Everything is perfectly setup. Sean Avery is back on the ice in Hartford, mixing it up from the moment he stepped on the ice last night. It seems inevitable that he will be back on Broadway soon, trying to revive the Rangers’ season.
But, is this the right move for New York to make? After all, wasn’t it just seven months ago that Glen Sather remade the Rangers in his image? He allowed Jaromir Jagr to leave New York. He traded for Nikolai Zherdev and brought Wade Redden to town. And, he gave a big contract to Michal Rozsival to keep him in New York.
These moves followed the summer of 2007 when Sather brought both Scott Gomez and Chris Drury to town. Yet, the one move Sather didn’t make, in fact he never seemed interested in even talking about it, was bringing Sean Avery back to New York. Sather gladly let Avery head to Dallas for a four-year deal. Now, with the team in real trouble and Avery’s career at a crossroads, Sather has a mulligan available to him on that move. He can bring back Avery when Dallas puts him on waivers, but by doing so he will take on Avery’s entire remaining contract, at half it’s current value.
Jim Dolan shouldn’t let him take that mulligan. Apart from catching lightning in a bottle with a lot of European players when the NHL strike ended and the way it was played changed, Sather has had a very mixed record with the club. His teams before the strike were disasters and it appears that he is going down that road again. New York is right up against the salary cap and apart from Henrik Lundqvist, their highly-compensated players are disappointing.
Adding Avery to the mix might get the Rangers into the playoffs, but it won’t make them into a team that can win the Stanley Cup. For that, the Rangers are going to need a bigger overhaul and they should start that with a new General Manager.
