Ranger GM Glen Sather is a seller in a market that appears to feature very few buyers willing to pay 100 cents on the dollar.
As such, as the Rangers prepare for Friday night’s Garden opener against the Blackhawks, the GM of the NHL’s only 2-0 team isn’t going to have an easy time of it in addressing a roster bloated to the max with not only three extra forwards, but too many forwards who are largely indistinguishable from one another.
Sather has postponed a decision on roster cuts just as he has postponed a decision on Brendan Shanahan, who continued to skate at the club’s practice rink throughout the Rangers’ successful European tour. Now, every day the GM procrastinates, it costs the team cap space.
Did consecutive 2-1 wins in Prague this weekend against the Lightning convince the GM that No. 14 has no future on Broadway?
Did the weekend convince him that Petr Prucha, who would have been a scratch had the opener been played anywhere but the Czech Republic, belongs, or will the $1.6M winger bounce in and out of the lineup while separated-at-birth forwards Fredrik Sjostrom and Dan Fritsche get the chance to take that spot?
Did the weekend convince the Rangers that Lauri Korpikoski can handle the role of third-line center, because if not, does that mean that Chris Drury would at some point shift back to the middle, thus leaving the Rangers shy a scoring winger?
Is the GM willing to suffer the embarrassment of waiving (or giving away) Patrick Rissmiller after signing the winger to a $1M free-agent contract this summer?
The Rangers’ lineup over the weekend amounted to $53.74M of cap space. The three scratches (Rissmiller, Fritsche and Sjostrom) accounted for an additional $2.715M of space. Adding the $750,000 hit on bonus carryovers and Jaromir Jagr’s option-year buyout, the Rangers are at $56.455M – or just $245,000 under the cap.
The GM has decisions to make – whether he likes it or not.