It’s apparent that Glen Sather has something up his sleeve.  What that is only time will tell.  For the Rangers, today meant ridding themselves of Scott Gomez and his monster hit on the cap and adding two players they hope are long-term players in Chris Higgins and Ryan McDonagh.  Higgins, a three-time goal scorer, and RFA, will be looked at to score goals on the PP and on the PK.

While I’ve only seen a few videos on Ryan McDonagh, the fact is he a young first round pick, drafted two years back.  Young depth on defense is never a bad thing.  Thrown into a mix with Marc Staal, Dan Girardi, Matt Gilroy, Michael Del Zotto, Bobby Sanguinetti and Michael Sauer gives the Rangers a chance to have a top blueline from start to finish.

These additions seem to be solid ones, but the most important thing to come from today was the Rangers ridding themselves of Scott Gomez and his $7 million + off the cap. 

At the end of the day, the biggest question for Ranger fans is ‘what’s next?’  We now know the answer to that question is not ‘Dany Heatley.’  Can get grab Vinny Lecavalier from Tampa?  Tortorella’s guy, but maybe still to expensive.  Can they sign Marian Hossa and Mike Cammalleri?  Is Marian Gaborik someone they will go after? A pair of Sedin’s, anyone?

Tomorrow is going to be very interesting.

Quick thought on Jay Bouwmeester signing with Calgary.  Kudos to Sutter for making the trade for his rights, then signing him long-term.  Between Bouwmeester, Dion Phaneuf, Robyn Regehr and the recently drafted Tim Erixon, the Flames blueline looks to be a force for years to come.

Be sure to keep it here all day for coverage of the first day of free agency. 

I will be at the NHL studios with EJ Hradek and Rob Simpson on NHL Live! — I will be Twittering all afternoon and will be hitting the blog as well.  Come tomorrow, our generic SNYRangersblog Twitter feed and my personal Twitter feed will be up on the site.  To follow me directly, my Twitter account is SNYRangersblog1 — or search my name.

Also, follow me on Facebook as well.

Should be a lot of fun.

Ninth Update July 2: Heatley did not waive his no movement clause and is still property of the Ottawa Senators. The Senators have paid the $4 million bonus. Heatley apparently preferred the Rangers of San Jose Sharks as destinations.

This is just messed up. Have a feeling that LA will finally make their move and trade for Heatley. They missed out on everyone else and have enough young parts to offer a deal like Edmonton did.

Eighth Update 10:30PM: Dreger reports that Heatley is meeting with Edmonton brass right now.

Seventh Update 9:50 AM: Bruce Garroich, of the Ottawa Sun, reports that Heatley’s people didn’t like the deal to Edmonton and were trying to broker a deal to the Rangers. We shall see…

Monzo: Christ already………anyone else want nothing to do with this guy at this point?

Sixth Update, GOOD MORNING 7:15 AM: Bob McKenzie reports that the trade to send Heatley to Edmonton is NOT dead but on hold. Heatley is supposedly sleeping on the decision.

Fifth and Final Update, Most Likely: Bob McKenzie of TSN is reporting that Heatley nixed the deal. McKenzie also notes that as long as Heatley is traded before midnight of July1, the bonus money could be transferred to the other team. This may not be over.

Fourth Update: Bruce Garroich reports that the deal is off and that Heatley will PLAY IN EDMONTON this season.

Third Update 12 AM July 1: RDS is reporting that Heatley BLOCKED the trade to Edmonton.

UPDATE: Daren Millard reports on his twitter that the deal is done. Heatley to Edmonton. Update Two: Sportsnet also confirms it.

Original: TSN is reporting that Dany Heatley is close to being dealt to the Edmonton Oilers.

Heatley would have to waiver his no-trade clause for the deal to go through.

The rumored deal would send Andrew Cogliano, Dustin Penner and Ladislav Smid to the Sens for Heatley.

Rotter:This seems like a better offer than the ones the Rangers have been rumored to give. Cogliano is player, young guy but is going to be good, the Sens seem to like Penner and Smid has been a top prospect for a while and was sent to Edmonton as part of the deal to acquire Chris Pronger a few seasons ago.

And if this does happen, the Rangers will turn their attention to Vinny Lecavalier I assume. Unless they have a plan to get Mike Cammalleri and maybe one other guy, Alex Tanguay?

Monzo: I am a little surprised, but I am not.  You heard earlier in the night that Heatley was headed to NY, but after making a phone call to a source, I was told he would be shocked if the Rangers would end up with Heatley.  For the Rangers, tomorrow is now a huge day.  Will they trade for Vinny Lecavalier?  Will they sign Marian Hossa? Marian Gaborik? Mike Cammalleri?  We will know soon enough.

As previously mentioned, the Rangers acquired defenseman Ryan McDonagh as part of the trade that sent Scott Gomez to Montreal.

McDonagh was Montreal’s first pick in 2007 at number 12 and was ranked as their top prospect.

Hockey’s Future also had McDonagh ranked as the 18th best NHL prospect:

McDonagh is the Canadiens top prospect. A first-round draft selection in 2007, McDonagh is a big, powerful blueliner who can provide an offensive punch. Expected to be more of a defensive blueliner when he turns pro, McDonagh is an excellent skater, with good positioning and gap control. The St. Paul, Minnesota native has good instincts and is developing more physical play. He recently completed his sophomore season at the University of Wisconsin, and competed in the 2009 U20 WJCs. Expected to become a first pairing blueliner over the next few years, McDonagh is weighing his options as to whether he will return to Wisconsin for his junior year.

I think I am most excited about the Rangers getting him in the deal then shipping off Gomez’s contract or getting Higgins. McDonagh, Marc Staal, Michael Del Zotto, Matt Gilroy and Bobby Sanguinetti, if they are all still around, will give the Rangers a very solid defense for years to come.

The Calgary Flames have signed defenseman Jay Bouwmeester to a five year deal worth $6.6 million per season.

The Flames acquired the rights to Bouwmeester on Saturday in a deal where they sent Jordan Leopold and a third rounder to Florida.

Good move for Flames as their move to acquire JayBo’s rights payed off. They didn’t give up much if it didn’t work out but they have to be happy that the reported move of him to Edmonton didn’t go down.

Fifth Update: Carp, who first said that the Dany Heatley deal would happen tonight, has backed off that statement.

Now it sounds as if the Rangers are done for the night—I was wondering why they had the Glen Sather conference call so early. And if they are done for the night, that probably means they are done in the dealing for Dany Heatley.

Earlier I said it looked like it was getting done. Apparently what I was actually hearing but not comprehending was the Gomez deal going down. Sorry about that.

Check out Carp over at Rangers Report.

Fourth Update: Here are some of the quotes from Sather and Higgins conference call:

Sather:

• “We’ve got lots of cap room now, and it opens lots of options.”
• “Torts has talked about the young guys all year and we wanted to make some room for them, and we did.”
• “Since this deal happened I’ve had three calls (from other teams), and it doesn’t take long for people to realize you’re going to make some changes.”
• “Higgins has been a goal scorer, he has the ability to score some goals. I think he’s a terrific player. He’s excited to be coming home.”

Sather doesn’t expect a problem signing Higgins who was given his qualifying offer.

Higgins:

• “When I heard it happened, I was thrilled. If there was one place I was going to play other than Montreal, it would be in front of my friends and family.”
• “l like to play a relentless style. I like to be moving the whole time I’m out there for my shift. I pride myself in my work ethic.”
• “I’ve always liked the way (Tortorella’s) teams have played. They don’t seem they take their foot off the gas pedal very often. Playing against the Rangers, they were one of the hardest teams to play against.”

Higgins was hurt three times last season which should attribute to his low statistics.

Monzo: Outstanding job by Sather here.  To free up the Gomez money and to add Chris Higgins who can be a 2nd or 3rd line center as well as adding more depth on D with Ryan McDonagh is huge.

Third Update: Rick Carpiniello of the Journal News reports that he has been told that Dany Heatley will be a Ranger tonight.

Second Update: The Rangers have announced the deal via press release and here is how it shakes out.

To Montreal:

• Scott Gomez, Tommy Pyatt and Mike Busto.

To the Rangers:

• Chris Higgins and defensemen Ryan McDonagh and Pavel Valentenko

McDonagh was Montreal’s first round pick in 2007 and was rated as their top prospect by Hockey’s Future.

UPDATE: TSN says that Scott Gomez is going back to Montreal in the deal.

Original Post:

Kevin Allen of USA Today reports, via twitter,  that the Montreal Canadiens have traded Chris Higgins rights to the Rangers.

Higgins is due to be an RFA tomorrow.

Wow, the Scott Gomez era is over in NY and it appears that the Dany Heatley one is about to begin. More reaction to this later. I do like Chris Higgins, if he is re-signed they add more scoring depth and Ryan Mcdonagh as Montreal’s top prospect could just be the icing on the cake.

Michael Obernauer of the Daily News speculates about how the Rangers may have an advantage over the Sens in the possibility of a Dany Heatley trade.  If Heatley isn’t traded today, the Sens will have to pay him $4.0 million owed to him in his contract.  They are desperately trying to avoid that — so they may take the best offer they can get to get rid of the unhappy forward.

Obernauer mentions a Michal Rozsival, Brandon Dubinsky/Ryan Callahan plus a pick and a prospect for Heatley.

By tonight, we will know something.

Rotter: This is all the same information that we have been hearing about for weeks. Heatley doesn’t want to play in Ottawa and Ottawa doesn’t want to pay Heatley his bonus. Brandon Dubinsky or Ryan Callahan will most likely be part of a proposal for Heatley in addition to most likely a future first round pick and a prospect. There is nothing wrong with reporting what is out there but at this point Obernauer and the other beat writers seem to just seem to print the same stuff because there is nothing new on the Heatley front yet there is demand for Heatley coverage. Hopefully it will all end soon and we can get back to our third year of wondering whether or not the Canadiens will get Vinny Lecavalier.

Steve Zipay is reporting that the Rangers have extended qualifying offers to Dane Byers and Greg Moore.

He also reports that defenseman Vladimir Denisov and center Joe Barnes were not tendered making them free agents.

Byers is a very interesting canidate to fill a spot on the fourth line next season. He missed most of last season with a knee injury or he could have gotten the call then.

Beyond The Blueshirts has an interesting piece today on KHL team Atlant Mytishchi making it known that they want to sign Rangers RFA Nikolai Zherdev.

One of the assistant coaches on the team is a former one of Zherdev’s who had this to say:

The Rangers know about Zherdev’s possible departure for the KHL. The management of the American club recently made a qualifying contract offer to the player, who’s NHL contract has ended this year, in the amount of $3.25 million for the season. However, the player and his agent have not yet accepted it…

While the contract war goes on, it’s not ruled out that Zherdev, as he did three years ago, will start preparing for the season in the Moscow area club based in Mytishchi.

Check out the rest at Beyond The Blueshirts

Want to give a few predictions on where a few of the top free agents will land. Tough to give numbers, but I will try.

Marian Hossa: Red Wings – 7 years/$52 million

Mike Cammalleri: Capitals – 5 years/ $33 million

Sedin Twins: Maple Leafs – 8 years/ $63 million

Marian Gaborik: Wild – 1 year/ $6.5 million

Nik Antropov:  Panthers – 4 years/ $19 million

Jay Bouwmeester: Canucks – 6 years/ $39 million

Martin Havlat: Blues – 5 years/ $33.5 million

Mike Komisarek: Islanders – 4 years/ $16 million

Brian Gionta: Penguins – 3 years/ $13 million

Mike Knuble: Rangers – 2 years/ $7 million — Seems to make sense — big body on the PP, and not breaking the bank.

Saku Koivu: Wild – 4 years/ $18 million

Nikolai Khabibulan: Avalanche – 3 years/$15.5 million

Blair Betts: Oilers – 4 years/$8 million

Mattias Ohlund: Stars – 3 years/$12 million

Monzo: Just a few things that make sense to me.  More names to come.  Even though I would love the Rangers to lock up Cammalleri, I doubt it will happen due to the Rangers salary cap disaster.