Wading In Too Deep

Today's topic is Wade Redden. Or as he’s known to some of my Ranger fan friends - Wade blanking Redden (and you can fill in your own derogatory middle name). The $6.5 million dollar defenseman.

It was Glen Sather who brought him in here. And every single day Slats wakes up - realizes what he's done - and gets that awful chill feeling deep in his guts. Unless some sort of miracle occurs (like, say a drunk driving Zamboni accident) we're stuck with Wade until the 2013-2014 season (and how depressing is that?)

We could cut Redden - but half of his salary would still count against the cap for the length of his contract. The $3+ million dollar hole would hang over the franchise for years. And of course - cutting Redden would require Glen Sather to ADMIT HIS COLOSSAL BLUNDER which is not too likely.

Instead, coach John Tortorella is doing everything he can to raise the level of play of the 32 year old former all star. And so far, Wade has been noticeably uh ... less bad .... This season,

Not to say he's been good, exactly. He did have one 3 point evening. On the other hand - he gave up the puck to Matt Bradley with 5 minutes left in a 2-2 tie with the Washington Capitals and ... well, don't get me started.

So it remains to be seen if Wade gets good enough to be tolerable - or fades into a larger and larger Ranger calamity.

There is exactly one thing protecting Wade right now and that is Michal Rozsival. As bad as Redden has been - Rozy has been worse and Michal's salary is also obscene at $5 million a year

So everything bad you could say about Redden - you can say it about Rozsival first - and louder. Larry Brooks (and hi Larry if you're googling your own name and found us again) wrote a nice "dump Rosival" piece earlier this week in the NY Post. So Wade should thank Michal every day for blocking media shots that could easily been aimed at him.

But the situation remains. We're hoping Torts can wake up something in Wade's game and get him going. Because otherwise - Redden is a big "blanking" problem - on the ice and against the salary cap.