Recasting on Broadway?

It’s been a busy week in Rangers world. After a weekend where they, to the surprise of many, took big, bruising defenseman Dylan McIlrath 10th overall in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, the Broadway Blueshirts opened up their Prospect Development camp on Monday at their training facility in Greenburgh, NY. Aaron Voros, Patrick Rissmiller and Donald Brashear were put on waivers yesterday; all cleared today.

Tomorrow at noon, the NHL free agent market opens up, and that begs the question: what are the New York Rangers going to do?

With owner Jim Dolan and Knicks brass jetting off to Akron to attempt to woo LeBron James with money and all that New York City can offer him as NBA free agency opens up tomorrow as well, perhaps the answer is: not much.

I loathe that the word “rebuilding” seems to be such a dirty word when it comes to pro sports here New York City. I hate that there’s this theory that you can’t rebuild here, that fans won’t stand for it. I think it’s nonsense. I don’t know about anyone else, but I hated sitting through those pre-lockout years where a hodgepodge of overpaid, fading stars were brought in, management deeming that was far more palatable to the fan base than a bunch of no-name kids going out there and playing their hearts out, even if they really weren’t that good, would have been.

Coming out of the lockout in 2005, I had a renewed sense of optimism about the direction in which the organization was heading. The salary cap was in place to contain the out-of-control and unwise spending; the only big-ticket item was Jaromir Jagr, and Washington was picking up a nice chunk of his salary. Rookie Henrik Lundqvist, whom most of us had never heard of before being named Kevin Weekes’ backup came out of nowhere to win the starter’s job, an Olympic gold medal and his first of 3 consecutive Vezina Trophy nominations. Another rookie, diminutive Petr Prucha, also came out of nowhere and surprised us with a 30-goal rookie campaign and played with a heart that belonged in a much bigger body. Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan and Marc Staal followed in their footsteps. While they may not all be top-line players, they were developing and keeping young talent and we were seeing it blossom before our eyes. It seemed like we were on the right track.

But old habits die hard and monster contracts soon reared their head – some deserved (Lundqvist and Gaborik), but most not (Redden, Rozsival, Drury, Gomez, Kotalik, Brashear) and the team’s in a similar situation all over again, only this time incapable of spending its way out of it.

I hope that Coach Tortorella’s emphasis on getting even younger holds true to form, and the Rangers don’t do too much this free agent season. Truthfully, there’s no one out there that really gets me excited to the point that I want to throw money at them. Ilya Kovalchuk’ s an immense talent, and undoubtedly would provide a badly needed offensive infusion, but there’s no way the Rangers even could come close to, let alone surpass, the offer that the Atlanta Thrashers allegedly had put on the table before his move to the Devils. In all honesty, his performance in New Jersey didn’t really show me that he was worthy of such an asking price. Adding one or 2 free agents is not going to immediately turn this team into a Stanley Cup contender. There’s a long way to go before that happens.

Re-sign Staal. Get a decent backup for Lundqvist. Re-sign some of the other free agents like Dan Girardi, Jody Shelley and Brandon Prust. Supplement with a few inexpensive free agents. If youngsters like Grachev prove capable of making the big club, then let them, and let them play. If they can scrounge up a candidate to be the #1 center and can come up with someone to upgrade the defense for a reasonable price, gravy. It’ll probably be a few bumpy years, but there may be some light at the end of the tunnel if we stand pat for the time being.