The snapshot taken of the Rangers on the morning of this second day of free agency is blurred beyond recognition. It will take some time for the team picture to come into focus. Until it does, Rangers fans may not want to look.
There are holes all over the front line that – with Mats Sundin uncommitted, Jaromir Jagr waiting in an apartment in Manhattan for an offer that seems bound to be less than he’ll accept, Marian Hossa straddling a number of fences, and Sean Avery on his way out of town – for the moment consists of Scott Gomez and Chris Drury plus a whole lot of untested kids and a cavalcade of fourth-line pluggers.
Glen Sather wouldn’t give Avery an extra $4M over four years – Page Six Sean is believed on his way to either Detroit or Dallas – but the GM instead lavished a six-year contract worth $6.5M per on 31-year-old Wade Redden, a reasonably dependable puck-moving defenseman who had a dreadful 2007-08 in Ottawa and has never been regarded as a game-changer over 11 seasons with the Senators.
The Rangers two years ago all but mocked the Bruins for giving Zdeno Chara, Redden’s one-time Ottawa teammate, a five-year deal worth $7.5M per. Does anyone believe the Bruins would even consider swapping Chara for Redden?
True, the cap has increased, but Scott Niedermayer is earning $6.75M per, Chris Pronger is at $6.25M per and Nicklas Lidstrom, for that matter, is at $7.45M per for the Red Wings.
By signing Redden and re-signing incumbent first pair defenseman Michal Rozsival to the four-year $20M deal Sather rejected last week, the Blueshirts appear to have approximately $11M on the 2008-09 cap and $17M on the summer cap with which to fill their gaping holes up front.
The Rangers are pursuing Sundin, who has a two-year, $20M offer on the table from Vancouver. The Blueshirts are somehow also involved in the sweepstakes for Hossa, who has staggering offers from the Oilers and Bruins, and a bid for nearly $8M per from the Penguins, who are desperate to retain him.
Jagr, meanwhile, is on hold. Unless there’s a new math by which Sather is operating, it would seem impossible for the Blueshirts to make an offer to No. 68 that he’s not going to refuse.
“Honestly, I don’t know why you keep asking me these questions when I don’t have any answers to what they want to do,” Jagr, chuckling, told The Post by phone yesterday. “You should be asking Glennie those questions.”
Jagr laughed when asked about whispers from the underground that the Penguins will invite him back to finish where he began -Boo! – if the lure of Broadway proves greater for Hossa than the opportunity to skate with Sidney Crosby. leaves Pittsburgh.