Roster

Even though the Rangers lost Jagr,Straka,Avery,and probably won't resign Shannahan,they still have a better team than the one that had Marian Hossa end their season a few months ago.They started the free agency by signing All-Star Wade Redden.And even though he may be overpaid,he still is a big upgrade to one of the worst powerplays in the league.On July 3 they said goodbye to Jagr by signing five time All-Star and former canucks captain Markus Naslund.This could prove to be a great move by the Rangers,because Jagr had one of the worst seasons he's ever had,while Naslund had 25 goals playing with centers who don't have half the talent that Scott Gomez and Chris Drury do.Playing with Gomez or Drury,Naslund should have a gauranteed 25+ goal season.The Rangers also signed Kalinin,which in my opinion was a good signing.He and Mara would be a pretty good third line pairing.The Rangers also acquired young and enigmatic forward,Nikolai Zherdev along with Dan Fritsche in trade that sent Fedor Tyutin and Christain Backman to Columbus in return.Zherdev was second on the Jackets in goals(26),points(61),and led the team in assists(35).The 35 assists and 61 points were career highs.His career high in goals is 27 which he set in the 05-06 season.Dan Fritsche had 10 goals and 12 assists in 69 games last season.The Rangers also traded away Hollweg to Toronto for a 2009 5th round pick.The Rangers also signed Aaron Voros and Patrick Rismiller earlier this offseason.Even though it seemed like Sather would give us a horrible offseason when he didn't want to re- sign Sean Avery,and gave Redden a 6 year-39 million contract after a pretty bad season,everything turned out good,and the expectations for this team are higher than ever.It's gonna be a great season.