No time for the usual introduction. Let’s get right into it.
Ever since Lundqvist was bested by Ben Bishop in the Eastern Conference Finals, every other Ranger blog and/or reporter, in addition to fans, were coming up with all these Cam Talbot trade scenarios. I’ve previously written on my other blogs, why I thought dealing Cam would be a bad move. You can check out those blogs on the main page or in the archive section.
We all kinda knew that Talbot would be dealt for some sort of bounty, but when day one/round one of the NHL draft came and went, it looked like Talbot may have had a chance of wearing a Blueshirt jersey come October.
What hasn’t happened during this whole time and maybe it will happen now because this is all over, is Cam Talbot coming out and saying he wants to start somewhere this season. It’s a gentleman’s code between a GM and a back-up goaltender, that if a goalie can get a starting job elsewhere, as the GM, you make the deal. However, not once, did Talbot say he wants out nor did he demand a trade like other players do.
Deep down, this is the best thing for Cam Talbot’s career. He will have his chance to finish out his contract, play a full schedule (barring injury) and come this time next year, might be a highly coveted free agent and get a ton of bucks. Who knows, maybe the Oilers will offer him a great contract extension between now and before he becomes an unrestricted free agent.
When Talbot has his Oilers press conference, if he says something akin to “I want a chance to start”, then I get it. It’s a shame it didn’t happen here, as the Rangers make deal after deal to try to get one Swedish player a Stanley Cup, while not realizing he’s been a constant loser for 10 years.
As I said in my Lundqvist article, (Which you can read here: http://doinow.com/the-decade-long-saga-of-henrik-lundqvist-my-final-words-on-king-contract-why-lundqvist-is-overpaid-when-lundqvist-soured-me-will-the-rangers-ever-win-with-hank-and-his-cap-hit-examining-the-nhl) not one Top 5 Paid Goalie, in the salary cap era, has ever won a Stanley Cup. Is Corey Crawford so lights out? Of course not. In today’s NHL, you need offense. You don’t need to give 12% of payroll to an aging and regressing goalie.
Sometimes I wonder if Ranger fans want to see Hank win a Cup more than they want to see the team win a Cup. The Rangers best chance of winning a Cup next season, would’ve been to keep Talbot, force Hank to break his NTC and use the freed up 12% of payroll to healthily boost up the offense. Instead, GM Glen Sather is making deals like a mad man because he’s been protecting Hank for so long.
Is there any GM in modern sports history, that has kept their job for 15+ years despite not winning a championship besides Glen Sather? Granted, he’s not Isiah Thomas bad, but imagine if James Dolan, who owns both the Knicks & the Rangers, cared about hockey as much as he does about basketball.
Sather’s laundry list of horrible moves, during his tenure as Rangers GM, could go on all day. Forget about all the All-Star talent he’s passed up over the years with his terrible draft picks. Hello Hugh Jessimen, goodbye Getzlaf, Parise and Richards.
Signing Chris Drury & Scott Gomez to huge contracts worked out beautifully for the Rangers! Remember those guys? How about that stud Bobby Holik? Remember the big splash of signing Kasparitus to 6 years/$25 million?
Let’s not forget, for a man who pledges his allegiance to a Cupless goalie, Sather was quick to kick Leetch & Graves to the curb. What great times!
At least Sather made up for kicking two Ranger legends out of MSG by signing Hall of Famer & God’s Gift to Hockey, Wade Redden to a 6 year/$39M deal.
Granted, while I’m being sarcastic here, Sather actually has had better success with a salary cap than he did without one. The Klein/Del-Zaster deal, McDonagh/Gomez deal & if Hank didn’t blow it, the MSL/Cally deal, were all winners. While Sather still likes to spend like a drunken sailor, see the contract of Lundqvist, Henrik, he’s had a few hits.
For as as dedicated Sather is to Lundqvist, he doesn’t realize Lundqvist is the problem. His huge contract prevents the Rangers from making big offensive moves. Then again, if Hank doesn’t choke and isn’t upstaged by other goalies in big playoff series, then maybe the Rangers are looking for a Stanley Cup three-peat this upcoming season.
We know the Hank story, you’ve heard it here before. He blew the SCF last season, with a Cinderella Rangers team, giving up every two-goal lead he had. He gave up back-to-back touchdowns in the ECF with the Bolts, choking away what should’ve been a Cup appearance. When it’s time to win the big one, Hank is always sulking his head as he heads to the handshake line.
If Hank lived up to his contract, like say a Jonathan Toews or Patrick Kane or Sidney Crosby or a Jonathan Quick, maybe Sather looks like a genius. Instead, Sather has backed the wrong horse in Lundqvist, and instead of having a Cup or two under his belt, Sather continues his 15+ year regime as NYR GM without a championship.
What drives me nuts about the Talbot & Hagelin trades today is that it goes against everything Sather has been doing as of late. We all know this is a team with a window about to close. They really should’ve got a Cup during one of these runs, but it’s everybody but Lundqvist’s fault of course.
The biggest moves Sather has made in the last 18 months, is dealing Callahan and first round picks for Martin St. Louis, in an effort to win-now. The Rangers were close and went to the Cup that year. If they win it, the Rangers & Sather look great. But they didn’t.
Sather then passes on Stralman and doesn’t even offer him a contract. While Brian Boyle got a sick contract from Tampa, Sather watches his team struggle with faceoffs all season. In return, Sather signs Dan Boyle to a terrible contract, in an effort to win-now. The Rangers don’t.
Mid-season, Sather mortgages the future once again, giving up highly touted prospect Anthony Duclair, another number 1 pick and John Moore for Keith Yandle, in another effort to win-now. Again, the Rangers fail.
Sather has established a pattern of making big moves to win-now, and time and time again, it has bit him in the ass. Again, 12% to a goalie will not lead to any Cups in this league.
So for Sather to deal Talbot, who is the best insurance policy for the Rangers and deal the well-liked & productive Carl Hagelin, for essentially a bunch of crappy late picks in a draft that was top-heavy, is just mind-boggling.
Again, maybe Sather is dealing Talbot for Talbot’s best interest. I don’t know if Talbot wanted to stay on-board. If he did, dealing him goes against winning now. Dealing Hagelin goes against winning now. Picking up a bunch of picks, that will probably wind up turning out to be meaningless and surely won’t affect the Rangers in the next 2-3 years, seems useless.
It’s time to put Sather in the Seniors Home. Maybe he thought he still worked for the Oilers when he dealt Talbot. I wonder if Sather will deal for Talbot & 12 other Oilers, 10 years from now, to help the Rangers get a Cup. It worked in 1994.
For Cam Talbot, this is a great move. He will get to be the back-bone of a young Oilers team that has a lot of things to be happy about right now, none bigger than drafting Connor McDavid with the number 1 pick. The Oilers have a young nucleus and also have some money to play with. McDavid will reignite the franchise and will bring fans back to the building. For the first time since the eighties, Oiler fans have something to be happy about.
I’m on record already. I want the Rangers to win a Stanley Cup badly. I just don’t see it happening with Lundqvist. He’s a Marino, a Ewing, a Barkley, etc. Can’t win the big one. For all his nice individual awards, he has no concept of the team game and was never heads and shoulders the best player in the playoffs. He was close in 2012, but a goalie who knows how to win Cups, Jonathan Quick, was far superior.
Talbot, if he stays in Edmonton, might get a Cup there. I can see the Oilers winning a Cup before the Rangers win a Cup. Give the Oilers 2-3 years, and they will be right in the mix of things. Look at Chicago. When you suck for so long, you eventually can’t fuck up a thousand draft picks. You eventually get a homerun. The 2015 draft was the official turnaround for the franchise.
For the Rangers, I don’t see how this improves them at all. Their new back-up, Mackenzie Skapski, just had surgery. Maybe they will deal for a veteran, but even so, then what was the point of dealing Talbot’s contract away, unless he privately told Sather he wants to start elsewhere. Supposedly Halverson isn’t ready for NHL action.
Lundqvist looked refreshed in the playoffs until running into a team that has made him their personal bitch all season, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Hank can never get his big boy pants on for the Bolts. The reason Hank was so refreshed was because while Hank was getting blown out 9 times during the regular season, not making the ASG, being in the bottom half of the league in GAA & SV%, Talbot took over and helped the Rangers get the Presidents Trophy.
Talbot had better numbers than Hank this year. It gave King Nothing some breathing room to focus on the playoffs. As the hypocritical King Contract gets older, he can not afford to have his normal terrible starts of a season. He has no back-up protection now. The Rangers better hope Hank doesn’t get hurt again this year. The Rangers better hope Hank can earn every single cent of his contract.
I like the story of Skapski, but I’m much more confident with Talbot back there than Skapski. Who knows, maybe Hank gets hurt again, Skapski leads the team to the playoffs, Hank chokes again and every Ranger blogger is talking about how Skapski will be traded for a first round pick!
Let me address this too. Every Rangers blogger had a million Talbot trade scenarios. A bunch of reporters were reporting that Sather turned down the Sharks first round (#9) pick for Talbot. Everyone had the Rangers getting this huge golden booty in a Talbot trade, yet, when it’s over, all they got was fools gold.
So many of you are tweeting/emailing me wondering where I go from here? The answer is the same, LET’S GO RANGERS.
I’m going to miss Talbot. I really think the Rangers could’ve won with him. I can’t change this horrible trade and for him, he’s better off. He will make his money and get some shine in Edmonton. He’s walking into a great scenario.
As a hockey fan, this is great for me too, because now I have a rooting interest while watching West Coast games. I can watch Lundqvist not win a cup all season, then when the Rangers game is over, I can flip on the Oilers, watch Talbot and watch this new young stud in McDavid.
As I talked about in previous blogs, my friends and I try to do one far road game a year. This year, we are doing Edmonton and Calgary. At least I can see Talbot show Lundqvist how to win a big game there!
It was fun shit-talking with everyone on twitter the last few days about this eventual trade. It amazes me how riled up people truly get. There’s so many things I read, that if I don’t agree with them, I just move on. But give the Hank fan-girls credit, when you point out all his flaws, they flock to defend him, as they swig their Swedish Kool-Aid. Of course, that Kool-Aid doesn’t come in a Cup, Hank doesn’t have that.
As far as moving forward, please you idiots who say I’m not a Rangers fan, I probably go to more games, spend more money, spend more time and more invested in the team than 99% of you. I’m just sick of seeing the same old show. This fan base deserves a happy ending, and unless Hank is taking you all to an Asian massage, I just don’t see it happening with him. His contract just prevents the team from getting those miscellaneous pieces you need to win a Stanley Cup.
As I talked about a few blogs ago, we will be changing up the name of this site, to something more Ranger-friendly. For shits and kicks, we’ll do a Talbot vs Lundqvist stat thing on the right side of the site. Hank should be better, right? That’s why we’re keeping him, right?
Thank you for everything and for a fun season CAM TALBOT. While Lundqvist let me down, thank you for bringing the team its first President’s Trophy since 1994. It would’ve been interesting to see how you would’ve done as starting goalie in the playoffs. It was fun watching you grow here, and I wish you success in Edmonton. LGO.
IN CAM WE TRUST!
The Rangers, after trading my beloved Talbot, also dealt Carl Hagelin for a pile of shit, in a salary cap move. This one hurts. Even worse, Hagelin was taking part of Zuccarello’s charity fund-raising game in Norway, with other Rangers. (Not Lundqvist, he doesn’t hang out with his teammates.)
We have a stronger bond with Hagelin, as he’s been with this team since 2007. We watched him grow here. We watched him become the fastest skater in the league. This season, his line of Miller, Hayes and himself, was the most productive at times. Unlike the other Swede on this team, Hagelin is very well liked by his teammates and even had his own show with Zucc and Brass.
Taking Hagelin out of the Rangers locker room, so they can overpay another Swede is just heartbreaking. Who knows if Hagelin will stay with the Ducks or not. He’s an asset in this league, and losing him, a true blue Ranger from day one, just flat out sucks. What sucks even more is that Hagelin is entering the prime of his career. Maybe he will get a Cup elsewhere like Brad Richards, while Sather continues to make stupid trades to help his Cupless goalie.
For the same people who were so excited to see Cam go but are so upset to see Carl go, you can look at your hypocritical greedy goaltender. Can’t give Carl the money he’s worth when you’re overpaying King Nothing. I’m sure Emerson Etem will be a Hall of Famer.
In a move that shocks no one, it’s being reported that the Rangers will not make an offer on MSL, not even a veteran minimum offer. As talked about in other blogs, I could see MSL hooking up with the Devils, although, they just let Jagr walk. MSL going to the Islanders could be a fit, as he could help the young guys there, as he did here. I guess keeping MSL here, to help the young talent, doesn’t matter, since Sather will trade them all anyway, since he needs to pay his cupless goalie.
If I could’ve done the MSL/Cally trade all over again, I would’ve, minus the draft picks. I always said from the day that trade was made, there was no reason to trade draft picks. The Bolts had to deal MSL. It could’ve been a straight swap. Sather was fleeced, yet again.
In his brief 18 month stint here, MSL made his presence known. I’ll never forget the run he made last season. Sure, he fell off in this years playoffs, but he wasn’t giving up 6 goals a game either. However, the fans will blame Marty more than Hank, because that’s what they are conditioned to do.
It’s a shame MSL won’t even get a veteran minimum offer. He wants to be here, loves it here and lives here. Maybe one day he will join the Wolfpack coaching staff.
THANK YOU TALBOT, THANK YOU HAGELIN, THANK YOU MARTY!
GO FUCK YOURSELF SATHER & HANK!
We’ll have more Ranger news/opinions based on any upcoming deals. Also, make sure to keep it here for the new “DEATH OF MSG” blog, as well as the “Frank Boucher Petition.”
LGR!
Sean McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com
@NYCTHEMIC on twitter
You echo my sentiments 100%. I imagine Madison Ave. is keeping Henrik on Dolan’s payroll. There are times I felt the team wanted to play better in front of Talbot. The banishing of Callahan, Strahlman, Duclair, Haglin, a bunch of #1s and Talbot…for Yandle Boyle Glass, Shepard, Etem and a 40 year old well-done nice guy is a slap in the face to every Blueshirts Fan and the pinnacle was having Sather nominated by his peers for NHL Exec of the Year…..and why not, he’s made every one of them look like genius’s. The nomination was payback. It’ll take a few more football scores and maybe a non-playoff year ro The King the feel and hear something, but by then, it’ll be to late.