This year has had many ups for the Rangers so far, but year in and year out, every team has it's disappointments. There have been several so far for the Rangers, and I'm going to outline them in the coming paragraphs. Some players have been injured; some just didn't perform. Some didn't perform and now are injured, or vice versa. There have been a few cases where players have proved to ultimately not fulfill the potential that was there when the season began.
Let's get the hardest one out of the way, and that is captain Chris Drury. Drury looked good early in the preseason during training camp, and it was believed that he could be the leader the team needed and also find his scoring touch that was utterly lacking last year. Unfortunately, Drury broke his finger blocking a shot, and came back to play the home opener only to break the finger again and miss a significant chunk of the season. When Drury came back, the Rangers had their top three centers established, as Artem Anisimov, Derek Stepan and Brian Boyle were contributing to the team both offensively and defensively. Drury was relegated to fourth line duty with a host of linemates, and could just never get his game going. Currently, Drury sits with no goals and four assists on the season. To put that in perspective, Henrik Lundqvist has that same offensive stat line. It has been a season to forget for the captain, though he is still contributing defensively at even strength and on the penalty kill. Rumors have made the rounds that the Rangers would buy Drury out over the summer, saving about half of his salary against the cap next season, and only paying around $1.6 million in 2012-13 against the salary cap. It remains to be seen if Drury can ever turn into the two-way player that he once was early in his New York Rangers career and before that in Buffalo, but there is hope among fans that Drury can hit his stride again in the future, as he has had a good NHL career. He is still respected as the captain of the team in the locker room, but a team can only succeed so much with a $7 million fourth line center.
A low risk/high reward signing close to the start of training camp, Alex Frolov had failed to live up to expectations before tearing his ACL and ending his season. Frolov had seen previous success with the LA Kings, including two seasons with over 30 goals. Signed for one year and $3 million, Frolov had expectations to mesh with Marian Gaborik on the first line, or to at least provide some secondary scoring for a club that has lacked just that in recent years. Of course, the team has been scoring by committee this season but Frolov has not been a part of that. His numbers for the season are seven goals and nine assists for 16 points in 43 games before his injury. Made infamous for his constant wraparound attempts, Frolov just could not rekindle the play that made him successful in years past. An unrestricted free agent at the end of the year, I highly doubt that Frolov will be brought back next season. He may return home to his native Russia to play in the KHL, as he had deals to return on the table during this past off-season as well.
Derek Boogaard was given probably the most ludicrous contract of the off-season, coming in at four years at $1.65 million per season. This for a player that had two career goals coming into the season and averaged just over four minutes of ice time per game with the Minnesota Wild last year, when he even got to dress for games. Boogaard played in a total of 22 games with New York, scoring his third career goal. That is about the extent of the good from Boogaard for this season, as the rest has been disappointing to say the least. Boogaard is currently out of the Rangers lineup with a shoulder injury and post concussion symptoms, and it is doubtful that he will play again this year. When he was healthy, he was not an imposing player to compete against, and could not be counted on to take a regular shift. One of the most inexplicable free agents to be signed by Glen Sather, it is further proof that the less we do during the summer, the better. Free agent signings over long terms for numbers that are too high have been killing this team, and Boogaard's is no exception.
Sean Avery has been an interesting case this season, and it is hard to consider a player with 18 assists on the year to be struggling. Unfortunately, Avery has been one of the most inconsistent players for the Rangers this year, registering ten of his 18 assists in four games and only scoring two goals. He has also not played with the edge and agitating style that we are so used to seeing from Sean Avery. Maybe coach John Tortorella has finally tamed the wild spirit that is Avery, but it has not worked out well for him as he is not as effective as he used to be when originally acquired. It remains to be seen if Sean can start to contribute more on a consistent basis, as even six goals in the last thirty games would be a welcome contribution to a team that is looking for scoring up and down the lineup. Signed through next season at a reasonable cap hit under $2 million, Avery will look to bounce back next season once all is said and done.
In my next post, I'll talk about moves that I think the Rangers need to make to take the next step to be a playoff contender. Whether those moves occur at the trade deadline or over the summer will be decided over the next few weeks, and there are several interesting names out there to significantly help this team. AW over and out.
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