So how about this: The Rangers’ lineup tonight at the Garden against Carolina will include 10 players age 26 or younger, and there are another half-dozen apparent blue-chippers age 23 or younger working their way through or into the system.
While 24-year-old Fedor Tyutin, 23-year-old Dan Girardi and 20-year-old Marc Staal patrol the blue line with increasing authority, 22-year-old Ivan Baranka waits at Hartford for his next turn on Broadway as 19-year-old, 2006 first-rounder Bobby Sanguinetti leads Ontario Hockey League defensemen in goals and points.
While 22-year-old Ryan Callahan and 25-year-old Petr Prucha flank Chris Drury, 22-year-old Nigel Dawes lights it up for the Wolf Pack in his bid to return to New York and 18-year-old, 2007 first-rounder Alexei Cherepanov awaits North American fame and fortune playing in Russia for Omsk.
While 21-year-old Brandon Dubinsky centers Jaromir Jagr and Martin Straka, 19-year-old pivot Artem Anisimov is creating a striking impression at Hartford in his first North American pro season.
These are the assets Glen Sather promised when he instituted the Great Deadline Purge of ’04. This is the rebuilding of the back of the house while concurrently renovating the marquee of the Garden – uh, 25-year-old Henrik Lundqvist, anyone? – the likes of which the Rangers haven’t seen since Neil Smith’s early years as Rangers GM.
These are not only many of the pieces that should remain in place for the next five-to-10 years, but these also comprise the best and brightest of the pool of assets – add Alex Bourret, Greg Moore, Brodie Dupont and Al Montoya into the mix – Sather has at his disposal when (not if) veteran difference-makers become available at this year’s deadline.
No one is advocating a latter day Rick Middleton for Ken Hodge deal, or a trade as silly as the one Emile Francis made in 1971 when he sent developing stud center Syl Apps, Jr. to Pittsburgh for a little-remembered agitating winger named Glen Sather.
But even as the Rangers build for the future, a roster featuring 35-year-old Jaromir Jagr and 38-year-old Brendan Shanahan (each of whom celebrates a birthday this winter and neither of whom is certain to return next season) as the team’s primary offensive weapons is also built to win now.
So what if Toronto makes Mats Sundin available as a rental? What if Tampa Bay GM Jay Feaster believes the only way out of the mess he’s made of the Lightning is to place all-world Vincent Lecavalier on the auction block? What if Atlanta can’t sign Marian Hossa to an extension and looks to move the winger, or Columbus drops out of the playoff picture and dangles Sergei Fedorov as a lend-lease operation, or Rob Blake is willing to waive his no-trade out of LA?
Doug Weight for Esa Tikkanen? After 1994, every time. Todd Marchant for Craig MacTavish? After that final faceoff, who wouldn’t?
The Rangers are loaded with young affordable assets. The trick now is to identify whom the organization can afford to trade – and whom it can’t – when a championship-caliber veteran becomes available prior to the Feb. 26 deadline.
In other words, which of the kids is Philip Hughes and which one is Joba Chamberlain?
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The Rangers, 12-3-1 in their last 16, have surrendered two goals or fewer in 19 of 25 games overall. . . . The Hurricanes, 3-6 in their last nine, are coming off an 8-1 humiliation by the Sabres in Buffalo on Saturday.