Reports coming in (from The Fourth Period) that the Rangers are still in talks with Derek Morris. Yeah, remember him? The shitty half of the Paul Mara defensive pairing, latest in the list of veteran blue-liners we brought in to quarterback the power play? In fairness to Morris, he was never as bad as to come anywhere near some of the top Blueshirts on that list (Sandis Ozolinsh and our boy Redden), but he certainly wasn't, like, noticeably good. He was, for the most part, a non-factor (which, yes, made him the 4th best D-man on the team a lot of the time).
You'll recall Sather's recent commentary about defense, "Gilroy, Sanguinetti, Del Zotto, Sauer, Potter - there's five guys who are banging on the door to play...There is opportunity there." That commitment to youth he kept mentioning was, other than The Great Montréal Robbery of Aught Nine, the one thing that made me feel really good about Glen Sather this off-season. Well, given the two pair we've already got in our hand (Redden-Rozsival, Staal-Girardi), it seems like if Slats really felt that kind of commitment, he wouldn't be trying too hard to sign another defenseman.
I don't know what kind of pay cut they'd be talking about, but Morris earned $3.95 million last season. Given the holes we've been talking about in our squad of forwards, and the limited cap room we have to play with, it seems to me that, even if he takes a 50% pay cut, we can't possibly re-sign Morris without telling Gilroy to spend another year in Hartford. Or am I wrong? Is this money magically appearing from somewhere? Bear in mind that, if we sign Callahan for $2.3 million, qualify Boyle, Korpikoski, and Dubinsky, and bring up Gilroy, we have $4 million in cap room remaining - that's without Zherdev. We need some right wings. How can we possibly offer Morris even half of last year's salary without leaving Gilroy in the minors? Where, again, is that commitment to the youth, especially on the defensive squad?
On the other hand, I can think of $1.4 million I'd be happy offering Morris...
Thoughts? Comment!
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