Rozsival for Wolski

...and I feel like we've come full circle. By which I mean we've come around to management trading a $5 million, 32-year-old defenseman whose play is streaky for a $3.8 million, 24-year-old forward with exciting offensive potential, and I'm not loving the deal. How did we get here?

If you hadn't heard, and you're also exceptionally bad at picking up context clues, and you also didn't read the title of this post, then know now that the Rangers traded Michal Rozsival to New York West Phoenix last night, for 6'3", 210-lb. left wing Wojtek Wolski. Wolski came into the league (an Av? an Avalancher? a Snowball?) with Colorado at age 19, and was traded to the Coyotes in the middle of last season. I remember liking Wolski when I watched the Coyotes' playoff round last season (Awoooooooooooooooooooo!), and I'm excited to have him around.

That said, he seems like he comes with the usual Sather description of "a guy with a lot of offensive upside who needs a change of scenery to really get going." That's a toss-up: sometimes it describes Brandon Prust or Marian Gaborik, but sometimes it describes Nikolai Zherdev or Alexander Frolov. Speaking of whom, it's hard not to see Wolski as a direct replacement for Frolov, and if you put it in this light, no one would argue that it's a solid move. You hate to see Frolov go down with a season-ending injury like that, and I'd rather it had been just a direct trade of him (not that anyone would have taken it), but at the end of the day, the Rangers lose a $3m cap hit in Frolov and gain a $3.8m hit in Wolski - undeniably an upgrade, even if Wolski's contract lasts an extra season.

Oh Em Gee. If I'm reasonably happy with bringing in Wolski, that means I must actually be unhappy about losing Michal Rozsival. How did we get here??

Here's the thing. It's been very easy for Ranger fans to blame Michal Rozsival for everything ever. Last season, he was part of the dynamic duo of awful contracts, combining with Wade Redden to cost $11.5 million against the cap and be easily the two worst defensemen on the team. Some of us may have thrown around the word "albatross" to describe their contracts. It happens. Sorry.

But at the end of last season, it became much easier to distinguish one from the other, as Rozsival really began to pick up his game. Enter this season: finally rid of Redden, and with no one else over 30 at camp, Rozsival became the one veteran on our defensive team. And he really stepped up into it. Despite remaining the target of now largely undeserved ire from the Garden Faithful, Rozsival came back to form this season and really earned his big minutes as a solid, consistent part of the middle pair. I've said it here before: I really liked Rozsival this season.

Also, as was recounted a couple of sentences ago, Rozsie was the only veteran defenseman on the team. Without him, Eminger comes in as the oldest, at 27, followed by Girardi and Gilroy at 26. The average age of our defense (figuring in 7 men, including both DZ and McD) is fucking 23.7. Under 24 years old. And that's the fucking defense.

And then you look at the forwards. Sure, Drury is 34. After him (and some injuries), we only have two forwards over the age of 28: Avery at 30 and Fedotenko at 31. After that, we only have two more over 26! (Christensen, 27; and Gaborik, 28.) The average age of our forwards is 25.9. Across the entire team (including 7 defensemen and 14 forwards), we only have 4 men over 28 (Drury, Biron, Fedotenko, Avery), and an average age of 25.6. So, for those of you still crying out about the youth movement: we're there. In goddamn abundance. Possibly to a fault. Chill.

So, while the loss of the third-oldest member of the team is certainly a move for the younger, it's not exactly overdue, here. When we all yelled and screamed "build from within, bring up the kids," I'm not entirely certain we were advocating a clean-house policy that undercuts even Bob Dylan's trust protocol by a couple of years.

Anyway, the actual point is that, completely independently of age, Rozsival probably our fourth best defenseman, after Staal, Girardi, and Eminger. Sauer's been very good lately, but he's very new to the NHL, and we don't know if he'll be consistent. Meanwhile, I definitely feel better with Rozsie out there than with Del Zotto, McDonagh, or Gilroy. I like Gilroy in the lineup every night, but the move of Rozsie means we can expect more McD and DZ, and I don't feel as comfortable with them out there.

But, you've got to give something to get something, and with Boogaard, Callahan, Christensen, Frolov, and Prospal all out of the lineup (with Callahan and Christensen the only ones we can expect to see back and making any kind of difference at any point this season), we needed to make a move. Wolski was available, and you've got to give something to get something.

Good luck in Phoenix, Rozsival. You'll be one more Coyote for me to root for. Meanwhile, our team of kids goes up against the Canadiens at the Garden tonight. We should see Wolski, and we may also see call-up Kris Newbury. Meanwhile, if I get the chance later today or tomorrow, I'll look at our cap situation and see why, among our already good situation, this trade, and Long-Term Injured Reserve, we have all the damn cap room in the world.