Rangers acquire Gaborik

Despite reaching the playoffs in 2008-09, the New York Rangers are not satisfied with their performance and are aiming for a more successful campaign next year. More specifically, the franchise finished 7^th in the Eastern Conference with a 43-30-9 record before being eliminated by the Washington Capitals in the first post-season round. One commonly identified problem for the Rangers was their lack of offense production as they were not able to score more than a meager 210 goals throughout the season.

Thus, the primary goal for the off-season is considered to be adding more offensive weapons in order to benefit from their solid defensive efforts night in and night out. Given the fact that they already lost Markus Naslund and Nik Antropov who combined for 48 goals last season, a lot of pressure was put on New York’s GM Glen Sather to bring impact players to Madison Square Garden over the summer. Yesterday, the franchise announced that they were able to sign Marian Gaborik to a 5-year contract worth roughly $7.5 million per year. The 27-year old right wing from Slovakia spent his entire career playing for the Minnesota Wild after being drafted in 2000. There is no doubt about his offensive potential as he managed to score 219 goals as well as 218 assists for a career total of 437 points in just 501 games. However, some experts are questioning the Rangers’ choice as he has been plagued by injuries throughout the last season and only appeared in 17 games in 2008-09. Nonetheless, GM Glen Sather stated that Gaborik would be healthy and is expected to significantly improve the Rangers’ offense next year. While Gaborik’s acquisition appears to be a move into the right direction it remains to be seen what other deals the New York Rangers will work out during the off-season. As of now, sources around the league indicate that the Rangers are hoping to sign at least one more offensive minded veteran in order to make some noise in the 2009-10 playoffs.

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