Rangers Spotlight: Chris Drury
by Jim Schmiedeberg on Jul 22, 2009 7:00 AM EDT
in New York Rangers Analysis
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PrintAt season's end, Rob did an analysis of each player on the roster, and gave some thoughts on what lies ahead for each one. Since so many of you are new to Blueshirt Banter, we thought we would bring some of those profiles to you again. Today we have Rob's look at Chris Drury:
#23 - Chris Drury (Age: 32) - Grade: B-
Drury's point total dropped for the fourth season in a row to 56, along with his goal total to 22. Still, he was third on the team in scoring, and won over 55% of his face-offs for the season. I'm sure Drury is disappointed in his point totals dropping as well, but I think it isn't necessarily a bad thing. Drury has gotten even better at face-offs than he has been in the past, and he does a lot of little things right that win hockey games. Drury could easily be one of the players to heavily benefit from a new and aggressive system, as he reads the game well and capitalizes on other teams' mistakes.
Final thoughts from Jim:
With Scott Gomez traded to Montreal, Drury's life in the fishbowl is now a little tougher, as he no longer has Gomez to share the blame with for the Rangers offensive woes. The addition of former Buffalo linemate Ales Kotalik may help to improve his numbers. The spotlight's on the Captain for the 2009-2010 season, he is going to need to raise his game.
Contract Status: Drury is signed until the end of the 2012 season with a yearly cap hit of $7.05M
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Sad things is
I never blamed Gomez. I always blamed Drury. I guess i felt that if i blamed Gomez I would be profiling. Plus Drury is a puss. I can’t stand him. Screw ’em.
Now now, I wouldn’t call him a puss, did you see the picture Rob has as his profile pic? Plus, he played with a broken hand the last few weeks of the season, I wouldn’t classify that as a puss. You can say a few things about Drury, but this is one I would have to disagree with you on.
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by Jim Schmiedeberg on Jul 22, 2009 8:02 AM EDT up reply actions
Well...
Strong work ethic, yes. Puss, YES! Broken hand or not, I still don’t like him. Until he plays with 2 broken legs and an eye poked out like Avery did in one game, then i’ll stop calling him a puss. Avery only did it in one game cause he heals that quickly.
Drury is the type of player you
want on your team….I just don’t know if Id pay 7.05 mill per for him tho.
Maybe reuniting him with a former teamate in Kotalik (and/or paring him with a gifted winger in Gaborik) brings out some of that sort of player that seemed to be worth the contract when they signed him.
Still an excellent PK guy no matter his production.
100% agree
he does many good things. don’t blame him because he is overpaid.
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by Joe Fortunato on Jul 22, 2009 10:33 AM EDT up reply actions
It's the things we don't see
Outside of his last two years in Buffalo, Drury has been consistant with his career stats. I think the system Buffalo played was to the strengths of their players that led to career years for guys..look at Briere and Biron. It’s the liitle things that get missed. Over his career his game winning goal totals is an amazing stat for a 20+ goal scorer, about 20% of his goals matter when the game is on the line. He is a better player when surrounded by the right guys and not being the focal point of the offense, a similiar position Holik was put in when he came to the Rangers. While I agree that the salary he makes is way too much for a 20+g, 60pt guy with intangables, he just signed it. Sather put the gun to his own head with that contract, Chris didn’t hold it for him.
Drury
Has lost a step and can’t carry the puck through the neutral zone consistently anymore. That’s not really the type of player you want on the ice with a player like Gaborik. Defenses need to respect the puck carrying ability of Gaborik’s line-mates or the D can cheat over to Gaborik and eliminate his effectiveness. On our current roster, Dubi is much better for this assignment.
Drury will center Kotalik and perhaps Callahan.
by Blueshirts Rock on Jul 22, 2009 10:10 AM EDT reply actions
Drury's Grown on me
Its tough to say after last season’s offensive woes, and Drury’s massive contribution to those woes, I still like the guy more and more. I was kind of upset when he was brought over immediately after knocking us out of the playoffs (Buffallo is still the most heartbreaking playoff series I can remember, but bear in mind, I’m still in college, and my memory is not that long), and I was able to hold my bias against him pretty strongly up until Febuary of this year. Once his slump broke, I was able to realize how well he was doing everything else, and how much heart he played with, and I started liking him more and more. I still think he is payed twice as much as he should be, and that he doesn’t have a first line center’s skill set, but he’s a good player regardless.
by AllHailTheKing30 on Jul 22, 2009 12:57 PM EDT reply actions
From what we see of Drury, I think we can imagine just what Tortorella describes of him. He cares too much. He’s a solid 2 way player who’s salary is just out of control. But out of the context of his salary, he’s just a reliable 2 way player who gives it a little grit every shift. Can we seriously count the number of plays he makes on one knee? It’s not bad balance (I don’t think =P), it’s just pure will in his game.
He’s not a $7M player, but he scores goals that matter and I never thought I’d see the day he would do something in a shootout, and he shut me up this year on that. I just like his consistency, and at least he’s use to the Garden now.
"Malik now." "6 foot 6, 238, not a noted goal scorer but he's gonna give it a shot here." "Malik has not scored this year. In on Kolzig, faked it....SCORES"
chelios to the rangers...?
i read this article that chelios might wanna play in new york…i think id rather have zubov…if i had it my way i wouldnt sign anymore d-men unless rosival was moved…heres the article
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/222137-new-york-rangers-to-sign-chris-chelios
nope
give the spot to a kid. Chelios is 47 … way to old for an NHL player
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by Joe Fortunato on Jul 22, 2009 4:20 PM EDT up reply actions
I feel with Chelios he can mentor them to somewhat of an extent to where you won’t see rookie mistakes made by whichever kid takes his spot. It provides motivation for those kids to take that spot from a grizzled veteran as well. If he comes at minimum salary too; what’s the worst that can happen? He’ll probably get sent to the minors and be a help to the kids in Hartford at least from a optimistic view. It’s not like Sather is going to sign him to 3 years 3 million dollars… I hope.
and if you can still play; even at a part time level why should age be a factor? Gordie Howe probably stubbed his toe after that post was made lol. If this was still a Renney system I can care less about Chelly, but with all the changes made this offseason, I really believe this guy can provide some knowhow to the kids that may be overlooked when focusing on conditioning and forecheck.
If they're going to sign a 40+ yr old defenseman
Go find what Leetch is doing these days.
by George E. Ays on Jul 22, 2009 4:22 PM EDT up reply actions
Chelios, Jesus, I just got a knot in my colon
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by Jim Schmiedeberg on Jul 22, 2009 5:23 PM EDT reply actions
Chris might not be you typical
7million dollar man but to those who like his game you cant be mad. Hey if someone like zherdev asks for 5 mill and gets it somewhere then you laugh at the gm because his turn overs are abundant and his two way game isn’t there, but with Drury its different. Look he has a good offensive game that on bad yrs will get him 50pts and on good ones will get him 70pts. He has a solid defensive game from which he creates off of. He will have to do both to earn his money.He will be on the first pk unit, first pp unit with gaborik and higgins and will center avery and kotalik on the second line. His production should be better considering we have goal scorers on the team now besides him. Now Lets see if the captain can deliver.
I just wonder whos going to wear gomez’s and naslunds (a)’s?
by louielounz1 on Jul 22, 2009 6:26 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
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