Re-Drafting The NHL: New York Rangers

Back over the summer, through the beginning of the season, James over at Cycle Like The Sedins hosted a re-draft of the NHL with 30 bloggers taking the individual GM positions. Yours truly took the cigar from Glen Sather and re-built the Rangers. There are some hits and some misses, and I clearly had stars in my eyes with preseason performance (a mistake I make every season) but here is the team I built, round by round with cap hits:

1-20 (20) - Miikka Kiprusoff Cap Hit: $5,833,333
2-11 (41) - Dan Boyle Cap Hit: $6,666,667
3-20 (80) - Derek Roy Cap Hit: $4,000,000
4-11 (101) - Chris Kunitz Cap Hit: $3,725,000
5-20 (140) - Jason Arnott Cap Hit: $4,500,000
6-11 (161) - Marc Staal Cap Hit: $826,667
7-20 (200) - Nick Shultz Cap Hit: $3,500,000
8-11 (221) - Jason Pominville Cap Hit: $5,300,000
9-20 (260) - Ville Leino Cap Hit: $800,000
10-11 (281) - Trevor Daley Cap Hit: $2,300,000
11-20 (320) - Sean Avery Cap Hit: $1,938,000
12-11 (333) - Mikael Samuelsson Cap Hit: $2,500,000
13-20 (380) - Matt D'Agostini Cap Hit: $500,000
14-11 (401) - Freddie Sjostrom Cap Hit: $750,000
15-20 (440) - Artem Anisimov Cap Hit: $822,000
16-23 (473, from Colorado) - Karlis Skrastins Cap Hit: $1,375,000
17-20 (500) - Steve Begin - Cap Hit: $850,000
18-11 (521) - Sergei Shirokov - Cap Hit: $1,350,000
19-20 (560) - Shane Hnidy - Cap Hit: $750,000
19-29 (569, from Colorado) - Corey Crawford - Cap Hit: $800,000
20-11 (581) - Viktor Stahlberg - Cap Hit: $850,000
22-11 (641) - Jason Strudwick - Cap Hit: $700,000
23-20 (680) - Blair Betts - Cap Hit: $550,000

That is a grand total of $51.2 total, leaving $5.8 free for wiggle room at the deadline. And here is how I would set up the lineup:

Chris Kunitz-Derek Roy-Jason Pominville
Ville Leino-Jason Arnott-Mikael Samuelsson
Sean Avery-Steve Begin-Matt D'Agostini
Freddie Sjostrom-Blair Betts-Artem Anisimov
Sergei Shirokov/Viktor Stahlberg

Dan Boyle-Nick Schultz
Trevor Daley-Marc Staal
Karlis Skrastins-Shane Hnidy
Jason Strudwick

Miikka Kiprusoff
Corey Crawford

First off, I have no heavyweight. It is sad - for me of all people especially - but the guys I wanted were picked earlier than I was ready to take them. Still, I think there is solid team grit with Kunitz, Arnott, that entire third line, Hnidy and Strudwick. As long as we keep Avery out of his happy place and in the action, the third line will drive most everyone crazy with some serious energy and angst. Of course, they may take a penalty or two (or three or four) but that is why I reunited Sjostrom and Bettsy.

I think the scoring will come. Roy is a playmaker, Pominville a sniper and Kunitz a grinder - together there should be some chemistry. Arnott and Samuelsson are a pair, with Arnott working the slot and Samuelsson swooping around to take advantage of the chaos his partner causes, much like he did with Holmstrom in Detroit. I picked up Leino, Anisimov, Shirokov and Stahlberg thinking that the quartet could battle for that second line spot. They all have good attributes: Leino has a great shot, Anisimov has size and smarts, Shirokov can stickhandle in a phonebooth and Stahlberg has serious speed. Surely one can rise to the occasion, with the runner-up getting good time with the fourth line. And I do mean good time as I would roll four lines.

Our zone would pretty much take care of itself. Kipper is a workhorse and, as he proved several times this season, still has it within him to be a helluva netminder. I selected Crawford as a backup purely because he had a higher NHL10 rating than Antti Niemi, seeing as games will be simmed through the EA Sports title (eventually) and not knowing that Niemi would usurp him in Chicago so quickly.

Not that they will need to do that much as the blueline is quite robust. The jewel is Danny Boyle, one of the top three or four power play quarterbacks in the NHL. Seeing as he is quite adept in the offensive zone, I paired him with Schultz, who is great defensively and capable of making that first pass. Daley and Staalsie are both young, big two-way defenders who are smart with the puck. Skrastins has led such a quiet NHL career but is a hero in Latvia for good reason - he is one of the best shot blockers in the business. Paired with the bruising Hnidy, Skrastins will ensure that few good shots will get through to Kipper. Struds, who will be mandated to maintain his mustache, will be the all-important seventh defenseman and, likely, a player-coach.

There are players I wish I could have picked up (what GM doesn't have some of those?) and one I would immediately grab with a free agent addition - my boy Jed. Seeing as Ortmeyer is playing so well in San Jose, I'm sure I could find a spot for him back on Broadway. But all in all, I think these Blueshirts would make for a tough team to play against, one that could win a few games and maybe cause trouble in the playoffs.

Broadway Burnaby Joe

Joe Sakic re-signed with the Colorado Avalanche yesterday with a one-year contract worth $6 million that will bring him back for his 20th NHL season.

It is scary to think that Sakic was thiiiiiiisss close to being a Ranger 11 years ago. Unfortunately the Aves matched the Rangers' offer sheet and New York was doomed to seven years without the playoffs.

Had Sakic headed for Broadway, who knows what would have happened. At the least, New York would have remained competitive against the stifling Devils system. Sakic would have been the crown jewel in a rebuilt Ranger roster and found immediate comfort thanks to the signings of his Colorado teammates Mike Keane and Brian Skrudland. Sakic could have helped keep Theo Fleury on a leash and perhaps Valeri Kamensky wouldn't have been as big of a bust.

And Rangers wouldn't really have missed the five first round draft picks that went the other way, as they pissed them away themselves by drafting Manny Malhotra (1998), Pavel Brendl (1999), Jamie Lundmark (also '99), Dan Blackburn (2001) and Hugh Jessiman (2003). They didn't have first rounders in 2000 and 2002 ...

Now I am not about to say that the signing would have brought Stanley back, but I am sure that the Aves would not have won the 2001 Cup. Sakic had 118 regular season points and 26 more in that magical Run For Ray Bourque. Bourque left Boston to take one last run at a championship and if Sakic was in New York, maybe he would have chosen the Rangers. Could you imagine a Blueshirt blueline with Bourque and Leetch? And think about a one-two punch down the middle with Sakic and Messier, who had returned from Vancouver by then. How scary would that have been?

But I have to say, even scarier is the thought that the Rangers' offer of three years $21 mill was extravagant at that time. Now say that it was worth it and take the dream of Sakic as a Ranger a step forward and say that his addition would indeed have brought another Cup to New York. Now there is nothing that can replicate the boom in popularity that breaking the curse at 54 years brought to the NHL, but another Ranger Cup would have served the league much better than the wins in Colorado, Dallas and even Detroit. If the Rangers won at the turn of the century, would we still have lost the 2004-05 season to a lockout? Would the lockout have come even earlier or would it have not happened at all?

Something to ponder ...

Stanley Cup Preview: New York vs. Detroit

You know, denial isn't a river in Egypt: it is the state of being that I am in faced with the thought of the Penguins getting a chance at Stanley's chalice. So, in upholding the dictum that ignorance is bliss, I will happily pretend that the Rangers never lost to Cindy's squad, then went on to beat the Flyers to make the Finals. So, while still a delusion, here is the Scotty Hockey Stanley Cup Finals Preview of the upcoming series between the Rangers and the Red Wings:

History:
New York faced Detroit with Stanley on the line twice and lost both times. Joe Pelletier has the best hockey history site on the web and summed up both series: 1937 and 1950. The first time they did it without their starting goaltender and the second they were without that Gordie Howe guy (great clip of the end here). Terrible. Here is to hoping that the third time is the charm for the Blueshirts ...

Coaching:
Both Tom Renney and Mike Babcock have WHL roots, but Babcock has been close to the top of the mountain before as the coach of the Mighty Ducks, losing the '02 Cup Finals to the Devils in seven games. And this time he is bringing the best team in the league to the final. While he is a candidate for the Jack Adams Trophy, he did helm the best ship in the fleet so more credit should go to Renney for bringing the Rangers this far up the river.

Goaltending:
Henrik Lundqvist is a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as the best goaltender in the league and has already won several international titles. Chris Osgood is a likely Hall of Fame goaltender with a fantastic history that includes two Cup rings (along with a horrid stint as an Islander). The two put up comparable stats: Hank had a 2.23 GAA and a .912 save percentage over 72 regular season games, Ozzie got 2.09 and .914 in 43. Because of the workload differences and NHL playoff experience, the edge has to go to Osgood but it is quite close.

Defense:
The one thing that tilts the table back towards Hank is that he did it behind a vastly inferior defense. There is simply no comparing the Detroit corps and the Rangers. No one wearing blue comes close to matching Nick Lidstrom or Brian Rafalski. Rozy has been our number one but he would be at least third on the depth chart for them. Tyutin comes close to Brad Stuart, Marc Staal and Nick Kronwall are about even in potential, Andreas Lilja makes about the same amount of mistakes as Christian Backman. Dan Girardi edges Brent Lebda or Kyle Quincey but hasn't been as good as he was earlier in the year, leveling the playing field.

Offense:
Brendan Shanahan is facing the 'kids' who kept him young the last few years in Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. Unfortunately they aren't kids anymore and have turned into two of the best forwards in the league. Jagr has been dominant these playoffs, but will have to face the reunited Grind Line of Darren McCarty, Kirk Maltby and Kris Draper. This year's John Druce, Johan Franzen, has been out with concussion-like symptoms so here is to hoping he can't return. Lauri Korpikoski's rise to prominence in the end of the Pens series - along with Dawes and Cally - gives the Rangers a stable of young wingers to match up with Valtteri Flippula, Jiri Hudler and Mikael Samuelsson. While Chris Drury has been willing to play in traffic (and paid the price for it), he doesn't match Tomas Holmstrom's acumen in the paint. The Rangers have to hope that Brandon Dubinsky's cinderella season continues and that Scotty Gomez skates the way he did against the Devils if they have any hope of breaking through the Wings defense.

Prediction:
Well, even in the land of make believe, the Rangers' season ends in heartbreak as they just can't match up to the Winged Wheel's powerhouse of a team. Let's just hope and pray that Detroit's dominance carries over to the real world so they can bring Stanley's silver back to the Motor City. The thought of Cindy raising it gives me nightmares ...

Make sure you check back here during the real Finals for coverage. I busted out my Joey Kocur jersey and am ready to watch the Wings put the Pens in their place!