The Question of Gaborik. . .

Larry Brooks explores the Rangers going after the Wild's Marian Gaborik, among other things in today's Slap Shots column.

Best line:

The Penguins have Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, the Caps have Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green, the Hurricanes have Eric Staal, and the Rangers . . . well, and the Rangers have no one remotely comparable. Fact is, the Blueshirts don't have a forward who would be selected in the top, what, 100 in a league-wide dispersal draft.

He said it's possible the Rangers could some how go after Gaborik with a very, very incentive laden contract that would make him the highest paid player and give him the money he's after if, only if, he were healthy enough and produced enough to warrant it.

If only all contracts worked this way, no?

Regardless, the only way I'd want him on my team would be with some sort of contigency plan that Brooks alludes to. The guy is a marvelous player, when healthy, but he has not been very healthy. You can't pay a guy like that the heafty millions he might ask without having some sort of out in case he plays only 17 games in a season.


The other point Brooks brought up is that pretty much only Hank Lundqvist himself would be a given straight up for the offensive elite player the Rangers so desparately need. But he said if he were Glen Sather, he'd be calling and offering up Marc Staal, one of the Rangers few "desirable" players for Heatly, Lecavalier, Stamkos.

For the record, I'd cry if Marc Staal left. I see in his growth in just two years the potential for him to be something really, really special here. And it's been too long since the Rangers have had a defenseman to be excited about. Too long. I'd hate to see him go.

Sigh.

The other best line, and equally as painful as the first one:

Finally, the concept of an automatic NHL suspension is kind of like the Rangers power play, existing only in theory.

And now I think I might want to cry.


*Note: I have had the final part of the season in review in my email box, editing it as a get a moment here or there. I cannot seem to find the time to finally end it. I am really, really hoping to do that this week. Apologies in advance. ;) *