Much has been made about the possibility of the Rangers acquiring Rick Nash. While a move for that overrated Blue Jacket would be folly, one of his teammates should be targeted: Sammy Pahlsson.
The 34-year-old Pahlsson is a former Selke candidate and a Stanley Cup winner. He has a history with Henrik, having won an Olympic gold medal and an Elitserien title alongside the King. He has played in 81 career playoff games, collecting 28 points - more than he has in any single regular season campaign - showing he steps up in the clutch. As he will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and Columbus is going nowhere (ever), Pahlsson should be able to be picked up for a low level draft pick and little more.
On Saturday the last-place Blue Jacketss lost to the Blackhawks 6-1 and Pahlsson was on for just one of the goals against - the last one, when the game was looong over. A poor pass from his teammate left the puck in his skates, where Dave Bolland was able to grab it and send it across to Sami Lepisto for a shot. Not a big deal and hardly his fault. It is impossible to lay any of the blame for the disasterpiece that is the BJs on the Swedish center, who is remarkably just -7 in that mess this season.
Friend of the blog Joakim Norberg has watched Pahlsson since he was a youngster and offered up this scouting report:
"A former MoDo player (and one of my personal all-time favourites) he will be able to play bottom six and can contribute in a top 6 role if necessary when playoff time starts. He's one of the most underrated guys in the game. I still some time now and then think back to his debut in the MoDo jersey back in the mid 90's when he came up through the under 20 system and played with Anders Nilsson and Ragnar Karlsson. They were furious checkers with full face-cage on and mad competitors and were rightly hated by all the other teams. A true hard nosed blue collar player.And winning the Cup is what this is all about. Pahlsson would be a far more experienced improvement on Mitchell (and very likely Boyle as well). He has been to the top of the mountain and surely would do anything at this point of his career to get back. The Rangers should give him that shot.
Pahlsson should be perfect as the center between Fedotenko and Prust. That's the closest thing we'll get to the Moen-Pahlsson-Niedermayer line the Ducks played when they won the cup."
4 comments:
There's no argument that Pahlsson may not be the flashiest guy playing in the NHL but he's quite effective when it comes to GiveAways/TakeAways.
Looking at the stats for this season Pahlsson has almost identical GvA/TkA ratio and stats as ... Ryan Kesler. Both players has 8 GvA and Kesler (53GP) has 32 TkA and Pahlsson (57GP) has 33 TkA.
Pahlsson's Avg TkA/Game would today rank as #3 behind Callahan and Stepan and ahead of names like Richards and Dubinsky.
As much as I'd love to see this happen as it makes more sense than Nash, sadly Nash is the more typical target for The Incredible Invisible GM.
Blow Jackets get Dubinsky, Kreider, DelZotto, and a high draft pick or two. We get Nash, and his contract, and the attendant expectations. Lots of mediocre play follows coupled with restricted player movement a-la 2007-09 salary cap, and Dolan buys the GM a new cigar for making sure the "brightest stars always shine on Broadway", thus ensuring justification for high ticket prices paying for the MSG refit.
And, of course, the kids will go to the land of Buckeyes and turn into solid players to insult us further. (See: "Tyutin, Fedor)
Please, Sather, don't keep this franchise on a 2-3 season Groundhog Day loop.
I guess I'm not as down on the Nash thing as everyone else seems to be. Seems to me he fits the identity of this team; a still relatively young guy, obviously talented, and devoted to a team for the majority of his career that was in a "rebuild" and worked with the coaching staff and GM to try and make it happen. With 19 goals and 40 points this year on the CBJs for Chrissakes. B-Rich has roughly the same and he's playing for the first place team (which may or may not deserve to be in first place, but, still). I don't hear about him being a head-case, or injury prone, or any of the negatives that have come along with other acquisitions before (Gabby, Jagr, etc). I really don't see that much of a downside.
Pahlsson would be a good pick up for us...he has grit that we could use, better then Ru pp who is old and overrated...I would like to see us add another tough forward and Pahlsson is a good choice not NASH
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