you mean when Shanny signed in February 09 and he hadn't played an NHL game in almost a year? Go figure. if he had had a training camp with his 06-07/07-08 team he probably could have potted 20 goals. same as Jagr. both veterans wanted to stay in NY and 1-year extensions wouldn't have been out of the question at all, much less replacing them with Naslund/Redden/Zhedrev/Voros/Rissmiller summer

shanahan was super-slow and the devils cut him last year - he was done. he might've potted 20 goals, but it would likely be because of sub-optimal usage.

who knows what jagr would've wanted, money-wise, though i do think the tyutin deal was real stupid

jagr made it clear he thought he was the best player on the team (he woulda been) and had to be paid more than Drury or Gomez's 7-7.5.

Since there's a salary cap, that was that.

Jagr's also one of the few athletes who dogged it during the season (his last), openly admitted it because he was old and needed to conserve most of the time, got heat, then went out and had a dominating playoffs (he was literally the only guy to show up vs Pittsburgh, it'd be him 1 on 2 or 1 on 3 in the corners holding his own while everyone else did nothing). He was unique that's for sure.

He had lost all of his speed and a lot of his skill but he when he was geared up enough mighta been the strongest guy in the league and rode his strength to like 13 points in 8 games or something.

i mean it might be trivial to play monday-morning quarterback but:

the team in 07-08 team was one of the best teams in the East, kinda like 06-07 except minus Nylander/Cullen/Ortmeyer and added Gomez/Drury/Staal/Dubinsky

Straka was really past his prime and I don't fault NY for letting him go but keeping Shanny and Jagr for an additional year really wouldn't have been a bad thing. Heck, Jagr said Sather never even contacted his agent once about an extension/new contract.

The team was a complete offensive joke in 08/09, I just didn't see the value in such a drastic change. Clearly Jagr and Shanny were at the end of their rope but the 07-08 team was a force to be reckoned with, Sather could probably have acquired Zherdev/Fritsche for Tyutin/Backman and even Voros/Rissmiller without the 180 degree change, which has led the team to the post-Jagr era it currently 'enjoys'

Besides, the '09 free agents like Gaborik and Prospal would have been available anyways, plus Del Zotto/Anisimov among other propsects were on their way regardless of roster

again, this is all results-oriented retro-bitching, but the summer '08 change of direction was 1 year early if you ask me, probably induced by the Drury/Gomez signings in '07. The idea is to transition the talent of '08 into '09 instead of a systematic re-build which changed everything, I don't think an additional year of Jagr/Shanny would have been that terrible, and I don't think it's out of the question to theorize that team would have been a favorite to make the playoffs (based on 06-08)

BTW here are the new 3rd jerseys, which I don't really care for:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puc...urn=nhl-270373

bonsaltron's NYR 3rd jersey power rankings:
1) Lady Liberty
2) Vintage 70's NYR Crest Jerseys
3) This one

bons: the 08-09 rangers ran pretty damn bad imo

wrt what? not injuries that's fore sure

here's a perfect HockeyRodent article encapsulating the 08-09 rangers

http://www.hockeyrodent.com/R2156.HTM

I prefer the new 3rd jersey over Lady Liberty, but I really dislike LL.

While I don't think waiving Redden makes us significantly better or worse this year, I'm really glad I don't have to see his stupid face in a Rangers uniform again.

And those 3rd jerseys are terrible.

shooting percentage at even strength. pretty sure they were 30th in the league. some of that is having gomez who is just horrible at shooting.

fwiw, rangers just made a bunch of cuts, exelby and semenov are gone, and zuccarello and grachev are going to hartford

meh NY's top 6 forwards all scored pretty much what they were projected to score that year, I think it was a matter of not having any natural, dominant scorers and a serious problem with chemistry (lines were constantly shuffled all year long and nobody on the power play could consistently provide offense)

Zherdev(24):::::23-35-58/82
Naslund(35):::::24-22-46/82
Gomez(29)::::::16-42-58/77
Drury(32)::::::::22-34-56/81
Dubinsky(22)::::13-28-41/82
Callahan(23):::::22-18-40/81

the team was 25th in scoring overall and was 5% below the league average for PP%

i don't think they ran bad as much as they had bland, pasted-together offense

remaining roster:

Anisimov, Avery, Boogaard, Boyle, Callahan, Christensen, Drury, Dubinsky, Fedetenko, Frolov, Gaborik, Kennedy, Prospal, Prust, Stepan, White

Del Zotto, Eminger, Gilroy, Girardi, McDonagh, Rozsival, Sauer, Staal, Valentenko

Biron, Lundqvist

bons: they outshot the opposition by 186 and had a 6.4% shooting percentage at ES. their power play was obviously a mess, but shooting at expected shooting percentage would've gotten them 32 more goals at ES. some of this poor shooting is likely due to score effects and bad shooters, but it's hard to attribute all of it to that.

im of the opinion they didn't actually run bad

their continual lack of a net presence has a ton to do with running bad numbers wise. imo.

4 rookies still on the roster... stepan, sauer, valentenko, mcdonagh

First 5 games: Sabres, Islanders, Maple Leafs, Avalanche, Maple Leafs

Real good chance to have our patented super-fast start, raising fan expectations, only to crush us later down the road.

Next 5 games: Bruins, Devils, Thrashers, Hurricanes, Maple Leafs

If you want to get rid of the rust, three of the first ten games against Toronto is a gift.

4,13,15,8,15,6,2,10,11,15 (finished order in conference)

lol could that have broken any better for them. less than 7 wins will signify a very very long year

nice pass from dubi and nice goal by staal to tie the game up late in the 3rd, believe the defender he beat was cowan

PLAYERS ASSIGNED TO HARTFORD (AHL) ON 10/3/10:
Defense (2): Ryan McDonagh, Pavel Valentenko
Forward (2): Dale Weise, Mats Zuccarello

PLAYERS STILL IN NEW YORK RANGERS TRAINING CAMP:
Goal (2): Martin Biron, Henrik Lundqvist
Defense (7): Michael Del Zotto, Steve Eminger, Matt Gilroy, Dan Girardi, Michal Rozsival, Mike Sauer, Marc Staal
Forward (16): Artem Anisimov, Sean Avery, Derek Boogaard, Brian Boyle, Ryan Callahan, Erik Christensen, Chris Drury, Brandon Dubinsky, Ruslan Fedotenko, Alex Frolov, Marian Gaborik, Tim Kennedy, Vinny Prospal, Brandon Prust, Derek Stepan, Todd White

* Drury and Prospal starting on the IR, Stepan and White could be sent down as they return later in October

Fedetenko signed to a 1yr/$1 million deal according to CapGeek

Todd White, Tim Kennedy waived

NYR Roster

Goal (2): Martin Biron, Henrik Lundqvist

Defense (7): Michael Del Zotto, Steve Eminger, Matt Gilroy, Dan Girardi, Michal Rozsival, Mike Sauer, Marc Staal

Forward (14): Artem Anisimov, Sean Avery, Derek Boogaard, Brian Boyle, Ryan Callahan, Erik Christensen, Chris Drury, Brandon Dubinsky, Ruslan Fedotenko, Alex Frolov, Marian Gaborik, Vinny Prospal, Brandon Prust, Derek Stepan,

Why do we have so many right handed defenseman?

because Sather's trying to find the next Paul Coffey, obv.

(at least RH'd Redden is gone...)

just because those guys are on waivers doesn't mean they aren't on the team

understood, but when Drury and Prospal come back i think it's fair to say Kennedy and White are first to go to make room

game 1, lets go!!!