Ultimate NHL

In Defense of...

You know what I can't believe it. I am actually going to defend the New York Rangers and their signings of Scott Gomez and Chris Drury. I've heard a lot of Ranger fans guarentee a cup with those deals, which is ridiculous and a bit premature but the signings are far from bad. FAR from it.

Lets just put this one comparison to rest. The Bobby Holik deal to NY is not comparable to the Scott Gomez deal to NY. Yes both came from the same team and yes both men ended up signing huge deals. And yes both scored around 55-60 points the years before their massive pay days. But let me repeat, they are not comparable.

The Bobby Holik signing was looked at like the saving of the franchise. The Rangers for many years were rancid on defense. Just ask Mike Richter's knees. How do you solve that problem? Well by signing the best defensive forward in the best defensive system of course. Great in theory but it really didn't pan out. In fact it sucked. Bobby Holik within time became the teams #1 center and could not do his job properly to try and even justify the contract. Holik was put on the list with Eric Lindros, Pavel Bure, and Alexi Kovelov of players who could not turn the team around.

Fast forward to the signing of Scott Gomez. Scott Gomez is not looked at as the savior of the franchise, because the franchise is no longer in need of saving. The Rangers did not need to sign Scott Gomez. In fact they probably needed Chris Drury more than Scott Gomez because they had a formidable partner for Jagr in Nylander. Now since they didn't need Scott Gomez, why did they sign him? Age. With the long term deal of Scott Gomez, the New York Rangers don't have to worry about a #1 center for a long time. He's only 27 guys. He's only going to get better, and just the thought of him and Jagr clicking gives me nightmares.

As for Chris Drury. Why not? The team needed a second line center, and as long as nobody expects Drury to put up more than 70 points it will make sense. I've always thought of Chris Drury as overrated, because in reality he is the best player in the biggest games of the year but his play doesn't get you to the biggest games of the year. He'll get you that game winning overtime goal, but he'll also get you very mediocre numbers on the way there. But hey, I've always known that, and as long as everybody else does the signing is gold.

The only negative I can take from this scenerio is you are taking away Nylander who is a provin linemate for the moody #68. What if Gomez doesn't work out with Jagr? I know it's a long shot, but Brett Hull and Wayne Gretzky didn't exactly mesh. You are taking away what is for what should be. Do I think Scott Gomez and Jaromir Jagr will be a flop? No I don't. But I'm not betting my last dollar on it either.

Either way, it's kind of hard to fault Mr. Sather for the moves he made.