Brendan Shanahan has, through more than just his play, shown that he is willing to do what it takes to help the Rangers continue recapturing their past glory. Shanny took a $2.5M, one-year deal … considerably lower than his market value, living up to his word that his only interest was returning to the Rangers in the fall.
Now, as has already been thoroughly bandied in our great comments dialogue, the remaining three players fates had rested in how creatively Glen Sather could make use of $7M of space below the cap. But now that he’s signed Henrik Lundqvist to a one-year, $4.25M deal, the plot thickens, even as it inches closer to a final resolution. Marcel Hossa has been conspicuously absent from my recent posts. I think he’s a worthwhile member of the team and can be increasingly productive if put to use the same way that yielded his late- and post-season offensive output.
However, as has been said with Nylander, some players are only so good on their own and are made significantly better by their line/teammates. Hossa, when considering Lundqvist and Avery, is definitely the lowest of the Rangers’ priorities and if he must be jettisoned to retain the others … it will likely happen.
As for Lundqvist, while he’s at a comparable point in his career to both Ryan Miller and Cam Ward, he does not have an equivalent list of accomplishments. Miller has been to the Conference Finals twice in two seasons, Cam Ward won a Stanley Cup after coming to the fore from the back-up spot on the Hurricanes.
Lundqvist has yet to attain either Ward or Miller’s forms of success and, as a result, should not reasonably be worth more money than either … at least until he proves that he can accomplish their feats. Still, he’s an important piece of the Ranger line-up, and at this point in the club’s upswing, they can’t afford to dethrone the King.
Is Hank worth $4.25M for one-year? Slats certainly thought so, and felt it was the number needed to keep Lundqvist sweet on the team when they either renegotiate in January or re-sign him next July.