I love the Drury signing…my wishes came true. Although Gomez is a good player ( and his #’s went down last season), I honestly think he was over-paid. Six million, maybe, yes, but not over 7 million. Anyway, both are an upgrade over Nylander who is both slower and older. Both Drury and Gomez have an edge to them and work hard. The Rangers are looking good but without Henrik signed long term this all will be for nought. And Avery does play an essential role for this team and does play hard.

Liza
Your stats make perfect sense to me.

He generated about 0.5 points per game with the Kings and 0.7 with the Rangers. He would have had about 59 points, using this logic, if he had played all 82 games with the Rangers and only 42 points if he had remained with the Kings.

So comparing him to Michelle Oullete (48 points, same as Avery) and saying Avery would command about 1.2 million like Oullete isn’t completely reliable. I say 1.5-2 million, somewhere in that range.

Brandon – If Strudwick is given $600,000, I doubt even the Rangers’ first offer to Hossa was for that ammount.

Czech – Hossa is a strong player with a solid, well-rounded game. If you’ve watched him play, and then watched whats brewing down in Hartford, there’s no way one of those kids is comming up and filling that void. Of course he’s not an all-star, but he’s a role player, like Orts was and Dom Moore was before him. These are guys that fill holes the stars leave open. Hossa also happens to have a very reputable breakout streak behind him, along with a strong showing in the first round of the playoffs. It’s very concievable that this kid is breaking out of whatever shell he’s been in since being drafted. Losing him now would be a risk I wouldn’t take as GM.

The Islanders. LOL. It’s the joke that just gets funnier by the minute. Comrie and Guerin? Ha. Ha ha. Sure, Comrie’s a good move I guess. But Guerin? Pulease.

Weekes is on the Devils now? That’s even more hilarious. What a friggin’ useless sot. I figured he’d sign for a team where he’d actually play. Behind Brodeur, he’s facing a maximum of 10 games. What a lazy bum. Good ridance to bad rubish. I’d take Valliquete over his overpaid a$$ any day.

The only thing the Fishsticks might gain from their moves are players they can unload for prospects/picks at the deadline.

The reason I am so upset about Avery going to salary arbitration is that the team usually states their case as to why the player should be receiving X amount of dollars. Sometimes, this has a negative affect on the player since the team has to argue a case and somewhat knock the player and his production. Avery’s case should be simple: “If the NYR didn’t trade for me in February, they probably don’t make the playoffs.” That might be a bit extreme to say that, but I think it’s true. He lit a fire under them that was missing all season. And he probably scored the biggest goal of the year for us in the regular season when he tied the game at 2 against St. Louis. That game at the beginning of March got this team on a roll.

I’m not saying Avery deserves a huge contract, but would a 3 year deal at $8 million been so difficult to propose? I guarantee you he gets upwards of $2 million per season, maybe even $2.5.