My Advice to Fans: Have Patience

Patience is a key word when it comes to the month of August for hockey fans. In early June, even though your team may be eliminated from the playoffs, or didn't make it at all, fans have the option of watching the Stanley Cup Final which is always appealing. Later in June, you then have the NHL Entry Draft which lasts for a couple days. After all that is completed, the real buzz of the off-season comes when it is July 1st, and the free agent frenzy begins. Most players sign within those first two weeks of free agency, and then you have some trades made, and other transactions from teams as the month of July dies down.Then comes the month of August, the worst time period of the year for hockey fans for two reasons. One, not many moves are made in August, and two, the fans are so extremely anxious for the start of the next season that they are literally counting down the days.

So right now, we are stuck in the "hockey dead" month of August along with fans of 29 other teams. All we hear about are different rumors of moves that the Blueshirts could or will eventually make, but a majority of them do not ever come true. What I can assure is this, there has definitely been a bump in the road with the Dubisnky situation. In the beginning of the off-season, I stated that if I were in Sather's position, my first move would be to re-sign Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky. Well, we had to wait until mid-July to even find out that Callahan was re-signed, and now we approach the midway point of August, and still no Dubinsky.

Once Callahan, Lisin, Boyle, Potter, and Higgins were all signed to contracts, that is when fans started to become a bit alarmed regarding Dubinsky's situation. I first speculated that Dubinsky and his agent were the ones holding things up, as they may have wanted more money than Glen Sather was willing to hand out. Then, websites all around the Internet were rumoring that the Rangers were making a push for Brad Richards for the Dallas Stars. The obvious players that Sather would attempt to trade for Brad Richards would be Dubinsky and Rozsival. I say Dubinsky because he is a center, and we would have too many of those if we kept him and acquired Richards at the same time. Also, why else would the 23 year-old center not be re-signed to a new contract by now? I truly believe that Sather had Dubinsky on the trade block to acquire a commonly talked about first line center, but there must be be something holding it up, as no move has been confirmed yet.

In my opinion, trading Dubinsky for Richards is a big mistake on Sather's part. The moves that Slats has made during the course of this summer suggest that he is introducing a youth movement, something that hasn't been applied to the Rangers in quite some time. If you want to make a youth movement and work towards making a better future, then you do not go and trade away one of your potential filled players for an older player that will only last you a couple years, and will eat away at your cap at the same time. Let's face it, the Rangers are not making a legitimate cup run this season, so there is no reason to go out and get Richards just so we can win now. Dubinsky should be given the chance to center our first line with Gaborik, as it will build his game, and be a great learning experience. If things don't work out, then make a move for a top center next summer, but for now, at least give Dubinsky a chance.

The Rangers have a great farm system that is calling for a solid team in the future, but to go and trade some of that future away for an older player that is overpaid is simply a big mistake. I can guarantee that fans will be all over Richards just like they were with Gomez. In this cap era of the NHL, everything is "bang for your buck" and quite honestly, Richards isn't deserving of his contract, nor was Gomez, and once Richards is not playing up to full expectations, fans will wanted him traded, just like Gomez.

With that said, I feel that Sather should re-sign Dubinsky, have him center the first line, and then sign free agent winger, Alex Tanguay to a short-term contract. The fact that Tanguay has yet to be signed tells me that he hasn't gotten many offers. That means his overall price is probably low, so we would be able to fit him under the cap, without having to trade any of our current players. This is a much more reasonable approach.

So my advice to fans is to just have patience and wait, because you do not want the wrong move to be made by the franchise. Many fans desperately want a move to be made just so they are occupied, but if you rush the process, the wrong decisions are made, and it ends up hurting the team instead of helping it.

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