Adding Dandenault To The D?

This afternoon Zip dropped the rumour that Mathieu Dandenault may be heading to Hartford and possibly, eventually Broadway.

That's not great news, but it's not bad news.

San Jose has a good stock of young prospects so it is of little surprise that Dandenault couldn't catch on there. I watched a lot of him back when he was with Detroit and found him to be a smart, capable puck mover. He has good vision and has no problem jumping in the rush. Dandenault can be an emergency third or fourth line forward if needed and transitions up front seamlessly. He is 33, has three Cups and over 950 NHL games of experience (including playoffs). At the same time, the glaring hole in the Ranger blueline - you know, the hole Dany Heatley skated right through last night - is the lack of physical defensemen. And Dandenault is not a crease-clearing defenseman. He will stand up for himself and his teammates though and is tougher than at least one of his prospective teammates.

While it says something that Sather doesn't want to bring up any of the Pack kids as a seventh defenseman - either that they are not ready for the show or that they will be better served playing rather than sitting in the box - giving Dandenault a shot has little downside.