Actual money is more important. I don't think they have the financial security to lock up Richards long term.
yet they have been the ones initiating extension talks with Richards camp?
I understand that they may have some $$ issues, but when you have a player like Richards, you sign him and move the Ribeiro's of the world. You allow Langenbrunner to walk or sign him at a reduced rate.
the difference in 3rd in the conference and playoff money and 13th in conference and no playoff revenue is Brad Richards.
The PO revenue alone is reason enough to sign him.
People forget that he is constantly in the doghouse even while putting up points. There's a reason for that. He's the definition of a perimeter player. It's almost sick to watch sometimes. Sure he will help the team win a few games, but the ultimate goal is to win the Stanley Cup and I don't feel you can do that with Spezza as your guy.
This team has a number of roleplayers that excel defensively. Most of our guys are good in their own zone. Dubi, Cally, AA, Prust, Boyle, Fedetenko. Wolski, MZA, Gaborik, Prospal, and Avery aren't liabilities defensively. A guy who knows how to generate scoring chances is exactly what this team needs. We can afford a rather one-dimensional player.
Spezza isn't terrible in his own zone either. Let's not stretch things here.
Regarding Richards, maybe I didn't see this earlier in the year but why does he want out of Dallas? They have a great offensive top six/nine, and a damn good goaltender in Keri (who has his injury problems but none the less). Their defense I don't know enough about and is probably their weakness.
The only reasons i see him wanting to come to NY is playing for his old coach and living in NYC. How are we, overall, a better team with richards than dallas with richards? I feel it is close, but if that's the case why come here?
Let's get smart here. Why even consider trading for Spezza when they have a chance to get Richards(who is 10 times the player) in the offseason for nothing?
This franchise is finally on the right course of developing young talent. Unfortunately this course is long, has pitfalls called losing streaks, and requires a lot of patience.
Sather should not be trading one young asset, either player or draft pick, for older players. If anything he should still be looking to acquire young talent.
Wait and let that talent develop, and then at free agent time wait and see what you can spend to fill in the gaps. If AND ONLY IF you feel this team is one or two players away from truly contending for the Cup, then you may have to sacrifice something...but until then, we stay the course.
Regarding Richards, maybe I didn't see this earlier in the year but why does he want out of Dallas? They have a great offensive top six/nine, and a damn good goaltender in Keri (who has his injury problems but none the less). Their defense I don't know enough about and is probably their weakness.
The only reasons i see him wanting to come to NY is playing for his old coach and living in NYC. How are we, overall, a better team with richards than dallas with richards? I feel it is close, but if that's the case why come here?
you have a point.
There's no guarantee that 1) he gets to UFA ststus and 2) he signs with us.
With the salary cap problems that we are going to have this summer (Redden and Drury plus re-signing our RFA's) the odds are actually stacked against us even being able to sign him.
I'd prefer Richards to Spezza, but that's just because Richards knows Torts system and has excelled under it.
However, Spezza is the better offensive player and the fact that he is so underrated on this board is kind of surprising.
Let's get smart here. Why even consider trading for Spezza when they have a chance to get Richards(who is 10 times the player) in the offseason for nothing?
The Rangers aren't winning it this season anyways
I've said the same thing numerous times. I wouldn't consider trading for Spezza. Or Richards. There aren't many players in the league I would sell the farm for.
Kaberle added two more assists last night to his season totals in the win over Atlanta. One of those assists came on the PP bringing him to 21 PPA this season.
No to Beauchemin, I'd rather have Rozsival back than Beauchemin.
I dont want him either. For the last two weeks I have been pining for interest in Kaberle. Some fans here dont want him because he would cost too much, which I can respect. However, there have been some who have tried to claim he would not help this team. He is hot right now and having a great season.
We are not the only team that is going to want to sign Brad Richards.
We are not the only team that is going to be willing to pay him buku bucks.
There's been no indication that he has any desire to play here whereas he himself has stated a desire to play in Toronto.
We are going to have some serious cap issues this summer when Redden's 6.5 comes back to haunt us.
We are going to have a devil of a time signing all of our RFA's which is usually done after the UFA rush of signings.
Assuming we sign Richards, what happens if we are not in position to match an offer sheet that one of Dubi, Callahan, Anisimov signs?
There's to many variables of going into the summer with the hops that we sign Richards for nothing but money. It's not a smart plan.
I don't remember him saying that he wanted to play in Toronto, but rather that was a place that he'd consider as it's the 'center of the hockey universe', and everyone 'wants to play there'. Sort of like the Yankees in baseball.
I don't remember him saying that he wanted to play in Toronto, but rather that was a place that he'd consider as it's the 'center of the hockey universe', and everyone 'wants to play there'. Sort of like the Yankees in baseball.
I know he was asked a specific question about a specific team and answered that question about that team, however the point remains, there are teams out there that can offer him the same amount of money, probably more and the quote from his mouth was that Toronto's always a No. 1 destination.
Could I be reading into that a little much, probably.
