Posted: 4:14 am
June 29, 2008
THIS is either a ploy by Glen Sather to allow the competition to es tablish a dollar value for Sean Avery that he will match, or it is evidence that the GM simply doesn't understand what the Rangers have in this impending-free-agent difference-maker.
Slap Shots has learned that Sather late last week granted permission to Avery's agent, Pat Morris, to negotiate with any interested NHL team in advance of Tuesday's official opening of the free-agent market.
Sources confirm that not only is that process under way, but that four or five teams have indicated their interest in signing Avery to a contract well in excess of the last deal proffered by Sather to No. 16. It's believed the Rangers have come in at approximately $1M a year less than the four-year, $16M deal Avery is seeking and will be able to get.
We've heard all the stories; well, enough of them, anyway. We know Avery sometimes can make life as uncomfortable for his teammates in the room and on the bench as he can for his opponents on the ice. We get that.
But as the Yankees' one-time assistant to the traveling secretary George Costanza once observed, "Comfort-shmumfort."
Comfortable teams usually are losing teams. The dynastic Islanders and Oilers had friction in their respective rooms. The three-time Cup-winning Devils were no boys club, and neither were the mighty Red Wings nor Avalanche teams that captured four Cups between from 1996-2001. The 1994 Rangers didn't all just get along.
Sather doesn't want to invest $4M per on Avery for four years? The cap is $56.7M this season. If it increases by a conservative 8 percent a year, it will hit $71.4M at the conclusion of the contract. That means that Avery will account for between 7.05 and 5.6 percent of the cap throughout the life of the deal.
Does the GM seriously believe Avery isn't worth that much to the team? Can Sather remember what the Rangers looked like before Avery arrived from LA in February of 2007? Does he not know that the Rangers had a losing record in their games each of the three times Avery went on IR this year with injuries that have nothing to do with being brittle?
Does he really believe 50-23-13 with Avery and 24-35-9 without him in the lineup the last two seasons is entirely a coincidence?
