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Rangers trade Scotty Gomez to Canadians


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ESPN.com news services

The New York Rangers have found a team for Scott Gomez, trading the center to the Montreal Canadiens.

Gomez

The Rangers sent Gomez, forward Tom Pyatt and defenseman Mike Busto to the Canadiens in exchange for forward Chris Higgins and defensemen Ryan McDonagh and Pavel Valentenko.

"Well we think Higgins is a goal-scorer and we're very happy to have him," Rangers general manager Glen Sather said. "McDonagh is certainly a player that's going to play in the NHL as well as Valentenko. We got two good prospects in this deal. It gives us some options tomorrow when free agency comes along. I think there's going to be quite a few options available."

The Rangers have been trying to deal Gomez since their season ended. The 29-year-old Alaskan, whose career-high point total was 84 in 2005-06 with the Devils, dipped to 58 points last season (16 goals, 42 assists) in 77 games while earning $8 million. It was his lowest offensive output since 2002-03 in New Jersey.

"I think Scott's a very good player," Sather said. "He's a really good guy. He worked hard. He was exceptional with the team and in the dressing room. I have no complaints about him. He's a terrific guy and he'll do well in Montreal."

More to Come?

The Rangers' trade of high-priced Scott Gomez now clears them up to pursue some bigger names and scorers when free agency begins, writes ESPN.com's Scott Burnside. Story

Gomez has five years and $33.5 million left on his deal -- $8 million next season, $8 million in 2010-11, $7.5 million in 2011-12, $5.5 million in 2012-13 and $4.5 million in 2013-14.

By removing Gomez's deal from the team, Sather has freed up cap space that could be used to acquire a primary scorer.

"It gives us a lot more options or availability to do other things," Sather said. "We're not up against the cap now. We've got lots of cap room. It just makes the options more inviting to us. Now, I'm not sure what's going to happen. We also have some depth with some of the kids we have in the minors and we wanted to make some room for those guys."

Higgins, 26, is a restricted free agent. He also disappointed last season, putting up only 23 points in 57 games after putting up a career-high 52 points the previous season.

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You know, Gomez really under performed and never came up big for us. Hopefully this Higgins character and the two prospects turn out to be decent contributers. I'll be honest, I'm a big Ranger fan but I don't follow the rest of the NHL so I don't know much about Higgins or the youngins.

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You know, Gomez really under performed and never came up big for us. Hopefully this Higgins character and the two prospects turn out to be decent contributers. I'll be honest, I'm a big Ranger fan but I don't follow the rest of the NHL so I don't know much about Higgins or the youngins.

It didn't really matter what the Rangers got in return. This was a salary dump pure and simple. Glen Sather just got let off the hook. As an Islander fan, f*** this trade. The point of it wasn't to get Chris Higgins (a long island native, who's had decent seasons in the past, last year wasn't too good) but to clear space to get someone from this really good FA class.

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but this trade just sets up the rangers to win there 3rd straight July 1st cup.

A lot of smack talk from a fan of a team who can't even get out of last place or god forbid, reach the postseason.

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It didn't really matter what the Rangers got in return. This was a salary dump pure and simple. Glen Sather just got let off the hook. As an Islander fan, f*** this trade. The point of it wasn't to get Chris Higgins (a long island native, who's had decent seasons in the past, last year wasn't too good) but to clear space to get someone from this really good FA class.

Couldn't agree more. Gomez just didn't justify his $8 million dollar salary. What hockey player could except for a very few. Never could see the high salaries with no major network TV contract.

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A lot of smack talk from a fan of a team who can't even get out of last place or god forbid, reach the postseason.

The Islanders are only two seasons removed from making the playoffs, and it wasn't too long ago that the Rangers ended their streak of missing the postseason at SEVEN years.

Despite the fact that they're a joke of a franchise that loses tons of money every year, the Islanders have won only two less playoff series than the Rangers over the last decade.

Given their resources and expectations, which team has been more of a disappointment, would you say?

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The Islanders are only two seasons removed from making the playoffs, and it wasn't too long ago that the Rangers ended their streak of missing the postseason at SEVEN years.

Despite the fact that they're a joke of a franchise that loses tons of money every year, the Islanders have won only two less playoff series than the Rangers over the last decade.

Given their resources and expectations, which team has been more of a disappointment, would you say?

Let's see who's more disappointed when your rooting for the Kansas City Islanders

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Let's see who's more disappointed when your rooting for the Kansas City Islanders

I wouldn't blame Wang for moving the team, since the county has done nothing to try to fix the situation. He has done a lot of dumb things since he bought the team and continuing to take money out of his pocket to support the franchise would be yet another.

That won't change the fact that the team in the Garden continues to overspend and under perform.

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I didn't know the Islanders had fans outside of Jetkid94. Who knew.

Islander fans trying to bash the Rangers is funny. All you can see/hear is like the Principle in the Charlie Brown episodes when Islander fans try to bash another franchise.

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I didn't know the Islanders had fans outside of Jetkid94. Who knew.

Islander fans trying to bash the Rangers is funny. All you can see/hear is like the Principle in the Charlie Brown episodes when Islander fans try to bash another franchise.

You didn't answer my question, but then again, I didn't really expect one, because the answer is obvious.

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You didn't answer my question, but then again, I didn't really expect one, because the answer is obvious.

You're right, it is obvious.

You want your answer?

In the past few years (and even the decade) the Islanders have disappointed more.

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You're right, it is obvious.

You want your answer?

In the past few years (and even the decade) the Islanders have disappointed more.

Nope, tough to be disappointed when you have no expectations. Who do you think is going to be more disappointed at the end of this year - Mets fans or Royals fans?

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  • 2 weeks later...

This trade was a heist by Sather. Not only did he dump the salary of a grossly overpaid player but he picked up a solid winger and a blue chip prospect in McDonagh.

And don't get me wrong. I can't stand Glen Sather. But his strength is in the trades he makes. His glaring weakness is in his July 1 FA signings. Ironic considering what he said years ago about teams like the Rangers while he was GM of the cash-strapped Oilers.

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This trade was a heist by Sather. Not only did he dump the salary of a grossly overpaid player but he picked up a solid winger and a blue chip prospect in McDonagh.

And don't get me wrong. I can't stand Glen Sather. But his strength is in the trades he makes. His glaring weakness is in his July 1 FA signings. Ironic considering what he said years ago about teams like the Rangers while he was GM of the cash-strapped Oilers.

Your kidding right? Higgins is an out of control party animal who is often injured and McDonagh had a terrible World Junior Championships. It is Gainey who pulled off the heist!!

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Your kidding right? Higgins is an out of control party animal who is often injured and McDonagh had a terrible World Junior Championships. It is Gainey who pulled off the heist!!

No I'm not kidding. You're kidding yourself if you don't think Sather pulled off a minor miracle here. Ranger fans are estatic that he was able to unload Gomez' obnoxious salary. And to get a top 6 winger and a blue chip Dman was just icing on the cake. Higgins did play on your top line last year with Kovalev and Koivu, yes?

So you say McDonagh had a terrible WJC? What are you basing that on? Because he didn't put up big offensive numbers as a Dman? Nothing I've read indicated anything near what you're saying about McDonagh.

Here's one blog posting on a Habs site about McDonagh:

"Ryan McDonagh

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  • 9 months later...
Gomez 59 points

Higgins traded at mid season

Mc Donaugh now considered a 4th 0r 5th defenseman.

Canadiens 1

Rangers 0

Rangers cane out ahead no matter to dump the big contract of Gomez- this is one move Sather did right

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Rangers cane out ahead no matter to dump the big contract of Gomez- this is one move Sather did right

Gomez at least is still a productive if overpaid top 6 forward. On a team that pays 2 old guy defensemen a kings ransom to jerk off in Rosival and Redden(neither of whom hits nor is an offensve force), says here they got rid of the wrong overpaid old guy. It would hard to think of 2 worse contracts in the NHL. A real GM would have bit the bullet, sent them to Hartford around Halloween to make serious cap room and told both if they wanted out of to make their own deal elsewhere go right ahead because they would never wear a blueshirt again.

This franchise is a mess.

Rosival carries the puck like it's a live hand grenade, a turnover waiting to happen. Redden would be well-advised to hit anyone with his wallet since he was utterly disinclined to dirty his uniform. And yet both never saw their ice time dropped a bit spare one time they benched Redden for all of 1 game.

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