THIS is either a ploy by Glen Sather to allow the competition to es tablish a dollar value for Sean Avery that he will match, or it is evidence that the GM simply doesn’t understand what the Rangers have in this impending-free-agent difference-maker.
Slap Shots has learned that Sather late last week granted permission to Avery’s agent, Pat Morris, to negotiate with any interested NHL team in advance of Tuesday’s official opening of the free-agent market.
Sources confirm that not only is that process under way, but that four or five teams have indicated their interest in signing Avery to a contract well in excess of the last deal proffered by Sather to No. 16. It’s believed the Rangers have come in at approximately $1M a year less than the four-year, $16M deal Avery is seeking and will be able to get.
We’ve heard all the stories; well, enough of them, anyway. We know Avery sometimes can make life as uncomfortable for his teammates in the room and on the bench as he can for his opponents on the ice. We get that.
But as the Yankees’ one-time assistant to the traveling secretary George Costanza once observed, “Comfort-shmumfort.”
Comfortable teams usually are losing teams. The dynastic Islanders and Oilers had friction in their respective rooms. The three-time Cup-winning Devils were no boys club, and neither were the mighty Red Wings nor Avalanche teams that captured four Cups between from 1996-2001. The 1994 Rangers didn’t all just get along.
Sather doesn’t want to invest $4M per on Avery for four years? The cap is $56.7M this season. If it increases by a conservative 8 percent a year, it will hit $71.4M at the conclusion of the contract. That means that Avery will account for between 7.05 and 5.6 percent of the cap throughout the life of the deal.
Does the GM seriously believe Avery isn’t worth that much to the team? Can Sather remember what the Rangers looked like before Avery arrived from LA in February of 2007? Does he not know that the Rangers had a losing record in their games each of the three times Avery went on IR this year with injuries that have nothing to do with being brittle?
Does he really believe 50-23-13 with Avery and 24-35-9 without him in the lineup the last two seasons is entirely a coincidence?
Does Sather not recognize Avery was the Rangers’ most significant force in each of the two playoffs rounds the team won over the last two years? Is there a doubt Martin Brodeur will be leading the cheers if Avery leaves town?
Avery is no Jarkko Ruutu or Matt Cooke, impending-free-agent fourth-line instigators whose hockey skills are limited. The Rangers’ best line this year featured Avery on the left with Brandon Dubinsky and Jaromir Jagr. This team that’s going to look like Swiss cheese come noon Tuesday is going to allow Avery to walk – check that; push him out the door – over $1M a year?
Are you kidding me?
Yesterday, the Lightning acquired the rights to negotiate with Ryan Malone, who’s allegedly the prime power forward coming up on free agency. Malone is going to get between $4.5 and $5.5M per season, you can bank on that, this same Malone whose game was soft as pudding until this final season of his contract.
Would the Rangers sign Malone for $4.5M per over five or six years if given the chance? You bet they would. Yet, in the three seasons since the lockout, Malone, playing almost exclusively with either Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin as his pivot, recorded 126 points (65-61) in 218 games – six more points in two more games than Avery (48-72), who assuredly was not playing with talents remotely equal to the Pittsburgh pivots.
Every year the Rangers acquire players without truly knowing whether they can or will thrive in this unique market. There is no such question about Page Six Sean, who shares top billing with Henrik Lundqvist as the Peoples’ Choice.
If Sather thought that there’d be no market for Avery at the winger’s price, he’s wrong. If he thinks the Rangers will be a better team without Avery, he’s as wrong as he can be about that, too.
The Rangers can pay Avery now . . . or they can pay for the next four years for not signing him. The choice is theirs. They have approximately 48 hours to make it.
Does anyone really believe Brendan Shanahan is going to sit by the phone for a week waiting for Sather to call?
Four months after authorizing Lightning to sign Dan Boyle to a six-year contract extension at $6.75M per that includes a no-trade clause through 2011-12, owner Oren Koules is spreading the word of the defenseman’s availability. Hmmm.
This indicates Koules believes contracts are as meaningful as Barry Melrose‘s insights on ESPN.