Something to think about

New York Rangers

It's going to be a very interesting off-season for Glen Sather and the New York Rangers, especially considering coming off a season where they lost in the conference finals. Between deciding which of his free agents to keep, Glen Sather has to find not one scorer but a second one as well.

The timing of the news that Marion Gaborik will be undergoing shoulder surgery sometime this week could not have been worse for Sather as he prepares for his part of the off-season. If not for the Gaborik Injury than Glen Sather could have just looked at the free agents to fill the need for more scoring. You might get one good scorer but it's going to be hard to find two high-quality scorers.

Maybe it's an omen but in looking at the latest list of players who could wind up as unrestricted free agents, it looks like every bad signing Glen Sather made as Ranger GM is eligible to be a free agent. Let's pray that a wiser Glen Sather doesn't even think twice about to return of Ales Kotalik.

At the same time, while he may not be a scorer on the same level as Marion Gaborik is; maybe it would not hurt to consider talking to PA Parenteau. Don't laugh because Parenteau was 18-49-67 with the Islanders last season and on the Rangers that would've made him the second leading scorer on the team.

Parenteau also had John Tortorella believing in him but at the time Parenteau didn't think he would get a real shot with the Rangers so he went someplace else and showed that he could be an NHL regular. He wants a three-year deal with reasonable money than it has to be a serious consideration, especially when you look at what's really out there in terms of free agents.

There really isn't going to be "a Brad Richards" who everybody's going to be chasing after not to mention that this is also the year of the CBA and nobody wants to get caught spending a whole lot of money on individual players. GMs do not want to take a chance on changes to the CBA so you'll see a lot of caution and perhaps not that much money thrown out the door on July 1.

The Rangers they do need more than scoring as they need to consider that Michael Sauer won't be ready to play next season. They need a top four defender or at least a couple more guys who John Tortorella will feel comfortable enough playing 15-18 minutes.

And while everybody's going to be expecting Glen Sather to go after Rick Nash, I think that boat has sailed away because of what Columbus kept wanting.

Glen Sather will only pay what Glen Sather wants to pay in other words, he knows your options are limited and he wants to use coupons. Not gonna blame him one bit when it comes to any possible deal with Rick Nash.

There's another option that the Rangers might want to consider and that is using the 2012 first-round pick as part of any deal. If there is ever a year for the Rangers to trade that pick to get a scorer it would be this year.

The Rangers will pick 28th which isn't going to get you a franchise player, so why not use it in a package to address the need for scoring? While we're talking trade can we be serious for a second and realize that as much as some of you may want to get rid of Brandon Dubinsky and his contract; think about it for a second.

Dubinsky had a terrible season and he carries a 4.2 million dollar cap hit. Again, in the year with uncertainty regarding the CBA; who in their right mind is willing to take Dubinsky off a bad year?

You'd have a better chance moving an Artem Anisimov or a Brian Boyle, who's combined cap hit is still less than Dubinsky's. While they didn't get the fat raise that Dubinsky had, both of them got good money, but their numbers weren't that great either.

Pretty sure Don Maloney would take Anisimov given the way he has picked up plenty of his former draft picks.

The Rangers are going into the off-season needing more than just scoring. If Biron goes elsewhere than many good backup goalie in a hurry.

They will need to restock some of the talent for the CT Whale and they can't afford not to bring in guys who can step in during somebody's injury.

Seriously, part of the reason Chris Kreider was able to jump directly to the NHL was in large part because there was nobody on the Whale who could be more than a third or fourth liner.

Nobody was ready, and that is an area that also should merit some serious consideration. Maybe for a change instead of going for the home run, Glen Sather considers some line drive and singles hitters to put some balance in the lineup.

Just something to think about.