Se, this is what I can’t understand about the way Glen Sather does business.
It’s beyond me, just beyond me, why the Rangers GM would risk losing such an important piece as Jody Shelley in order to perhaps pursue someone else he can’t know will fit as well the universally respected enforcer who came to the Rangers in February and immediately established himself as a badly needed force off the ice as well as on it.
Three days before the free-agent market opens and Sather, we’re told by several sources, has yet to make an offer to the enforcer who was so well regarded by his teammates in San Jose that they were prepared to award him a Stanley Cup ring had the Sharks won, and was equally respected by teammates in New York.
There’s time, obviously, but time is money, and now, so close to being able to sell himself to the highest bidder, there’s no guarantee at all the proud warrior will even negotiate with the Rangers before Thursday.
Understand this: essentially free agent gets “too much” money. That’s the reality. I don’t know about Sather, but I would much rather pay “too much” to a known quantity who has proven that he can play on the Broadway stage and has earned the trust of head coach John Tortorella (no small task, by the way) than gamble on an unknown.
On Saturday, in discussing stalled talks with restricted free agent Marc Staal, Sather correctly identified “leverage” as the critical point in contract negotiations. Well, who does the GM think owns the leverage in this instance?
Shelley earned $725,000 last season, with the operative word being, “earned.” There’s every chance he will ask for the same $1.5 million in salary the Rangers paid Donald Brashear to do nothing last season.
Is that more than Sather would like to pay a player who might not average more than four minutes a game? You bet. But the cost of losing Shelley will be higher than the cost of keeping him, you can bet on that, too.
The Rangers have made too many mistakes on big contracts — and we all know what they are — not to know that the ice is not always shinier and slicker on another rink. In two months of wearing the Blueshirt, Shelley established himself as important fabric of team. Yet, Sather seems willing to risk losing him.
I don’t get it.
*
There is plenty of time for the Rangers to resolve the issue with Staal. Our information in this case is that the Blueshirts have made an equitable offer to the defenseman in the range of four years for $14 million, but that his agent — a fellow who once played named Bobby Orr — is seeking substantially more than that.
Absent arbitration rights, Staal’s only leverage would be to attract an offer sheet. Unless one comes in that is totally out of whack — remember, for all his admirable qualities, Staal does not have the puck-moving game that is most valued these days — the Rangers will match without blinking an eye, and everyone knows it.
*
The Rangers did well enough on Saturday to get a second and a sixth from Carolina in exchange for Bobby Sanguinetti, who had essentially no chance of making the team this year.
But that doesn’t erase the stench of failure in yet another first-round pick, this the 21st overall selection in the 2006 Entry Draft, following the 2003 Hugh Jessiman debacle and the 2004 twin Al Montoya and Lauri Korpikoski errors.
Four first-round choices in four years –Staal at 12th overall in 2005 was a hit — is every bit as much the reason for the Rangers’ plight these days as the free-agent contracts given to you know who.