US News

IT’S THE SAME OLD RANGER$: MALAKHOV PACT MAKES SATHER LOOK LIKE NEIL

THIS is something the Rangers would have been expected to do last year or the year before that or the year before that or even the year before that. This is something the Rangers would have been expected to do with Neil Smith as their general manager.

But here they are, in the Year 2000, with Smith gone and replaced in the front office by Glen Sather, and they’re still doing it. Still signing players in their 30s and well past their primes to expensive long-term contracts, thereby plugging holes in the dike that might be filled more efficiently by younger athletes while at the same time clogging the artery from Hartford to Manhattan.

The Vladimir Malakhov free-agent signing was officially announced yesterday, with the defenseman who got his Cup as a rental with the Devils for some reason getting his reward from the Rangers to the tune of four years guaranteed at $3.5 million per, with mutual options for a fifth season. Malakhov, who celebrates a birthday next month, will be 35 throughout the fourth guaranteed season.

“If you look through the NHL, there aren’t many players with his type of ability; he has superstar ability,” Sather, who is flying to New York today from his Banff compound, said yesterday. “He has the ability to do a lot of good things and also take some of the pressure off [Brian] Leetch, who can’t be expected to carry the puck all the time and make the big play all of the time.”

Malakhov, who still owns a home on Long Island five years after his trade from the Islanders to Montreal, said that he chose the Rangers over interested parties such as Dallas and Florida. He admitted that the Devils, who sent young defensemen Sheldon Souray and Josh Dewolf to the Canadiens as up-front payment on his rental, never entered the bidding.

Which leads one to wonder what the Rangers know that the Devils don’t. It leads one to wonder when the last time was that the Devils made a mistake on a free-agent veteran. They allowed Bruce Driver to go following 1995. They allowed Doug Gilmour to go following 1998. Now they allow Malakhov to go without a murmur.

Malakhov played reasonably well in the latter stages of the playoffs after a stumbling first couple of rounds for a powerhouse team whose system is built to make defensemen look good. Partnered with young Colin White, he was on the third defensive pair, was the team’s fourth option on the penalty kill and the right-point man on the second power-play unit. Sather talked up Malakhov’s power-play abilities yesterday, specifically his big shot. Problem is, Malakhov never shoots the puck.

The addition of Malakhov, of course, comes with the subtraction of Mathieu Schneider, whom Sather never had a scintilla of interest in bringing back.

“This isn’t a slight against Schneider, but it’s necessary to make changes when a team doesn’t make the playoffs for three years,” Sather said. “I’m not blaming him, but his contract was up, the same way Kevin Hatcher’s contract was up.”

Schneider, who was one of the team’s more competitive players last season despite a deep rift with John Muckler, is believed being courted by Dallas, Los Angeles and Florida.

“I really have no idea what Glen was thinking because he never spoke to me or my agents even once,” Schneider said yesterday. “I don’t know the man at all, I’ve never had a conversation with him, but he certainly has the right to do what he wants.

“I always wanted to play for the Rangers and wanted to stay here so I’m obviously disappointed, but I’m also optimistic that this will work out for the best for me.”

While Schneider, who wanted to stay, goes, the chances seem improved now that Stephane Quintal, who last year wanted to go, will stay. Quintal and Malakhov, of course, were partners for three seasons in Montreal.

“From what I know, I would say there is a 30-percent-to-40-percent chance that Glen went after Malakhov because of his history in Montreal with Quintal,” agent Pat Brisson, part of the group that represents both defensemen, said yesterday. “My talks with Glen about Stephane recently have been pretty positive so I’m hoping it will work out.

“What happened last year is behind us. Stephane wants to play in New York. I know he’s excited about Vladimir coming there.”

In joining Leetch (32 years old), Quintal (31), Sylvain Lefebvre (33 in October) and Rich Pilon (32), Malakhov becomes the fifth Ranger defenseman to have passed his 30th birthday. If they’re all on the team for the Oct. 7 opener in Atlanta, that leaves the younger Kim Johnsson, Dale Purinton, Jason Doig, Tomas Kloucek and Mike Mottau – still unsigned – fighting for a couple of spots and left-over ice time.

Just the way it would have been last year and the year before and the year before, just the way it would have been with Smith as the general manager.

Who knows. Maybe it’s the Broadway address.

*

Ron Low, whom Sather still insists has not been offered the head coaching position, was, by the way, a guest of the GM for his son Justin’s wedding on Saturday. Contacted at his Manitoba cottage last night, Low, laughing, could only say: “Gag order.” … Devils sent forward/defenseman Steve Staios back to Atlanta yesterday for future considerations.