But are there any buyers? It doesn't matter, because as I mentioned yesterday, he needs to go.
Larry Brooks starts us off today with the news, er, speculation that Sather is shopping Tom Poti. Unfortunately, at his salary and putrid performance levels, there may not be too many landing spots for the 28-year-old blueliner. Larry says that St. Louis and Columbus are interested in dealing, but thinks the Rangers might have to take back someone both too expensive and too problematic.
Larry also points out that they could place him on waivers and work out some deal whereby each team would be responsible for half of his salary and resulting cap hit:
The only way out, actually, might be for the Rangers to put Poti on waivers, which he undoubtedly would clear, and then find a way to move him via a pre-arranged re-entry waivers trade, where both the Blueshirts and the acquiring club would be responsible for both half the salary and half the cap hit. Under that scenario, perhaps Poti is moveable.
We would like to point out to Mr. Brooks that a possible replacement is named Thomas Pöck, NOT Peter Pock. Nonetheless, I loved the way Pöck has played every time he has been with the team, be it the end of the 2003-04 season or this pre-season. Ivan Baranka has been doing very well for Hartford, and could also be an option.
At this point, it would probably be better for Tom Poti and the Rangers if he never makes it back to the Garden from this five-game road trip. The experiment was a failure, and we now know (actually, we have known for a while) that the folks in Edmonton did NOT boo him solely for his holdout. My sympathies go out to the fans of whatever city in which he lands.
John Dellapina of the Daily News talks about the Rangers power play and how they had better come up with solutions fast. One thing mentioned was the use of right-handed shot Petr Prucha on the power play to give Jagr someone to pass to. Hey, scroll down a bit . . . didn't I mention this yesterday?
John also reports that Henrik Lundqvist is scheduled to get the start in net tonight, and Kevin Weekes will most likely play tomorrow in Tampa Bay.
Both the Star Ledger and the Journal News address the power-play situation.
Anthony Rieber of Newsday writes that the Rangers hope the long road trip will help them to further bring them together as a team. Anthony also directly contradicts what John Dellapina reports regarding the goaltenders . . . he says that Renney said that Weekes will start. Oh well, we will just have to wait and see.
Game time is 7:00 pm EST in Florida. Bird will be in the house, so if you want to stop by and say hello, do it. Check out the message boards to find out where he will be.
HDH
Posted by Jim at November 09, 2005 11:13 AMeMail this entry!
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