With NHL teams wheeling and dealing as the NHL draft approaches, General Manager Glen Sather has remained relatively quiet. The only Rangers news was that Enver Lisin would not be tendered a qualifying offer of approximately $800,000, making him an unrestricted free agent as of July 1. With the news extravaganza that was yesterday, some are wondering why Sather has been this quiet.

The truth of the matter is that Sather is generally very quiet until draft day, then gets very busy between the draft and mid-July. In fact, I cannot recall many, if any, moves that were made by Sather in the post-lockout era that came before the draft. The Scott Gomez deal is the only significant move made by Sather pre-July 1, and that came on June 30.

Don’t worry, Sather is still breathing, he was in on the Arnott sweepstakes for a while, and we can only assume that he was in on Horton until he heard the asking price. However, with limited cap space and key RFA’s to sign, you can expect Sather to be quiet on most fronts. Marc Staal seems to be the priority, and his contract will dictate the rest of the Rangers offseason plans.