End of an era for Rachunek
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- June
- 26
The Rangers are “severing ties with Karel Rachunek”:http://www.nypost.com/sports/rangers/rangers.htm, who was in the top 300 in the most recent Norris Trophy voting.
This was a necessary move given the defensemen in the pipeline, most notably Marc Staal, but also Thomas Pock, who may now have a chance to earn a full-time job on the backline.
Whether the Rangers pursue any other defensemen in the offseason would likely hinge on if they can move anyone else. And yes, I’m referring to future Hall of Famer Marek Malik, who hard as it may be for you to believe, is actually a player some teams would gladly take off the Rangers’ hands.
That said, I’m not convinced that’s an avenue the team wants to pursue.
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on Tuesday, June 26th, 2007 at 7:31 am by Sam Weinman.
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Josh Thomson Josh, who is 26 and a native of Carmel, graduated from Boston University in 2002 and began working for The Journal News the following March. 
I am gonna borrow one from the Islanders here:
NA NA, NA NA NA NA, HEY HEY HEY, GOOOOOOODBYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Sam – I agree with you. When Malik screws up, he usually has the misfortune of doing so in an extremely visible fashion. But the reality is that he’s much more solid than most fans give him credit for.
He doesn’t need to chew up top-pair minutes, but I don’t see a lot of downside to keeping him through the end of his contract.
At least he’s not a locker room cancer like a certain Bruin d-man.
Via Spector’s Trade Rumors:
“WILD TRIED TO MOVE FOSTER & HALL.
MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE: Michael Russo reports Minnesota Wild GM Doug Risebrough tried to trade forwards Kurtis Foster and Adam Hall but found no takers. It also appears the two, who are restricted free agents, won’t receive qualifying offers from the Wild.
Spector’s Note: They’re unlikely to attract much interest as UFAs.”
hahahahahaha. Hall sucks.
Wow, Sam, You brought your sarcasm A-game today :)
Any news on the rest of the RFA’s being offered QO’s?
I would hope they don’t get rid of to many veteran d-men. From what I hear good d-man are hard to come by. And what I remember about Malik ( and this could be a fluke) is when he was out injured there for a little bit this past year we lost several games with out him. Now don’t get me wrong I saw him do some no hustle to the puck a few times and make some very obvious mistakes but he isn’t all bad. My opinion, is let’s not have to many young defenseman, we still need some veterans also.
One down…...One to go
DOODIE
Lol….NYR ruined Hall’s career….I think he’ll sign wih NYI to spite us…
Let’s be honest… Malik’s “reach” (as Renney notes to be his strength) does not nearly cover up for his lack of physical play in front of his own net, inability to hustle, and occasional passes to the wrong team in his own zone. The fact that he is not a locker room cancer is not reason enough to keep him on a team that is hoping to contend next year.
We need to trade him for whatever we can get, bring up Staal and let Pock/Mara try to be the PP pointguard we are looking for… if those do not pan out in the early going, than Sather can make a move for another vet dman. However, Roszy, Mara, possibly Strudwick, in addition to the improving play of Tyutin and Girardi should be enough of a veteran minded defense… we need hustle and smarts on D… not pilons.
It will be interesting to see whether the Racoon exit upgrades that bilge pile, Mara, or the D of the future S-T-A-A-L. My guess is Sather does not have the guts to promote Staal for another two years, no matter how well he plays, and how poorly Mara plays, in trainng camp. Sather already has his opening night roster penciled in, that we know,
Robby – Staal will be on the team no later than next year (probably this year).
Rachunek was a gifted offensive player, but he looked like a boy among men when he had to defend a player. He was just terrible. I think that many people just overlooked his defensive problems, because of the offensive part of this game. My guess is that Sather goes after a free agent D-man, but I would be satisfied with Pock or a rookie (staal, sangenetti, sauer, etc.) winning the job.
Eventually these young kids are gonna have to play. Getting rid of trash like Rachunek is just the start. Brooks didn’t seem overly convinced that Staal would be in the starting 6 though. I don’t like that. We need to get that kid in there ASAP.
rangers will probably check and see if they can actually sign a guy like hannan or souray to upgrade their top 3 spots. if they can do that i’d imagine they’d then trade malik off to make room. considering what dmen are going to get this summer, when the ufa season starts to wind down malik will look like a steal to many teams in desparate need to fill out their bluelines at the end of july early august.
If we could get Scott Hannan in here, that would just be the tops.
Staal needs to be on the team THIS YEAR, and not be buried under the usual veteran suspects on the depth chart he can skate and shoot and check circles around. If Sather continues his game of effectively blocking the advance of talented young players to the NHL in favor of bringing more tired old bones into the system from the outside, this entire, impressive youth movement will start to collapse under its own weight.
Staal or Mara, Staal or Malik, Staal or Pock, Staal or Tyutin in 2007 = that is supposed to be a tough decsion to make? For whom? Hey, with ANY OTHER ORGANIZATION IN HOCKEY Staal is already up here and we are not even having this discussion.
Can anyone with a better sense of these things tell me if there’s any way to lose Kaspar’s cap hit? Waive him and pay half? What’s the answer? And, no, playing him isn’t it, unless he’s gotten bionic over the summer.
Hopfully Stall is ready this season. In the preseason last year he was good but he was also obviously not ready…
I’m worried about losing Prucha, Nylander and Ortmeyer.
...and we cannot forget that they still need a #2 center.
In case you are not aware, MSG on-demand has a bunch of new clips from the draft.
Kasparaitus due 3.116 mil. Buyout at 2/3. Kaparparaitus gets 2.04 mil over 2 years (1.02/year). Kaspar and the cap hit both 1.02 mil for 07-08 and 08-09.
give me a hint, why would they buyout Kaspar and take a cap hit?
Good post, Ledhed. We won’t go far in the playoffs with Malik on our backline.
bklynblue
If nobody wants him, then the Rangers are obligated to fulfill his contract.
So there are two options:
He plays in Harford for full pay
OR
They buyout is contract and pay reduced fees as described by Anthony (Abev) above.
if Kaspar is in Hartford does he count vs the Rangers cap?
Sam any chance the Rangers could swap Malik for Nick Boynton? I hear Maloney has him on the block because he’d like to move his $5.9m contract over the next two years off the books. I know $2.95m is a lot for a defenseman but I think a Boynton/Rozsival pairing could do a lot better than what Malik has done for us the last two seasons.
If Kaspar is in Hartford he doesn’t count towards the cap. It makes no sense to buy him out other than he is going to be paid millions. Big deal, they can afford it.
If Kaspar is in Hartford he doesn’t count towards the cap. It makes no sense to buy him out other than he is going to be paid millions. Big deal, they can afford it.
As for Swapping Boynton and Malik: RE YOU F-ING CRAZY!? Malik’s contract expires next season, why swap him for an even more expensive, equally terrible player who has MORE time on his contract? Swap Malik for youth or another player whose contract is going to expire. Otherwise, stand pat and wait for it to expire.
I would be surpirsed if Staal is not in NY in October and getting significant minutes. Sather has a lot invested in this pick will it will to a large extent validate his rebuilding of the organization. Boynton sucks.
Our defensemen this year, barring any signings, should be Rozsival, Tyutin, Girardi, Pock, Mara, Staal with Malik as an extra. Yeah his plus-minus is excellent, but so would mine be if I played with the top forward line on the ice. Malik is not nearly as physical as he should be, he makes dreadful mistakes and scared the crap out of me every minute he was on the ice in the playoffs.
Nice…
Nice
Cool!