Contract Escape! Rangers Trade Scott Gomez to Montreal for Chris Higgins
by Dominik on Jun 30, 2009 5:43 PM EDT
in Bits o' Islanders News
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PrintI'm crestfallen. Glen Sather tied the Short Island Smurfs, er Rangers, to Scott Gomez for just under $7.4 million per year through 2014, and Canadiens GM Bob Gainey has let him off the hook. Why, Gainey, why?! It's good fun watching the Rangers struggle beneath exorbitant contract commitments; it's a tradition going back nearly 15 years. This deal for Chris Higgins, a restricted free agent who made $1.9 million last year, takes away some of the fun.
My solace? Sather's move is no doubt clearing room for ... some other jaw-dropping contract likely to strain their payroll. Dany Heatley? [Update: Looks like. LoHud says Heatley.] A "crazy" commitment to Nik Antropov? A 5-year, $45-million maneuver to talk Bobby Holik out of retirement? {snickers} Who knows. I do know that every time I think they can't surprise me anymore ... they prove me wrong.
The deal also includes hot prospect Ryan McDonagh, Pavel Valentenko and Doug Janik heading to the Rangers, with Tom Pyatt and Mike Busto going to Montreal.
Below the jump, a little more free agency news from today -- even a minor Islanders trade with the Devils -- on the eve of the second Hockey Interwebs Implosion in the last five days:
- Higgins's fellow local, Mike Komisarek, is hitting the market. Stop thinking it, just stop.
- Keeping with the theme, Penguin Rob Scuderi is probably hitting the market. Think, think away! (Note: scroll to the bottom of that one to find Alexei Yashin is staying in the KHL. I know, I know; here's my shoulder.)
- The Islanders traded Ben Walter to the Devils for Tony Romano, a 21-year-old, 5'10" center in the OHL.
- UPDATE: Jay Bouwmeester has signed in Calgary. How 'bout that.
- Predators nation is atwitter (see what I did there) over a radio interview and Steve Sullivan's response.
- Are you sitting down? The newly re-signed Penguin Bill Guerin likes playing with Sidney Crosby.
- And finally, around here we've been talking about Olympic invitee Kyle Okposo's goal ceilling, as well as what the Islanders will or should do in free agency. Also: Grade Andy Hilbert's season before he says bye.
Join in, say hello and mourn this great injustice to the summer theatre that is the Rangers' payroll.
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I smell salary dump or if it is the Rangers just plain poop.
Nice to see Chris come back home and Doug Janik should help stabilize the Hartford blueline.
From the Penalty Box to the Blog Box! Check it out at Isles Official's Outlook!
Damn, I totally missed Janik being in there, too. Bob Gainey, you disappoint me so.
Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.
Trust me
Sather is just plannin on screwing this up even more to our deliight.
I smell a ten mill five year deal to Boumeester or something ridiculous like that.
I'm hoping!
We need a pool: Who is Glen Sather about to commit $50 million to?
But they even got a good prospect* out of the deal.
*before he succumbed to Rangers player development stench
Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!
No kidding.
I had posted to a the Rag fans a while back that I thought Marc Staak was over rated and a bust. Mainly that he’s a one dimensional stay at home types and not really a threat to do anything else.
I still get crap for that one till this day.
My favorite moments from last season was Okposo picking that guys pocket three times in one game at the point.
I could go on for days all the prospects in that Rag system that they’ve overhyped.
Pavl Brendl
Montoya
Maholtra
Dawes
Jessiman
Staal (This guy get by on pedigree only. Had he a name like Campoli I don’t think the fans would be so high on this guy)
Sanuinetti
I could go on for days
I love that they’ve been acquiring other teams’ talented players with issues, too. The Zherdevs and Antropovs whose porridge is just not quite right. Good players, but not ones to take them where their payroll implies they think they’re going.
Not sure if that’s just poor judgment, or the result of being pushed against the cap (or both).
Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.
Higgins is an Isle killer
Why would Gainey do this…he must owe Sather something from a debt long ago…anyway my first thought was “great Chris Higgins always plays very well against the Isles” if the blueshirts sign him which is almost a lock based on the quotes from Higgins then he’ll have even more opportunities to play us. That’s a double crap move from an Isles perspective.
Crap, I didn’t even think about that part. Maybe the novelty of playing in front of friends/family will wear off and he’ll cool it a bit. That’s really going to suck if/when he has a big night against the Isles.
Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.
WOW
It must be blackmail- there is no other explanation.
Sather must have something BIG on Gainey. Infidelity? Espionage? Whatever it is, it must be big to get him to agree to this.
Lets go Islanders...
by TheMetalChick on Jun 30, 2009 9:08 PM EDT up reply actions
Gainey is so stupid
that he couldn’t wait for after July 1st to pull this deal?
That guy has taken over where Milbury left off.
by Chickendirt on Jun 30, 2009 11:18 PM EDT up reply actions
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May 24, 1980: Tonelli to Nystrom. At long last, the steady build of the New York Islanders from expansion doormat to surprise semifinalist to annual contender reaches the promised land: Buoyed by a late season trade for Butch Goring that gave the team the depth up the middle GM Bill Torrey had been seeking, the Islanders knock off the Philadelphia Flyers in six games.
The victory justified the faith in coach Al Arbour who guided them from their second season to their first Stanley Cup seven seasons later. The Islanders would not be the first expansion team to win the Stanley Cup, but they would be the only one capable of a dynasty.
1980-81
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May 21, 1981: This time it was much easier. After falling to "only" 91 points in the 1979-80 season, the Islanders returned to their division title tradition, piling up 110 points -- a whole 13 points over second-place Philadelphia.
Between the quarterfinals (where they beat the upstart Oilers in six games) and the finals, the Islanders reeled off eight consecutive wins -- with a four-game sweep of archrival Rangers in between. As they defeated the Minnesota North Stars in five games for their second Cup, their goal difference in the final was a combined +10.
1981-82
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May 16, 1982: Another year, another landslide title. The Islanders won the Patrick Division by a whopping 26 points over the second-place Rangers, and were seven points clear of their nearest competition for the President's Trophy, the still-not-quite-ripe Edmonton Oilers.
A first-round scare against the Pittsburgh Penguins turned in the Isles' favor thanks to John Tonelli's heroics, and a true dynasty was on its way: Past the Rangers in six games, then an eight-game sweep of the Quebec Nordiques and Vancouver Canucks to run away with the Stanley Cup.
1982-83
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May 17, 1983: Not so fast, whipper-snappers. The Edmonton Oilers' steadily rising challenge for league supremacy took them all the way to the finals for the first time, where the New York Islanders summarily dispatched them in a four-game sweep. For the Islanders, the Dynasty was secured. For the Oilers, it was a powerful lesson in where talent ends and the demands of playoff hockey begin.
Four years, four Cups, 16 consecutive playoff series wins (a record that would grow to 19 until the rematch with the Oilers the following year). Mike Bossy scored 60 goals yet again, and Wayne Gretzky became acquainted with Billy Smith's crease.
