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A few days ago, Pittsburgh Penguins owner/captain Mario Lemieux was saying that to stave off bankruptcy, his financially struggling team had to do something to "make the numbers work."
Monday, New York Rangers general manager Glen Sather showed him how.
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Alexei Kovalev will likely be skating alongside Petr Nedved on the Rangers' top line. (Getty Images) |
Sather, who added the coaching duties to his list of responsibilities two weeks ago, engineered a blockbuster eight-player deal that landed the Rangers the coveted Alexei Kovalev, while giving the Penguins a much-needed cash infusion and helping Pittsburgh save even more by paring significant dollars from its current payroll.
And Sather managed to do it without sacrificing the only two potential building blocks in the Rangers organization, 19-year-old goalie Dan Blackburn and 22-year-old center Jamie Lundmark. Instead, Sather took advantage of the Penguins' dire situation and, perhaps for the first time, used the Rangers' deep pockets in a way that made sense.
New York was one of the few serious players in the Kovalev sweepstakes, which began about three weeks ago when it became apparent the Penguins would be unable to afford the pending restricted free agent beyond this season.
Pittsburgh GM Craig Patrick knew he had a limited market for a player who would be expecting more than the five-year, $30-million deal he had already turned down but figured he could create a bidding war among the few rich teams who believed the high-scoring Kovalev could make a difference for them this season.
The only conditions Patrick attached were that the Penguins get inexpensive NHL-ready players instead of prospects and some $4 million in cash, which was the maximum the league would allow in the trade.
That's when Sather, remembering how he lost out two summers ago when Jaromir Jagr was made available by the Penguins, went to work.
With Toronto, Colorado and New Jersey seeming like they had the inside track because of the young talent in their systems, Sather cobbled together a package that gave Pittsburgh the money and the kind of players it wanted but also reduced its salary structure by about $2 million.
With Pavel Bure out of the lineup and not guaranteed to return this year, Sather badly needs an elite scorer like Kovalev to help his goal-challenged team. To get him alone, it is quite likely he would have sent Pittsburgh the four players he did -- forwards Rico Fata and Mikael Samuelsson, and defensemen Richard Lintner and Joel Bouchard -- not to mention the $4 million New York threw in.
Those players make about $2 million combined this season, but Sather didn't want to take any chances this time. Remembering how Washington beat him to Jagr by offering better prospects, Sather agreed to sweeten the pot by taking three deadwood salaries off Pittsburgh's hands.
Defenseman Mike Wilson, who has more than a year and $1 million remaining on his contract, will see little if any action in New York, although the Rangers might find a use for Janne Laukkanen and his $1.6 million salary as a fifth or sixth defenseman when he comes off the injured list in a couple of weeks. Forward Dan LaCouture, who earns a modest $550,000, will probably fill Fata's spot on the fourth line for New York, but this was clearly a case of the Rangers absorbing more salary than they needed to in order to get the man they wanted.
You can do that if you have money to burn.
And Kovalev, the NHL's fourth-leading scorer, might actually make a difference for a team that in spite of itself is still in playoff contention.
He is one of the league's most explosive players, and unlike the free agents New York has picked up in the past few seasons, he is not past his prime. Plus, he's in a contract year and back in the city where he began his career in 1992.
Kovalev, 29, probably will line up with center Petr Nedved and should make an immediate impact on a team that has struggled offensively since Bure went down with a knee injury in December.
Bure has been skating lately and is hoping to return in a few weeks, but with Kovalev in the lineup, New York can bring Bure along slowly, playing him in limited situations such as power plays until he is at full strength.
It might not be enough to get the Rangers to the postseason, but at the very least it proves Sather won't go down without a fight. Especially if the numbers work.