MARKUS Naslund, who came to Broadway way, way too late in his career, doesn’t merely leave after one season.
Markus Naslund leaves an indelible footprint on Rangers’ franchise history; a legacy of integrity to which everyone in the organization, now and in the future, can only aspire to match.
By officially announcing yesterday his decision to retire that was first reported by The Post on Sunday, the 35-year-old Naslund left a guaranteed minimum of $2 million on the table that would have been his via a likely buyout.
If the Rangers had decided not to go that route, Naslund would have been guaranteed $3 million and a roster spot on the final season of the two-year, $8 million deal he signed last summer, given his no-movement clause.
But no; not Naslund, who informed his teammates, GM Glen Sather and head coach John Tortorella of his decision during the break-up meetings and exit interviews that followed a year in which the winger progressively struggled.
Naslund’s silence couldn’t be bought for $2 million. There was no price tag on his integrity. The Rangers have cleared $4 million of cap space as a result of Naslund’s retirement, and $2 million because he didn’t wait to collect on the buyout. The only drawback is if Sather uses his newfound wealth foolishly, say by dangling $8 million a year at the brilliant but brittle Marian Gaborik, or $6 million per at the solid but hardly a difference-maker Jay Bouwmeester; or $3.5 million to retain Nik Antropov.
Owning additional cap space doesn’t inflate a player’s worth, or at least it shouldn’t, and this case it can’t, not with the contract weight under which the Rangers are staggering.
There’s only one quasi-available player worth luxury prices, and he’s Ilya Kovalchuk. If Atlanta, which won’t be able to keep him once he becomes unrestricted in 2010, opens the market at this Entry Draft, every Ranger other than Henrik Lundqvist will be on the table, and that includes Marc Staal.
Naslund had difficulty keeping up this year, but he still scored 24 goals, second on the team to Antropov, who got seven of his 28 as a Ranger. Naslund’s eight power-play goals were second to Chris Drury’s 10.
Naslund was royalty in Vancouver, where he played 11 seasons and holds career records for goals (346) and points (756). He was the NHL’s first- team all star left wing for three straight seasons from 2001-02 through 2003-04, and won the NHLPA’s Pearson Award in 2003 as the league’s most outstanding player. He retires with 869 points (395-474) in a 1,117-game, 15-year career.
But Naslund was never quite the same after the Todd Bertuzzi-Steve Moore incident in Vancouver on March 8, 2004, that ruined Moore’s career and Bertuzzi’s reputation. For it was Moore’s concussion-inducing blow to Naslund in the Feb. 16, 2004 match against the Avalanche at Colorado that triggered the violence of March 8 that is still being adjudicated in Canada.
Beyond that, Bertuzzi and Naslund were best friends; brothers, even. Naslund took it all to heart. He left a piece of himself behind that March 2004 night.
Naslund was an outstanding NHL player. He wasn’t that in one year as a Ranger. He was more.