Semin and Moulson Given Extensions, Rangers Dodge a Bullet?

don’t take it personal. I’ve been limiting my visits to bsb since the break started to spread out my news consumption. it’s like the offseason.

Seems like you guys like to vote on polls, so I thought I’d tag one on to this piece. Looks like it is going to hurt the amount of feedback and comments I get though, lol.

Glad you liked the piece, I can’t see why Semin would work any better with Torts than Frolov or Zherdev did.

Semin plays with Backstrom and Ovechkin 24.24% of the time and he plays with Laich and Perreualt (and Fleischmann before he was traded) about half as often. He does benefit from Backstrom, an amazing playmaker, and Ovechkin but I think he can produce offense on his own… just not nearly as much. It is my belief that Semin would be half the player he is in Washington if he played elsewhere, that system and that team suits his style perfectly.

Go with the kids and let Prospal, Frolov, and Fedotenko go. Maybe consider bringing back Eminger if we can get him for under $1 mill, but I don’t see that happening. He’d be a great 7th defenseman or a guy to come into the lineup if one of the kids struggles next year.

Very interesting strategy considering how weak this upcoming offseason’s free agent market is and how much money he might command in an offer. He is also just entering the prime of his career (26 years old). He is getting a huge extension in terms of the amount he is making for one year though, if I was Semin I would have perhaps gone for a longer extension. It occurred to me that they might want to lock him up so he doesn’t waste time worrying about not being in Washington next year and can focus on lighting the lamp for Washington.

sounds familiar…

I understand what you are saying Buck, you wanted to turn Gaborik’s money into a legitimate top line with a sniper and perhaps the best playmaking center in the game. I have one issue with the logic (other than Gaborik’s NTC)…

Again, since my interest in Semin would be contingent on getting Richards, I think if Richards was happy playing with Semin, then Torts would back off.

Seems like one too many variables to me, just hoping chemistry happens between two guys after you throw all kinds of money at them sounds too much like what the Rangers tried to make happen with Scott Gomez. It is always risky to do a complete re-vamp of a team by bringing in two huge stars like that and shipping one off. I might just be simplifying this but the devil we know is better than the devil we don’t know in regards to Gaborik and Semin.

I agree that Sasha might end up in the KHL a few years from now, especially if there is a big offer from a team there and if the league is still afloat.

There are a lot of d-men that are hitting the free agent market, the most intriguing to me is Pitkanen (one of the few guys under 30 that doesn’t have a serious injury history).

But you are right, there is a very shallow free agent pool with one big fish flopping around in it, everyone’s eyes are on it. Richards is going to get paid big time.

I don’t see anyway that Prospal comes back for a second encore, but I suppose I should be fair and see what he has left in the tank when and if he gets back into the lineup this year (he just came off the IR…).

Prospal is 35 and will turn 36 about halfway into the 2011-12 season, I just don’t see him coming back as a good idea. There are better ways to spend that $1 mill, including making sure we re-sign all of our RFA kids.

I’ve certainly changed my opinion on that. At the beginning of the season I was big on trading MDZ for a shut down d-man to rotate with Staal’s line. Now I don’t even advocate trading MDZ because we’ve demonstrated a level of depth that I didn’t expect. Saur, Gilroy’’s emergence, Eminger as you say, McD looking to be able to step into a steady position by next year. All of this has me leaning towards sitting tight. We can wait to see how MDZ develops it simply isn’t as urgent to me as I thought back in November.

On the other hand, I didn’t foresee Frolov being such a bust, didn’t predict AT ALL how successful MZA would turn out to be. When I watched him skate in pre-season it shook my confidence in his ability to play in the NHL…but this is a totally different ice hockey player than I witnessed back in the Fall. Honestly, he and Stepan are two of the smartest players I’ve watched on the ice in a long time. This overall “smarts” is a big reason for the Ranger’s transformation…

But I definitely didn’t predict us losing so many core guys. I thought Boyle would have a solid year but not THIS solid. I actually thought the person we’d be raving about was Anisimov. He’s having a great year but I thought he might be pushing 30 goals, not Boyle.

d

What you haven’t dipped a kitty in oil and put it in a factory full of sparks?

With Semin and Moulson coming off of the free agent Market Brad Richards stands to demand a king’s ransom not only in his money but the amount of years he can command. Perhaps he would have got offers in the 4-5 year range but he may very well find himself entertaining offers of 6-7 years with teams taking him and his cap hit on much longer than they would like.

I got 3 words for you…not a center.

I look at it that as the D matures they’ll take some of the load off of Lundqvist. The teams goals against since the Rozsival trade is already pretty solid, I mean they shut out Vancouver with a very young blueline. McD reminds me of Staal as a rookie. Having two guys like that would make for many easy nights for Lundqvist in net.

Maybe we should have you send Richards a video message like the one that Drury sent Gaborik.

The Torts connection is important to remember. I hope something like this could work, because getting him at something like 3 yrs $6 mill per would be a dream. It might be in the cards but I think he will get more money and a longer contract because the market is just so damn thin now.

I think the $3.5-$4.0M was the range a lot of people here were expecting for Dubi and Cally using the Backes and Giroux deals as comparables.