Rangers Keep Their Emmy

Faced with the prospect of going into the next season relying on a rookie (Tim Erixon) and a formerly slumped sophomore (Michael Del Zotto), Glen Sather bought a cheap insurance policy Monday when he re-signed Steve Eminger. According to Larry Brooks, Eminger is coming back at the bargain basement price of $800,000 for one year - a price cut of $700,000 from last season.

During the Facts of Life I thought that Eminger "had no future with the franchise." I was wrong. It happens, I know. Strange, right? The thought that no one else would offer him a one-way deal didn't cross my mind ... although it probably should have.

While a veteran with a Cup ring like Brent Sopel would probably bring more on and off the ice, Eminger is cheaper and the coaching staff is already familiar with his ups and his downs. His ups were quite nice - he played solid, strong hockey when he filled in for the injured Michal Rozsival and was rarely a liability on the ice. His downs, well, they helped see him benched in the playoffs in favour of Matt Gilroy of all people (who did play his best admittedly).

But the good outweighed the bad in the eyes of Glen Sather so Eminger is back and Del Zotto is essentially on notice. Between youngsters like Pavel Valentenko and Tomas Kundratek trying to crack the lineup and Eminger's ability to step in at any time, MDZ has to step up his game if he is to avoid Hartford.

The NYR Facts Of Life: #44 Steve Eminger

For each player who suited up in a Blueshirt this season we will take the good, we will take the bad and take them both and see what we have. And this time around we started with the high numbers and are up to #44, Steve Eminger.

#44's #s: 65 games, 2 goals, 4 assists, -5, 22 PIM. Benched for entire playoffs.

Take the good: When the Rangers first traded Voros for him I was less than pleased but Eminger did have his moments - primarily in that span when Rozsival was out with injury. He wasn't the decent puck mover that was hoped for but rather a capable, positional seventh defender. He blocked 103 shots, had at least one hit recorded in 60 of his 65 games and the Rangers posted a record of 4-1-1 when he tallied a point.

Take the bad: That shows that he only put up points in six games - his production dropped for the second straight season and it was his lowest total in the five seasons where he played at least 60 games. Eminger had several nights when he had clearly checked out and was caught flatfooted left and right. Despite being a veteran of more than 300 games when he got here, it did not appear (from outside of the locker room) that he added any kind of leadership. Eminger lost Tortorella's trust and played less than 13 minutes five of his last six games and didn't dress once in the playoffs. In the midFebruary come-from-behind win over Pittsburgh Eminger was responsible for one of the early goals against and Tortorella benched him. He ended up with just over four minutes of total ice time while Staal saw nine seconds shy of a half hour.

Take them both and then we have: Someone with no future with the franchise. Matt Gilroy was not a better player for playing alongside him. Eminger came in, worked pretty hard and did his job but that is simply not enough for a seventh defenseman - especially one making over a million bucks. There are surely better bargains out there as a Jason Strudwick-type guy (one who could actually skate though) is very necessary for the young corps of Blueshirt Blueliners.