Well, the most anticipated free agent in a class that is, frankly, somewhat underwhelming in 2011, has been snapped up.
Glen Sather got his man. Former Dallas Stars centre Brad Richards, a Stanley Cup winner with current Rangers coach John Tortorella in Tampa in 2004, is now a New York Ranger. All the rumours said that the Rangers were always Richards’ first choice. And now he’s here. Welcome to Broadway, Blueshirt Brad!
The deal is 9 years and a whopping $60 million, obviously front-loaded, payday for Richards, who left Dallas and found himself a new home in the media capital of the world, in a huge hockey market, and found himself pulling down an incredibly nice little earner. If that’s not enough, he gets to play forty-odd home games at Madison Square Garden – the World’s Most Famous Arena – every season. What’s not to like?
I don't care who you are, $60 million is real money. Some believe that Sather over-paid for Richards. Maybe he did, just a little bit, but the fact is that Richards is here, will be a Ranger and, when you take a step back and look at the GM’s work over the last few years, this is just par for the course. Consider the massive deals he’s handed out to free-agent acquisitions Chris Drury, Scott Gomez and Wade Redden in recent times, and it’s not that hard to believe.
Sure, the Rangers might – probably – have overpaid for Richards, but I believe he’s in a better position in terms of his career than Gomez and Drury ever were when they came from New Jersey and Buffalo respectively before the 2007-08 season, and definitely more talented and with more skills than Redden, an absolute disaster of a contact with such a massive hit that the former Senator defenseman is languishing in the minor leagues because the franchise can't handle that sort of a salary on it’s books.
Let’s face it, what Glen Sather does best is entice free agents with massive contracts. I don't blame Richards for taking this offer, and I think that this will be a good two-way deal. Brad gets the money he was after when he decided to test the free agent market, and the Rangers get a pretty useful hockey player wearing a Blueshirt.
First thing first, the Richards pickup instantly reignites and gives credibility to the power play that floundered – abysmal is one word to describe what the man advantage efforts were like during the recent season, and there are many others, most of which are much less complimentary than that – horribly, looked more like a power-less play at times. Richards brings the necessary stability to a unit that wasn't exactly putting the fear of Christ into opposition penalty killers. That’s a very good start.
Of course, all Ranger fans are hoping that Richards’ presence on the top line can help reignite the spotty Marian Gaborik, the Slovak sniper who only seems to turn up when either the Islanders, Oilers or Maple Leafs are on the schedule, and who was noticeably absent during the Rangers’ first round loss to Washington in the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Hopefully it’ll also ignite whoever has the good fortune to be on that same line with the superstars come October, when pucks start getting fired in anger once more.
Now, the puzzle pieces are coming together for the Rangers. Under Sather’s stewardship, they also signed big forward Mike Rupp out of Pittsburgh, re-upped with Ruslan Fedotenko for another year and, with Richards on his way to Broadway, can look at securing some of their restricted free agents, names like Dubinsky, Sauer, Anisimov, etc
I know we were all pretty excited when Drury and Gomez were signed a few summers ago, and we all know where that’s ended up – Drury was bought out recently, ending an inconsistent, injury-plagued run, and Gomez lasted two years of seven before being shipped to Montreal, who are now apparently trying to get rid of him themselves – but this somehow feels a little different.
Above all else, however, Richards needs to stay healthy. He missed a month with a concussion last year, and has had his fair share of other health-related issues, but, hopefully, they’re all behind him. For $60 million over nine years, they’d want to me, and I’m certain Sather will be hearing it from all and sundry, indiscreet reminders of the Gomez or Drury or Redden gets, if Richards had early troubles. That’s the new York media for you.
Hey, just imagine what sort of a hockey team the Rangers could be in Season 2011-12 with Lundqvist being Lundqvist in goal, the solid, young defence corps doing their thing patrolling the blue line and a top line consisting of a healthy Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik. There’s a team sheet that might suddenly start giving opposition coaches a few sleepless nights. We can only hope!
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