Just got a message from Joe McDonald of NY SportsDay and The Wave, who was part of a conference call with Rangers' GM Glen Sather (remember him?).
Sather discussed the Ozolinsh trade, and made few points with respect to the market for defensemen:
- Glen felt that Ozo was the best player available for the Rangers' needs, and it was less important to get tougher, and better to get a puck-moving blueliner;
- Sather was one of the few GM's in Torino, and saw Ozo first hand and thought he could help the team;
- There are a number of Rangers that have played with Ozo in the past, and the chemistry of the team would not be upset (actually, I counted five: Rucchin, Sykora, Malik, Weekes, and Kaspar in international play);
- Sather thought the prices for some of the other players was too high, and because they didn't want to give up picks or prospects, they needed to use the 3rd round pick they acquired for Ville Nieminen;
- Sather feels that the Rangers' defense is strong, and stated that if Marc Staal's junior team is out of the playoffs he could join the Blueshirts before the end of the year;
- Bottom line: Ozolinsh was the best calibur defenseman on the market.
Major thanks to Joe for the scoop. Check out those sites on a regular basis. They get a ton of great stuff the other papers don't.
HDH
Posted by Jim at March 09, 2006 05:20 PMeMail this entry!
|
Recent Articles
|
|
|