Day one of camp was completed and Brandon Dubinsky is now officially considered a holdout. John Tortorella let his feelings be known on the subject yesterday, clearly opposing Dubinsky’s choice to decline to participate. Certainly it would be better for all if Dubinsky was in camp, but you have to feel that Glen Sather has also contributed to this scenario with a below market offer.
The Rangers’ biggest off-season signing, Marian Gaborik, also missed some of yesterday’s camp activities. Gaborik is coming off hip surgery and is feeling soreness after skating in recent days, Tortorella and the Rangers decided to hold out the high-scoring winger as a precautionary measure, but it certainly isn’t what you want to hear this early in the season.
Holding out Gaborik (and also giving Kotalik a break on the run), does seem to undermine Tortorella’s goal of making the team harder.
Other news from camp including the extending of an invitation to veteran blueliner Alexei Semenov to attend camp. The 28 year old 6-6, 235lb Russian blueliner has 7 goals, 26 assists and 249 penalty minutes in 211 NHL games with the Oilers, Panthers and Sharks. He played a career high 47 games last year with the Sharks and had 1 goal and 7 assists, was a +3 and had 57 penalty minutes.
According to the New York Post, Nikolai Zherdev also offered to come back to the Rangers for $3.25M, but was turned down.
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