Thursday, June 4, 2009

Z Returns To The Rangers

No, not that one.
New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather announced today that the club has agreed to terms with goaltender Matt Zaba.

Zaba, 25, appeared in 41 games with the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League (AHL), posting a record of 25-10-0, along with a 2.33 goals against average, a .920 save percentage and two shutouts. The AHL rookie ranked among the league leaders in several categories, including seventh in goals against average, tied for eighth in save percentage and tied for 12th in wins.
Since there isn't a whole lot of depth at goaltender in the organization, it will be nice to have him back, even if Jess at Prospect Park has concerns with his mindset. We need all the goaltenders we can get, especially due to the fact that 2007 second round pick Antoine Lafleur turned out to be a bust and is re-entering the draft. What happens if Hank gets hurt? Considering that Sather seems intent on creating a puck moving defense that is physically soft, Hank will continue to be a big target in net. He was run dozens of times last season thanks to no protection, so just how long will our luck hold out?

5 comments:

Canyon of Blueshirts said...

dont even tempt fate..

Schram said...

I hate to say it, but maybe possibly we could trade Vally for a player or two...I love the guy but what are we going to do with three goaltenders? Hopefully Sather is on the right path we hope he is on and continues to bring some kids into the program rather than veterans on the edge of retirement. Hell, maybe if we trade Vally we can throw Redden into the trade? Or maybe Gomez/Drury? But then again this is Glen Sather....so who the hell knows what he's gonna do. Knowing that he got rid of Graves and Leetch doesn't help his history.

Daniel said...

reading this blog name got me really scared, dont do that

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Pete said...

I find it kind of strange that with Benoit Alaire coaching these goalies, they all seem to have some type of foibles. I love Hank, but, he has gone through some awkward moments already. Al Montoya got shipped out, because B.A. didn't like the mentality he was bringing to the game. Now, you have Wiki who kind of fell apart last season, and Zaba, who stepped up, but may or may not be able to rise up to the occasion of being an NHL level player. Don't forget Weekes, the starter who promptly lost that spot to his back-up. Which kind of brings up a good point that, for the couple of bad starts he had, Valley was a pretty solid back-up for most of last year, and I for one, was pretty comfortable having him in net when he got the call.

So, where does that put us? Well, if Hank stays healthy and mentally focused, we're in a good spot. Should anything happen, we might still be ok with Valley back there. But, if they trade Valley, goaltending could be more of a question mark than we would like.