Deep pockets, deeper trouble: the Rangers seemingly spend money and lose games proportionately. Can Glen Sather engineer a turnaround for this team?

Sporting News, The, Jan 13, 2003 by Jay Greenberg

"The ice time doesn't make any sense," one NHL coach says. "Trottier should use Mark like Detroit uses (42-year-old) Igor Larionov, 12-13 minutes a game, and lean on Holik more. But Bryan has never done this before. So how would he know?"

Sather's critics contend he is determined to run prospects out of town, refusing to acknowledge the dust bowl he inherited in 2000 from his predecessor, Neil Smith. Sather says he was handcuffed by having players--Theo Fleury, Val Kamensky, Adam Graves, Sylvain Lefebvre--with $8 million to $10 million left on their contracts that no one would take.

"But I knew that going in," he says. "The plan all along has been to develop guys while trying to put together a playoff team.

"We're buying time."

No pun intended. And no sale to Smith's media friends, never mind how little Sather actually has risked in deals. For Lindros, a player who has considerable health concerns, Sather traded winger Pavel Brendl, a fourth overall pick in 1999 who can't crack the Flyers' lineup; Jan Hlavac, a winger who has been subsequently moved twice; a third-round pick in 2003; and defenseman Kim Johnsson, who has been a nice fit for the Flyers but hardly a high price to pay for a star.

The jury still is out on the Bure deal, but the short-term cost was low. Bure, the game's most dynamic goal scorer, was acquired with a second-round pick (Lee Falardeau) for a spare defenseman (Igor Ulanov) and a B prospect (Filip Novak), plus a 2002 second rounder (Rob Globke), a first-round pick the Panthers dealt to the Flames (who took Eric Nystrom) and a fourth-rounder in 2003.

Sather erred by not re-signing Martin Rucinsky, a journeyman who complemented Bure and Lindros after replacing Mike York, who was traded to the Oilers for Tom Poti, 26. York, 25, undersized at 185 pounds, had run out of gas after dynamic first halves in all three of his Ranger seasons, and was moved for a young, 6-3 defenseman with offensive skills, if also a tendency for coverage mistakes.

Another prospect, defenseman Tomas Kloucek, 22, was sent to the Predators in December for goalie Mike Dunham when Richter was sidelined for the rest of the season with post-concussion syndrome. Kloucek had lost most of his aggressiveness after tearing an ACL and was bumped by an improved Dale Purinton.

Forward Jamie Lundmark, the ninth overall pick in 1999 and the lone survivor of Smith's prized prospects, is playing for the Rangers, as is goalie Dan Blackburn, Sather's first pick in 2001. The team hasn't gotten better, but it's not because it has gotten older.

Sather has tried to add gumption, in one case by overpaying for Kasparaitis, in others by making low-risk moves for McCarthy, Matthew Barnaby, Mikael Samuelsson and Ronald Petrovicky. But the Rangers' essential problem is that those players are all fourth-liners. Beyond Holik, who is coming on slowly, the team lacks grinders good enough to play on the top three lines.

The Rangers always will be able to afford stars who are unrestricted free agents. But bedrock players remain largely unattainable until the age of 31, when they could become unrestricted free agents and close to the point when their energy begins to ebb.