Irish Eyes Are Smiling

New York Rangers General Manager Glen Sather added his biggest free agent name of the season today, with the announcement that the team has come to terms with former Detroit Red Wing and three time Stanley Cup Champion left wing, Brendan Shanahan.  The 6-3 220lb 37 year old winger has been linked with the Rangers in the past, but like many who have gone before him, will join the club in what is most definitely the twilight of his career.  Shanahan bounced back last year with his first 40 goal season since the 1999-00 season and the sixth of his career, and is certainly the type of player the Rangers lacked last season in their top six forwards. 

There was some speculation that the former Red Wing alternate captain might assume the captaincy for Detroit with the retirement of team mate Steve Yzerman, but Shanahan said he felt the time was right, though there were reports last week that he wanted to move back to the east coast for family reason.  The Rangers won out over Montreal in bidding for his services.

His size and physical play will be a welcome addition to the Rangers, and his scoring ability will help alleviate the dependency on Jaromir Jagr for the majority of the Rangers offense.  The signing does however, make the position of the Rangers going into the season a little unclear.  It would appear that the need to sign Martin Rucinsky now is not as urgent, though the potential remains to shift Martin Straka to the right wing and/or push either Petr Prucha or Martin Rucinsky down to the third line.  Despite comments to the contrary by Glen Sather, it does appear at this stage that the Rangers will potentially go into the season with an older line-up than last year.