Tell me. Tell me the name of the stud cen ter or blue-chip de fenseman in his prime coming up on unrestricted free agency for whom the Rangers should reserve cap space and thus bypass Ilya Kovalchuk.
Tell me the names of the Entry Level kids within the organization for whom general managerGlen Sather will need to reserve space to sign once the deal is done with Marc Staal.
Because I don’t see any Drew Doughtys or Duncan Keiths or Nicklas Backstroms on the depth chart, that’s for sure.
Tell me you aren’t attempting to make an analogy between the Rangers adding the 27-year-old Kovalchuk this summer, and adding the 28-year-old, already-multiply-concussed Eric Lindros in 2001, or between signing Ilya now and signing the 31-year-old, already-fried Theo Fleury in 1999.
Regardless of whether Sather, who has been in touch with the Kovalchuk camp this weekend, ramps up his interest in Ilya and joins the dance, do not tell me that the Rangers need to reserve his spot for a younger player.
Do not tell me the Rangers need to get younger this year, and that goes for Sather and head coach John Tortorella, too, because a the clarion call to get younger when the shadow roster already contains eight players no older than 26, well, that kind of sounds like the beginnings of pre-emptive excuse making when none is acceptable.
Please don’t tell me the Blueshirts should pass on Kovalchuk so they can keep a spot open for 22-year-old Dale Weise.
* All indications are that the NHLPA Executive Board already has voted to install Donald Fehr to a position of leadership — either interim director or executive director — preceding the union’s North American summer meetings in Toronto this week.
Don’t tell me Fehr isn’t the right man at the right time to sit across the table from Gary Bettman and restore credibility to the union and pride in the association among its members, because he is.
Don’t tell me Fehr won’t eventually make a compelling presentation to the NHL Board of Directors outlining how Major League Baseball has prospered under a CBA featuring meaningful revenue sharing and heavy taxation of its most profligate franchises, because he will.
* Please don’t tell me the Islanders need the Lighthouse project to be approved in order to, a) remain in New York, and/or, b) re-emerge as a vibrant, competitive franchise, because that simply is not true.
Charles Wang, the owner, may need the Lighthouse, but all the Islanders need is a new arena, whether it’s on the Island or across the Nassau County line in Queens.
Don’t tell me prospective buyers won’t be lining up to take the team to CitiRink in Queens if Wang puts the club up for sale.
* Nikolai Zherdev was a disappointment who did not show the slightest inclination to compete at an acceptable level playing in New York for either Tom Renney or Tortorella, polar opposites in temperament behind the bench, so do not tell me the Flyers somehow have made a wise move signing the free-agent emigrant winger to a one-year, $2 million contract, because they have not.
I am telling you if the Rangers do not get Kovalchuk, they will look for a way to acquire Simon Gagne, the winger the Flyers will have to peddle in order to make room for Zherdev, and what in the world is that all about?
There is this, though, about the 30-year-old Gagne, upper-echelon goal-scorer that he is with one year at a $5.25 million cap charge remaining on his contract — a history of injuries that includes concussions.
Please don’t tell me you’re defining Dan Girardi by his failure to intercede in the Marian Gaborik–Dan Carcillo imbroglio in Philadelphia on Jan. 21, because that not only was out of character for the defenseman who rushed to Zherdev’s defense a year earlier after he had been pounded by the Flyers’ Mike Richards, but rather more a reflection of the irrational fear the Rangers had of taking a penalty (any penalty) than a window into an individual character flaw.
The Rangers’ Staal will get the $4.25 million to $4.75 million per that he’s seeking the moment the defenseman is willing to accept that number for six years, thus giving the Blueshirts at least two seasons of his unrestricted free agency that contract would buy.
There not only is no particular urgency to get it done at the moment, but on the contrary, there may even be the need to delay an agreement or the announcement of an agreement to give the Blueshirts time to solve their summer cap stress.
I’m telling you I’ll be surprised if the Rangers’ opening six on defense doesn’t consist of Staal, Girardi, Michael Del Zotto, Michal Rozsival, Ryan McDonagh and Steve Eminger.
Tell me the Rangers’ top six forwards consist of a permutation of The Great Gabby, Erik Christensen, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan and maybe Vinny Prospal, Artem Anisimov or Sean Avery or Mats Zuccarello-Aasen, and then try to convince me Sather shouldn’t get in the game on Kovalchuk.