The Derek Debate

The Rangers certainly know how to get people talking about them, despite the absence of a winning team and this afternoon's signing of Derek Boogaard certainly does it. It opens the floodgates with questions:

"Is this worse than the Brashear signing last year?"

"If you were going to give this much money away, why not re-sign Jody Shelley?"

"Does Glen Sather realize that it is 2010?"

"How soon until Boogaard gets Kasparaitis'd to the KHL?"

"Where will Boogaard go down in the ranks of Ranger goons? With Roman Ndur (thanks Jim!)? Shane Churla? Rudy Poeschek? Nick Fotiu?"

"Do you think you can skate better than Boogaard?"

Frankly, there are no answers just yet. It would be alright that Boogaard hasn't scored a goal in four years if he was a big fighter but he had just nine fight majors last season - not enough to rank in the top 40 tough guys in the league. Sure he went 8-1-1 according to Hockey Fights but who cares? The guy plays three out of every four games, skates just over six minutes per game and adds nothing offensively. Sounds just about right for someone getting a four-year contract worth $1.65 million per. Right?

It is astounding how Sather can be so good at trading players and so very, very stupid when it comes to signing them.