Grading The Brass 2010-11

As I pulled out the 'red pen' for the players, it would only be proper to do it for the front office as well. Last year I wrote that "we don't really know what Dolan, Sather and Torts have done - all that can be judged are the public actions and the results of the behind-closed-doors actions. We're not in the boardroom, office or locker room. Two of the three rarely talk to the press so what they are thinking and doing is unknown and the third, well, his loathing of the press clouds everything just a shade."

A year later that still holds true. I am going to combine memes here and do this the Facts of Life way - take the good, take the bad and take them both and see what we have, then assign a grade.

John Tortorella:
Take the good: The Rangers improved six points from 09-10, going from 38-33-11 to 44-33-5. Tortorella gave more kids shots to play in the NHL and several rewarded his faith with solid seasons. He found several good lines and shockingly stuck with them as long as he could (Cally-Dubi-Arty, Feds-Prust-Boyle). Torts managed not to publicly embarrass the organization in the playoffs against Washington again.

Take the bad: The Rangers lost in the playoffs against Washington again. Tortorella couldn't motivate the team against lesser opponents like Florida. He couldn't ignite Marian Gaborik no matter what he tried. He couldn't find a solution to the power play. He completely mismanaged Sean Avery. He stuck with MDZ and MZA longer than he should have, although that is hard to attack. His petty public battles against Larry Brooks were unprofessional and ridiculous.

Take them both and then we have: If teams do indeed adopt the mindset of the coach, then Torts looks good as the boys bought in and became the hard-working, shot-blocking team that we loved to watch. Could they have finished even higher in the standings and lasted longer in the playoffs? Probably. But they were arguably more than the sum of their parts and injuries and disappointing veterans doomed them to their fate. Final grade: C

Glen Sather:
Take the good: Sather dispatched Donald Brashear to Atlanta and buried Wade Redden in Hartford. Sather opened the July 1st festivities by signing Marty Biron, who proved to be the perfect backup until he got hurt. He tied up Girardi and Staal long term and re-upped Mike Sauer. He lured Mats Zuccarello over from Sweden and Step and McD from Wisconsin. Sather invited Ruslan Fedotenko to camp back in the fall and Feds became one of the hardest working Rangers. He managed to rid the team of Michal Rozsival's contract and dealt the disgruntled Dane Byers to Columbus for Chad Kolarik.

Take the bad: Sather signed free agents Alex Frolov and Derek Boogaard and extended Erik Christensen. Frolov, who failed his way out of LA, brought his brand of disappointment to New York before getting hurt. Boogaard himself admitted to letting everyone down with his performance. Christensen rested on the reassurance and was invisible most of the season. Tim Kennedy very well could have helped the team down the line but he was buried in the minors before being traded away. Speaking of such, Sather's gamble to bring in the old failure Bryan McCabe at the deadline did not work out.

Take them both and then we have: In this day and age where youth is taking over the NHL, not a single player drafted in '09 or '10 has played a single game for the Rangers. Now that is either a very good thing - they don't have to be rushed - or a bad thing - none are ready or simply have the ability. I am going with the former as the first wave of home-grown kids are beginning to establish themselves. Sather is admitting his mistakes and is correcting them. Final grade: B

James Dolan:
Take the good: Dolan doesn't meddle in the affairs of the Rangers, at least publicly. Because the team did not make the playoffs the season prior, ticket prices were not raised for the regular season. CDs by his band JD & The Straight Shot are just $4.99 - but a guy born into a family worth $3.3 billion singing the blues, that's just priceless ...

Take the bad: Dolan is a money-hungry businessman with no regard for the people who are making him even richer than he already is. Despite ever-increasing merchandise revenues and a salary cap limiting costs, ticket prices were still extravagant. The Garden renovation got underway and inconvenienced those fans willing to pay to show up. The 85th Anniversary 'celebration' was just a shameless money grab - who the hell celebrates 85 years (outside of senior citizens)? The team has won one Stanley Cup in the last 71 years and yet the team ranks fourth in the NHL in Fan Cost Index. MSG Network was dropped by Dish Network, screwing the fans who didn't want to pay ticket prices and those who still had the network were still subject to Joe Micheletti.

Take them both and then we have: Dolan made $15.33 million during a down year in the economy where most Ranger fans were hamstrung. For him, that's fantastic. For us, notsomuch. Now Garden president Scott O’Neil is likely the cause of everything above but Dolan signs the paycheques and reaps much of the benefits so the complaints fall upon him. One redeeming factor to keep him from failure? The team isn't moving to Winnipeg. Final grade: D

The Captain Conundrum 2011

The news is out, the Rangers are done with Chris Drury, leaving the Blueshirts without a captain.

Before the C was sewn to Drury's sweater I held the belief that the team needed a cult of personality to lead them and, if anything, the last few seasons strengthened that philosophy. Us fans will never know what Drury brought to the table in the room and outside the rink - he may very well be responsible for the quick acclimation to New York by all of the Ranger kids the last few seasons. We will never know. But it is sad the way things worked out from what we did see.

We are pretty much right back where we started from. Back in 2008 the Rangers were transitioning from the Jagr generation to the Renney's American Rangers and it was clear that the C would go to one of the two big money Cs that were signed, Drury or Scott Gomez. Seeing as Gomez was a clown, that pretty much sealed the deal for Dru. Now the team is transitioning from the mercenary Sather signings to a generation of home grown kids.

So who will it be?

The obvious choice is Ryan Callahan. Cally's on-ice abilities are well known and he matured before our eyes as the New York media turned towards him in Drury's injury-caused absences. Callahan may very well be the next captain and he may very well prove to be worthy of the letter (and I truly hope so) but April 7th opened the door to doubt. Cally stood on crutches alongside Steve McDonald to present the extra effort award before an important home game against Atlanta. The sight of their injured teammate alongside New York's hero cop did nothing to inspire the team and they fell 3-0 in an utter embarrassment.

What we need to figure out is who will be able to inspire this team and lead them to a Stanley Cup? Callahan may very well be the man, but let's just look at a few other candidates:

Henrik Lundqvist: Hank is clearly deeply emotionally tied with the team and it's performance - after wins he is happy, after losses he looks like someone kicked his puppy. He doesn't hide from the media and isn't afraid to call out his teammates. As much as he is the King, he is also the Atlas holding up the Ranger world. But Roberto Luongo proved that goaltenders just shouldn't be captains in this day and age. While Hank can surely handle the pressure, he doesn't need or deserve the distractions.

Brandon Dubinsky: Dubi has been right there alongside Cally, growing up and giving all he has for the team. He is willing to fight for his teammates - physically at times - and call out the opposition *cough, cough, Crosby, cough, cough*. But he is on the verge of yet another possible contract holdout and you simply don't want to see that from the captain.

Marc Staal: The Rangers' top defenseman, Staal is yet another product of the developmental system who is rightfully taking his place among the best blueliners in the NHL. On the ice he is quiet and steady and perhaps the best foil for Alex Ovechkin in the league. While we saw a hint of a sense of humour with him at the All Star draft, Staal is usually as straightforward, bland and dour as Drury was with the media. He is best just going about his business rather than having to deal with all that captaincy holds.

Derek Stepan: In his first season Step stepped right in and often didn't look like a rookie. With the media and the fans he is gregarious and gracious and is already well loved by his teammates. A leader at Wisconsin and with the junior Team USA, Stepan clearly has the personality and ability to be 'the man' when called upon. But, going into his sophomore season he needs to be able to work to avoid the infamous slump without having the team's fortunes weighing upon him.

Brad Richards: Since it seems to be all but certain Richards is signing with the Rangers on Friday, he should be considered a candidate. The former Conn Smythe winner already has a good relationship with the head coach and several of the players and at 31 years old has plenty of experience in dealing with the ups and downs of the league. However, Richards will need to acclimate to the city and, unless his contract demands are far less than expected, will be just another mercenary coming to New York for the money.

Twice in recent history the Rangers chose poorly between two candidates for captaincy - picking the reluctant Leetch over Graves and Jagr over Shanahan. Drury was definitely a better selection than Gomez would have been but he didn't prove to be the leader the Rangers needed. Let's hope that they decide on the right one this time.

Rangers Report Card '10-11

After slogging through a player-by-player assessment in my NYR Facts of Life series, I figured it was finally time for my usual report card.

As I've done in the past, I graded each player based on expectations, performance all season long and performance when it counted. I am, admittedly, a tough grader. If you feel so inclined, you can refer back to the report cards for the last few seasons: '07-08, '08-09 and '09-10. Explanations are brief, if only because I already hit upon each player in the Facts of Life.

By my math the grades worked out to a 1.85 GPA, which is between a C and a C- in my system but the overall grade was a C+ because the team was more than the sum of its parts at times. There were some great performances by a handful and there were great disappointments by a few more. A reminder that these guys are graded against themselves and their own limits, not against other players.

Forwards

#42 Artem Anisimov: Skilled to be sure but all too inconsistent. C

#16 Sean Avery: Sean wasn't Sean for too long. C-

#94 Derek Boogaard: Yes he scored that goal that time but he fought for no reason and got hurt. D

#22 Brian Boyle: Incredible start but goals dried up midway through. B-

#24 Ryan Callahan: Heart and grit, injured in the line of duty. A

#26 Erik Christensen: Mr. Softie the Backstabber? D

#23 Chris Drury: See the Sad Commentary. C-

#17 Brandon Dubinsky: Career numbers but should be so much better. B-

#39 Brodie Dupont: Wasn't given a real shot. Inc.

#19 Ruslan Fedotenko: Training camp invitee turned invaluable third liner. A-

#31 Alex Frolov: The wrap-around king was an all-around failure. F

#10 Marian Gaborik: Lackadaisical, lackluster and just plain lacking. D

#91 Evgeny Grachev: Showed he could skate and defend but pointless in eight games. D

#25 Chad Kolarik: Ice time was too limiting for a full assessment. Inc.

#45 Kris Newbury: Won some faceoffs and played bigger than his size. C

#20 Vinny Prospal: Vet proved his value when he finally returned. B

#8 Brandon Prust: Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award winner. A

#21 Derek Stepan: Accounted himself well for a rookie. B+

#32 Dale Weise: Dane Byers 2. D

#12 Todd White: Could be an A just for not being Brashear but no. F

#86 Jeremy Williams: Four minutes of ice time. Inc.

#86 Wojtek Wolski: Where was the guy who starred in Phoenix in the playoffs? D

#36 Mats Zuccarello: Skillful but still transitioning to North America. B-

Defensemen

#4 Michael Del Zotto: Utterly disappointed on both side of the ice. F

#44 Steve Eminger: Had a few good stretches of solid defense. C

#97 Matt Gilroy: Never took that next step. D

#5 Dan Girardi: Shot blocker extraordinaire. A

#28 Bryan McCabe: Power play actually got worse with him on it. F

#27 Ryan McDonagh: Midseason call-up showed he could play. B+

#33 Michal Rozsival: Injuries didn't help veteran get his game back. F

#38 Michael Sauer: Steady and dependable as a rookie. A

#18 Marc Staal: Overworked but still the best of the blueline. A

Goaltenders

#43 Marty Biron: Blew away expectations before getting hurt. B

#29 Chad Johnson: Not good that the coach didn't trust him. Again. INC

#30 Henrik Lundqvist: Vezina-caliber season with career-best .923 save %. A

How Things Went Wrong With Hobey

The news broke today that Matt Gilroy was not qualified with the rest of the Rangers Group II restricted free agents.

Given Gilroy had a two-year, $3.5 million contract and would have to had to been qualified at $2.3 million. Financially the numbers just don't work for a player who was a third pairing blueliner ... at best. The Rangers apparently offered him another deal at a lower number but Gilroy will test the waters on July 1st.

So what went wrong?

Gilroy raised the Rangers' expectations (and the final amount of his contract) with a Hobey Baker Award-winning senior year at Boston University. Looking back, the fact that he was joined on the BU blueline by five guys who were all drafted and have all gone pro since should have brought some doubt into the equasion. Opposing schools had to worry about NHL first round selection Kevin Shattenkirk, giving Gilroy more time and space.

Hobey then raised the fans's expectations with this and this. But that came during a time the team came out of the gate flying - the Rangers opened 2009-10 with a 8-3-1 run and everyone was focused on supposed phenom Michael Del Zotto.

Del Zotto was getting prime ice time, especially with the man advantage. Gilroy was left at the bottom of the depth chart, forced to skate with Wade Redden or Michal Rozsival - not a good position to be in. A guy who was supposed to be able to carry the puck and put up points was left cleaning up his partners' mistakes and dumping the disc off the glass. This last season was even worse as he was leapfrogged by Mike Sauer and Ryan McDonagh and his minutes per game dropped well below the 15 minute mark. Gilroy did step up his game late and played some solid, if unspectacular shifts in the playoffs but they were not enough to earn another big money deal.

This fall should see Tim Erixon, Tomas Kundratek, Pavel Valentenko, Jyri Niemi and even Mikhail Pashnin challenge for spots on Broadway. Seeing as Glen Sather is considering adding a veteran on July 1st as well, well, that doesn't leave any room for Hobey. Best wishes to the Bellmore boy.

Quick 2011 Ranger Draft Recap

Gordie Clark, Glen Sather and the rest of the Ranger brass went to Minnesota and came away with six more Future Blue. Yes, six. Sather swung a deal with St. Louis to get the Blues third round pick; he had to give up Evgeni Grachev, but given how often Grachev himself gave up on the ice, it is no big loss. And he swapped next year's sixth rounder with Nashville's this year.

While it is highly unlikely we will see any of the kids in the next two, three seasons, let's look at 'em anyways:

JT Miller - 1st round, 15th overall - It was a classy move by the Rangers to have Aaron Boogaard announce the selection, it was just disappointing that it was this kid. The Hockey News ranked him 59th just two months ago and there were several other players on his own team that would have been better selections - big Tyler Biggs, bible-thumping sparkplug scorer Rocco Grimaldi or goalie John Gibson. Miller committed to play at the University of North Dakota next year but doesn't plan on being there for long, which is not something you really should admit ahead of time. He is just another grinding north-south player with third line upside, a decent second or solid third but first? Perhaps after the Jessiman embarrassment the organization just wants to make sure their guy makes it to the NHL, no matter the role.

Steven Fogarty - 3rd round, 72nd overall - Grachev was a third round pick in 2008 and he brought us back a third round pick in 2011 - that's actually pretty good considering how inconsistent his play was in the AHL. Let's hope Seven Fogarty is steadier down the line. Fogarty looks pretty good in this video but it was against high school kids in Minnesota, so who knows? Looks like he has that Datsyukian timing and sneakiness to steal the puck and the ice sight to do good things with it.

Michael St. Croix - 4th round, 106th overall - A WHL scorer with flash but little grit but he will stand up for his teammates. St. Croix put up points on a bad Edmonton team and helped them to the playoffs. Unfortunately he disappeared once the postseason started, getting just one goal and no assists as the Oil Kings were swept by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and the Red Deer Rebels.

Shane McColgan - 5th round, 134th overall - While he is willing to stand up for himself, McColgan is a skill guy first and foremost. A background in roller hockey (I like him already) has given him great hands and he has the speed to make them work in the new NHL. Kelly at Behind The Net spoke to him earlier this month after he had a good showing in the WHL playoffs.

Samuel Noreau - 5th round, 136th overall - After drafting a small skill guy in McColgan, they flipped the coin and took a dreadnought two picks later. Noreau is a defensive defenseman who has a tendency to lose his gloves and beat people up. He sounds like a McIlrath-kind of player without the upside.

Peter Ceresnak - 6th round, 172nd overall - Just the fifth Slovak selected in the draft, Ceresnak is several seasons away from the NHL, if at all. The boys at Copper & Blue did their due diligence and took at look at him thinking he could end up in Edmonton. They saw Jan Hejda in him but he sounds more like Radek Martinek to me, without the stink of Islander all over him.

Surprisingly Clark didn't select a single goaltender with any of the six picks to fill the one true hole in the organization. Tortorella doesn't trust Chad Johnson, the Whale relied on journeyman Dov Grumet-Morris even after Cam Talbot got healthy and Scott Stajcer couldn't seize the starting job on Owen Sound. But apparently Sather was convinced by Benoit Allaire that free agent signing Jason Missiaen is enough to supplement those three disappointments. Let's hope they can turn things around and that the injury bug doesn't strike again.

Scotty's Selection?

The first round of the NHL draft, as you are surely aware, is tonight in Minnesota. Because the Rangers made it to the playoffs but flamed out in the first round, they select 15th overall. They dealt away their second round picks to Calgary for Tim Erixon and sent their third rounder to Florida in the McCabe deal. That leaves them with 104th in the fourth, 134th and 136th in the fifth (134 was part of the Erixon deal).

Things worked out that my selection for the Rangers matched that of Gordie Clark and we got Dylan McIlrath. I was lucky enough to have seen McIlrath play but did not make it to any junior games this year so it is far harder to judge. Jess from Prospect Park, the blogging guru when it comes to the Ranger kids, presented a few options and likes Finland's Joel Armia at 15 or American Tyler Biggs if the Rangers trade down in the first round. Personally I am hoping they do deal away the 15 pick and drop, because they can get back a third rounder to be sure - maybe a second if the other team is desperate. If there is a way to trade it and get back a top-six player, well, I do that in a second.

Strange to say, right? After years of begging for a rebuild with youth it is finally here. We have a young core with another wave of kids about to come through. We need to ride that wave and quickly. Those kids need to enter a culture of winning - not mediocrity - where they can succeed before they go sign somewhere else or need to be dealt away in this salary cap world. If we needed a reminder of that, well Philly just gave us one.

The Rangers clearly are building a team that will be successful when the renovations are finished in MSG, to justify the extraordinary prices. Given the parity in the draft picks after the top six or seven this year, would a project kid be able to not just play but to succeed in two seasons time?

Twenty years ago the Rangers picked Alex Kovalev 15th overall. Since then the Rangers drafted one player who turned out worthy of the title 'First Round Pick" - Marc Staal. That is, of course discounting MDZ, Kreider and McIlrath as the jury is still out on them. A few guys made it to the league and became worthwhile players - Sundstrom, Cloutier, Malhotra - and a few didn't - Cherneski, Brendl, Jessiman. One would like to imagine that Clark has set the team back on the path of regularly drafting guy who can make the shot but who knows?

However, since it isn't fun not to have a horse in the race, if I had to throw some darts at the wall and guess at who the Rangers will pick - I'd like Mark McNeill if he is still around, Nicklas Jensen, David Musil or even goalie John Gibson. As long as Sather doesn't make an awful trade and Clark does select a netminder at some point, the 2011 draft will be successful for the team.

The NYR Facts Of Life '10-11 Master Post

After finishing off this year's The Facts Of Life: New York Rangers series, I figured it would be best to have a one-stop shop where you can check out the individual players of your choice without having to delve into the archives.

#4 Michael Del Zotto
#5 Dan Girardi
#8 Brandon Prust
#10 Marian Gaborik
#12 Todd White
#16 Sean Avery
#17 Brandon Dubinsky
#18 Marc Staal
#19 Ruslan Fedotenko
#20 Vinny Prospal
#21 Derek Stepan
#22 Brian Boyle
#23 Chris Drury
#24 Ryan Callahan
#25 Chad Kolarik
#26 Erik Christensen
#27 Ryan McDonagh
#28 Bryan McCabe
#29 Chad Johnson
#30 Henrik Lundqvist
#31 Alex Frolov
#32 Dale Weise
#33 Michal Rozsival
#36 Mats Zuccarello
#38 Michael Sauer
#39 Brodie Dupont
#42 Artem Anisimov
#43 Martin Biron
#44 Steve Eminger
#45 Kris Newbury
#86 Wojtek Wolski
#86 Jeremy Williams
#91 Evgeny Grachev
#94 Derek Boogaard
#97 Matt Gilroy

The NYR Facts Of Life: #4 Michael Del Zotto

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 finishing up with last (and one of the least) #4, Michael Del Zotto.

#4's #s: 47 games, two goals, nine assists, -5, 20 PIM.

Take the good: Del Zotto came out of a summer spent training with Gary Roberts and laid a nasty hit on Pat Kaleta in the season opener.

Take the bad: It was all downhill from there. Scenes like this were all too familiar this year, where Del Zotto was walked around by the opposition. For all of the big hits he attempted, he often simply waved his stick at the bad guys as they came near. For all of the speed he has, he often was outhustled to the puck. The flashes of offensive greatness that we saw during his rookie season were gone and he was outright disastrous on the power play. He quarterbacked like he had a live hand grenade, and he either tossed it away harmlessly or got his fingers blown off while overhandling it, resulting in a shorthanded break for the bad guys.

Take them both and then we have: A player who was clearly number one with Ranger fans (watch the video). It is hard to say that he had a sophomore slump when he was just as inept in his own zone as he was when he was a freshman. But at the end of the day he was just a immature 20 year old living the dream in the big city. Hopefully the trip to the bus league helped him grow up and set him on the the path to being a capable NHLer - if not the rightful heir to Leetch that so many hoped for.

The NYR Facts Of Life: #33 Michal Rozsival

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 was almost finished before realizing that we missed #33, Michal Rozsival.

#33's #s: 32 games, three goals, 12 assists, +3, 22 PIM.

Take the good: Now I know that there have been plenty of people following this Facts of Life series, but no one noticed that Rozy was skipped - perhaps that says quite a bit about Rozy but it doesn't say it all. Rozsival was the quiet, calm veteran from whom you knew exactly what to expect. He even surprised us with a several good performances at the beginning of the season (five points in a five-game span in late October) and then one outstanding shift in the otherwise forgettable 3-0 loss to Florida just after New Years. He was a crutch for Tortorella and saw an average of 22 minutes of ice time a night.

Take the bad: There was a time where he was the team's number one defenseman (which wasn't saying much about the blueline back then) but that was a long time ago. This season the 32-year-old Czech fought hip, shoulder and rib injuries that stripped away whatever effectiveness he had left. Rozy was soft, he was slow, he had bad turnovers and he took bad penalties. More often than not he was a liability who brought his partner down as said partner had to scramble to cover for him.

Take them both and then we have: The last piece of the post-lockout Czech-mate Rangers to be removed. His teammates respected him - even if we fans did not - and not one of them doubted his effort - even if we did. Rozsival played a total of 467 games with the Blueshirts, a solid tenure (that he was paid handsomely for). The decision to trade him away not only opened up salary cap space but it secured a permanent spot for Ryan McDonagh on the blueline.

The NYR Facts Of Life: #5 Dan Girardi

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 #5, Dan Girardi.

#5's #s: 80 games, four goals, 27 assists, +7, 37 PIM (5 playoff games, no goals, no assists, -2, no PIM).

Take the good: Girardi was half of the top defensive pairing on the Rangers and thus saw the toughest competition and played a ton of minutes. Henrik Lundqvist would not have been able to put together the Vezina-caliber season that he did without Dan. Girardi was the regular season league leader in blocked shots with 236 - 24 more than second place Greg Zanon (who played two more games). He then added 26 more in the five playoff games against the Caps. He improved his points and plus/minus each of the last two seasons and appears to be heading into his prime. And he did all that while laying down more than a few hits - he collected 195, which ranked ninth in the NHL among defensemen. Girardi is no fighter but after the awful, awful Gaborik incident has learned to stand up for his teammates ...

Take the bad: Girardi is pointless and -7 in his last 18 playoff games. There were numerous times this season where he gave his opponent too much time and space and was burned. When Staal was out with injury Girardi was clearly out of sorts. Needs to realize that a stick check is no check at all when you are going one-on-one against the top talents in the NHL.

Take them both and then we have: Some players get contract extensions and get complacent. Dan Girardi is not one of those players. Girardi re-upped with the Rangers for four more seasons last July and kept up the hard work that earned that deal. He had surgery for a hernia after the season, which makes you wonder just how much pain he fought through and how long he dealt with it. When you see a guy dealing with that and still playing at a high level, you want to be your best, and Girardi definitely set a good example for McD and Sauer in their first playoffs. Interestingly, Girardi was the assistant captain in Guelph in '04-05 - showing his leadership ability. The captain? Ryan Callahan.