New York Rangers, I Give Up

Here's a list of players the New York Rangers have signed in the past 10 years (via Rick Carpiniello over at Rangers Report) : Theo Fleury, Val Kamensky, Sylvain Lefebvre, Stephane Quintal, Kirk McLean, Tim Taylor, Ray Ferraro, Bruce Driver, John MacLean, Bobby Holik, Darius Kasparaitis, Wade Redden, Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, Brendan Shanahan, Martin Rucinsky, Steve Rucchin, Vladimir Malakhov, Mark Messier (the sequel), Aaron Voros, Markus Naslund, Martin Straka, Jason Strudwick, Alex Gusarov, Dave Karpa, Matt Cullen, Dan Girardi, Marek Malik, Michael Nylander, Michal Rozsival, Aaron Ward, Jason Ward, Kevin Weekes, Greg DeVries, Chris Simon, Ted Donato, Zdeno Ciger, Barrett  Heisten, Steve McKenna, Igor Ulanov. Ugh

That's not a good list of players. At all. And Rangers' General Manager Glen Sather has done a horrendous job himself of signing free agents and managing the cap.

So I was very, very happy to see that the Broadway Blue Shirts, as Steve Zipay of Newsday notes, traded away Scott Gomez yesterday in a salary dump move which also brought back a New York native with a ton of potential (Chris Higgins). Although Gomez was not a "disaster", as Larry Brooks from the New York Post calls him, he was never going to be the #1 center they paid him to be because, well, he was never supposed to be a #1 center. He's a really good player and in the right system will thrive, but he wasn't going to be a 110 point, 30 goal guy in Tom Renney's system. Just wasn't going to happen. So trading him away was a great move to clear salary space to sign a real scorer. I was excited for today.

Ugh...ok...some background for those non-NHL fans. Donald Brashear is the worst of goons. His one job on the ice is to hit people and injure them. He was suspended for 6 games in the Rangers-Washington Capitals series this past Stanley Cup playoffs because he tried to knock out Blair Betts for the rest of the playoffs to get rid of his the Rangers best penalty killer and best defensive center. Betts suffered an orbital eye socket fracture and Brashear was able to return the next series.

Ugh...so imagine my surprise to see these updates on Rangers Report:

THIS JUST  IN: The Rangers are really about to sign Donald Brashear. 
—————————-

Brashear signing is completely official now.

——————————
The Brashear numbers, according to TSN: Two years, $1.4 million per. So why the heck not just keep Colton Orr for $1 M per???? Brashear can’t play, is hated by Rangers fans, and violated the Rangers in the playoffs. Makes no sense to me.

This makes no sense to me either. Orr seemed to be liked in the clubhouse and was a useful player who would have made LESS money. Instead, they bring on this goon who had a hand in knocking the Rangers out of the playoffs last year (literally and figuratively). I give up. Just an awful, awful move and another bonehead decision in a long line of boneheaded decisions by Glen Sather. Ugh