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Brooks: Desire To Play and Zherdev’s Number

by Adam Rotter on July 26th, 2009 at 10:01 am

Larry Brooks, of the New York Post, spends today’s “Slap Shots” column on Dany Heatley and how the Edmonton Oilers should stop their pursuit of him because he really doesn’t want to play in Edmonton.

Don’t the Oilers get it? Their city is the last place in North America (other than presumably Ottawa and perhaps Atlanta) that Heatley wants to live, and their team is the last one in the NHL (insert a disclaimer or two) for which he wants to play.

Enough already with the bribery and the convincing. The team and the city look more than desperate. They are beginning to appear pathetic with their continued pursuit of the player who for good reason has become hockey’s most disdained individual.

Brook’s cites two Rangers examples comparing them to Heatley:

In addition to being humiliating, bribery never works. It is counterproductive. New York was the last place Mike Keane ever wanted to play, and he showed it after being bribed by the Rangers’ overly generous free-agent contract offer in 1997, playing so poorly he was shipped out before he completed the first season of a four-year deal.

Theo Fleury repeatedly announced that he wanted nothing to do with playing in New York until the Blueshirts waved $18 million under his nose in the summer of 1999 and he was able to figure out that he had nowhere else to go. Nowhere but down, that is, as he helped to take the Rangers with him.

…Ugh, Mike Keane. At least Fleury scored for a little bit in his second season but, ugh, Mike Keane is not a name you want to see when you wake up on Sunday morning.

Brooks also notes on Chris Chelios and Nikolai Zherdev and his arbitration case.

On Chelios:

When Jere-Me Roenick is right, he’s right: The Coyotes’ rink should have been built in Scottsdale, not Glendale, and Chris Chelios does want to play in New York, the latter of which Glen Sather has known since July 1.

..I figured as much, Slats has to have known about Chelios being interested, so much so that the move to bring him in could have been made weeks ago.

On Zherdev:

Nikolai Zherdev, we’re told, is submitting a bid for $4.5 million in his salary arbitration hearing that is scheduled for Friday. Rangers have not submitted yet their number, but could come in under the Goodbye Guy’s $3.25 million qualifier.

Expect the award to be fixed at between $3.85 million and $4.15 million and expect the Blueshirts to run — not walk — away from Zherdev and the failed experiment.

…Sounds about right.
  • blay28

    i understand zherdev is being a cocky baby here but if the rangers did decide to pay him thaht for the year would they need to make a trade to fit him in or since hes there player it wont affect that?? im a little confused about that because i know hes shown he can be a little bit of a cancer but the guy has major talent and to me he could be atleast valuable for a trade for maybe a high prospect or atleast something i mean he did lead our team in points last year hes gotta be worth something why would we just let him walk away with nothing in return?? we gave up tyutin for this guy …what about a team like edmonton whose looking for a guy who can score they’d have to be interested

  • waynefromwestbury

    i agree, to let zherdev walk for nothing is just another example of the extraordinary buffoonery of the Sather regime. I liked Tyutin a lot and the team misses his hip checks very much. zherdev is very much trade bait if we want nothing to do with him after arbitration. some team out there will take a gamble on his talent and youth so we can get value back from him being traded now. he was the top scorer on the team last year, but that doesn’t say too much for that team now does it???? lots of work still needs to be done before the start of the season. let’s figure out if we want zherdev here; if not let’s plan for the future and get as much as possible ASAP!!!!!