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Clock ticking on Zherdev thumbnail

Clock ticking on Zherdev

August 3, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

The clock is ticking on Nikolai Zherdev. What will Glen Sather do? Does he accept the $3.9 million award on the enigmatic Russian forward and try to trade him? Or will the Ranger GM cut his losses turning a player loose one year after giving away Fedor Tyutin?

It’s less than 25 hours until Z-Day. How can he possibly fit the 24 year-old into the cap with Brandon Dubinsky still unsigned? We’ve already cited a few teams who could be interested including Edmonton and Ottawa. Is Toronto really interested as Newday’s Steve Zipay hints or is it just another smokescreen by tricky Slats’ trade partner Brian Burke?

If he could snag Ian White in a crowded Leaf blueline along with spare part Lee Stempniak, that wouldn’t be too bad. White’s 25 and possesses a nice shot from the point on the cheap who’s set to earn $950,000 this season before turning restricted next summer. The drawback is he’s never scored more than two power play goals totaling three for his career in three-plus seasons. Fourteen power play points is hardly enough but he also was behind Tomas Kaberle, Bryan McCabe and Pavel Kubina.

What’s happened to the 26 year-old Stempniak is a mystery as the former Dartmouth teammate of Hugh Jessiman once showed promise with 27 goals and 52 points his second season in St. Louis. Amazingly, that was only two years ago. Since, he’s leveled off averaging 13 goals and 41 points the past couple of seasons with the Blues and Leafs, who acquired him in 2008-09 for Carlo Colaiacovo and Alex Steen. He went 11-20-31 with three power play goals and a minus-nine in 61 contests for Toronto. Hardly worth the $2.5 million price tag. He’s set to earn $3.5 million this season before becoming a Group II.

The Blueshirts don’t need anymore forwards. Especially if Artem Anisimov and Enver Lisin are in the plans. What if Evgeny Grachev lights it up next month? Of course, this doesn’t play any role in what Sather does with Zherdev. If only he were more consistent harnessing all the talent that made him a top four pick six years ago with Columbus. We could be talking 35-40 goal, 75-80 point potential. Then the Rangers wouldn’t have signed Ales Kotalik. A move we still hate because it commits three years at three million-per to a declining player. They better hope reuniting with Chris Drury works.

One other final thought on this Zherdev mess. Just think back to last summer when Sather foolishly handed out $6.5 million to Wade Redden, almost necessitating the trade of Tyutin to the Blue Jackets, gambling that Z would deliver. The first half, he was very good getting out of the gate quickly. Then came the disappointing second half along with the disappearing act in the postseason. And this player wanted $4.5 million. Yikes.

What if they really reject it and lose him for zilch? Wouldn’t Sather have been wiser using that 6.5 classic overpayment to bring back a guy who did work here in Jaromir Jagr? It’s true that we had our issues with No.68 but one thing you could always count on was that the Czech would show up when it counted. That virtuoso performance at age 36 dismantling the Devils and one of the all-time best netminders will never be forgotten. Neither should his stellar second round versus his former club who had too many weapons. Jagr even in the twilight was at a different level tallying five goals and 10 assists for 15 points in only 10 playoff games. Yet even that wasn’t enough to keep him on Broadway.

So what if he wanted to still be paid like the best player which he still was. Wouldn’t it have made better sense than overpaying Redden, trading away one of our better young defensemen for a classic tease and signing Markus Naslund, who had little left? Do the math. Slats miscalculated and lost.

Imagine a D with Tyutin, Dan Girardi and Marc Staal as our top three and no Tinman taking up tons of space. Hell. Even Michal Rozsival at five million would be solid as a four teamed alongside Staal leaving two spots for the kids. It wouldn’t be as confusing.

We can’t say for sure if Marian Gaborik would still be here getting a large sum of dinero. But if he was teamed alongside Jagr, that’s a contender. Especially with Henrik Lundqvist in net and a solid top four. Of course, one might also say that if Alexei Cherepanov were still around, things could be very different.

It just makes you wonder.

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