Gaborik is the Perfect Player to Improve Rangers Offense
But he can also play solid defensively
Posted on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 9:37 PMAny time a team can land a 27-year-old who in 502 career games has scored 219 goals and 218 assists for 437 points, you have to figure they're ahead of the game.
Any time a club can sign a chap who in one season notched 42 goals and 41 assists for 83 points in 77 games, that franchise's fans should be laughing.
My suggestion, therefore, is that Rangers fans should -- at the very least -- be wearing a grin.
Marian Gaborik is the big fish caught by angler Glen Sather. And Slats remembers that five-goal game Marian celebrated against his Blueshirts one night in St. Paul.
The five-year pact considerably bolsters the Rangers attack.
No question, the question immediately will be raised: what about his health?
It's a reasonable query because Gaborik was limited to only seventeen games last season and still -- in the homestretch -- managed 13 goals and 23 points.
He showed me a lot for vigor and enthusiasm and I saw him firsthand.
I vividly remember interviewing Marian at Nassau Veterans' Memorial Coliseum last Spring when the Wild still desperately were fighting from behind to notch a playoff berth.
Gaborik could have opted out of playing the remaining games but insisted that he felt good and he did want to boost his teammates' fading chances.
More than that, I was impressed with his performance. He played a solid, two-way game; blocked dangerous shots and, of course, scored the winner.
If the man tells me that he's healthy -- as he did -- I believe him and, let's not forget, this fellow is precisely in his prime.
No less worth remembering is the fact that Gaborik has spent his entire seven-year career under the tutelage of coach Jacques Lemaire.
Marian has learned well how to be a defensive forward as well as go for goals. Right off the bat, that separates him from the exited Scott Gomez who never quite accepted the backchecking part and is one reason -- among many -- why John Tortorella is not shedding crocodile tears about Gomer's move to Montreal.
The number three pick overall in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, Gaborik is the right forward at the right time for the Rangers.
Sulking, hulking Dany Heatley may have an upside over Gaborik on the physical side and -- who knows? -- he could wind up on Seventh Avenue as well.
But for now, Sather has done well over two days.
And, as the calendar tells me, tomorrow is another day.
How's that for a scoop.
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