STOCKHOLM — Sean Avery never had a chance, never was given a chance to make this year’s Rangers, so what in the world was the organization doing dragging him around Europe for a week before delivering the news on the flight here yesterday from Switzerland that his run on Broadway had come to an end?
“That’s not for me to say,” coach John Tortorella said at the team hotel last night in explaining the decision to place the 31-year-old winger on waivers he surely will clear at noon today. “I don’t want to play GM here.”
Fair enough, but it was surely on Tortorella’s say that Avery never got a sniff throughout a camp during which he skated with minor leaguers. It was almost humorous to hear the coach say, as he did more than once, “Sean had a strong camp,” because with Tortorella essentially choosing his top 12 forwards before the team convened, Avery was not allowed to have a strong enough camp that this decision would have become untenable.
Listen, it’s not that Erik Christensen beat out Avery for the role as 13th forward. If he hadn’t, John Mitchell would have. If Mitchell hadn’t, it would have been someone else. This was an ABA Operation: Anybody But Avery.
The future is unclear for Avery with it unlikely the Rangers would assign him to the AHL Whale. Let’s be clear, the Broadway run is over, this time for good. Europe is a possibility.
Last Monday night in Philadelphia, Avery started on a line with Brian Boyle. He had a dominating first shift, forechecking, taking the body, winning the puck, setting up a goal. He never got another shift with Boyle again.
The coach has the right to his opinions and general manager Glen Sather has the right to go along with his coach. But let’s face it, regardless of the Rangers’ growth, these aren’t the Islanders of the early 1980s. And that not only isn’t Clark Gillies on the left side with Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik, that isn’t John Tonelli or Bob Bourne, either.
But Tortorella just would not give Avery even a single shift on the first line, though his ability to battle and get in on the forecheck complements Richards and Gaborik, neither of whom should be expected to grind their way through the season and both of whom need a winger to win pucks.
Is Avery a legitimate first-line winger capable of handling 15 minutes of even-strength time a game, 82 games a year? Probably not, but for a series of games, a series of shifts even, most likely yes. He was, after all, a catalyst for Gaborik a number of times last year.
But it’s a mistake to think the Rangers have that first-line left wing in Wojtek Wolski, who was handed the opportunity to take the most coveted spot on the team, only to do little to keep it. Indeed, it would be no surprise whatsoever to see Brandon Dubinsky up top on the left when the Rangers open here against the Kings on Friday.
When Tortorella was asked about pretty much picking his top 12 forwards even before camp had begun, the coach replied, “There’s a bank account.”
For a moment I thought that was a reference to the bank account built up by Wojtek Wolski on his $3.8 million salary, but no, it was a reference to credit players build with coaches.
“I don’t want to jam up Sean Avery, but I think as we’ve grown as a team, we’ve added better players than Sean,” Tortorella said. “Maybe they’re not better in that role, but I think they’re more versatile.
“I can dodge it, and I don’t want to keep shoveling dirt on Sean Avery, but we have players who are better than Sean.
“I guess I just did shovel dirt on him.”