brashear to add to the lineup, but hey, there is still Darryl Sutter in Calgary, so one never knows.)
The $1.4M of space is far more valuable to the Rangers and important to Cablevision (think: playoff revenue) than the additional cash they’d have to invest in order to clear Brashear’s charge from the books. But the opportunity for making a deal will never be greater than it will be this week, when the league congregates in Los Angeles for the Entry Draft and when clubs can buy out contracts.
The Brashear signing was a mistake on every level imaginable. Sather has this week to creatively erase it.
* The Rangers were in trade talks with the Predators regarding Jason Arnott before the center was dealt to New Jersey, Slap Shots has learned.
An impeccable source reports that Nashville turned to Lou Lamoriello once Sather refused to yield the rights to Wisconsin senior defenseman Ryan McDonagh, whom the Blueshirts are attempting to sign for the coming season.
Seems to me that Montreal GM Pierre Gauthier didn’t so much choose Carey Price over Jaroslav Halak as he chose against committing a long-term, lucrative contract to Halak as the long-term answer in Montreal’s net.
The Blues’ Chris Mason now joins the goaltenders’ free agent market that is burgeoning by the day. Mason will become part of the pool seeking jobs as No. 1s that includes Evgeni Nabokov, Jose Theodore, Marty Turco and perhaps Dan Ellis.
Marty Biron, Johan Hedberg, Antero Nittymaki, Andrew Raycroft, Patrick Lalime, Alex Auld and presumably Michael Leighton will be among those in the pool of potential backups.
It’s a fact. The Flyers made it to the Final despite the leaks in net. But it would be the height of folly for GM Paul Holmgren to expect a repeat, for how likely is it that the Flyers would ever get a repeat of the playoff draw in which they faced the three lowest-scoring playoff qualifiers in the conference, one after another (Devils 8th, Bruins 7th, Canadiens 6th)?
Philadelphia played one team that could score, Chicago, and lost to the Blackhawks on a terrible goal. Thirty-five years will be 36 and counting if the franchise continues its historical hunt for bargains in the game’s most vital position; e.g., John Vanbiesbrouck instead of Mike Richter or Curtis Joseph in the summer of 1998).
This just in. Alexander Semin has heard that the Flyers are talking to the Devils about Claude Giroux and James Van Riemsdyk for Martin Brodeur.
* Ilkka Heikkinen, the 25-year-old Finnish defenseman who spent nearly all season with the Wolf Pack despite showing promise in a seven-game cameo with the Rangers, is finished with the organization and the NHL. The Group II free agent will return to Europe rather than play for AHL money.
John Tortorella, meanwhile, is doing well on his rehab from hip replacement surgery. The head coach, convalescing at his home in Tampa, is not traveling to the draft but will attend the Rangers’ prospect camp the first week of July.
* In 1983, the Devils had the sixth pick of the first round while the Sabres had the fifth, 10th and 11th picks overall. New Jersey had targeted Oshawa’s John MacLean for weeks, but management was concerned that Buffalo would snap him up.
The Sabres, however, also were smitten with Acton-Boxboro HS goaltender Tom Barrasso. The Devils thought Buffalo might take MacLean at five while figuring Barrasso would slide to 10.
And so the night before the draft, the Devils made a very public show of taking Barrasso and his family out to dinner at one of the busiest, most high-profile restaurants in Montreal, the site of the draft. The Devils had no interest whatsoever in Barrasso.
(Full disclosure: I worked for the Devils at the time, and attended the dinner that included the great Glenn Hall, who worked for the team as a consultant.)
The next day, the Sabres took Barrasso fifth, the Devils got their man at six.
Their man then, their man now.
Giddyup!