In noting how the Rangers' dynamic is going to change next year with the trickle-down impact of the Rick Nash trade, The New York Post reveals that Shane Doan is believed to have narrowed his sights on Manhattan, Pittsburgh and Vancouver. It's unclear if Rangers general manager Glen Sather is willing to go four years on a contract, but if he does, Doan is more likely than not to become a Blueshirt.
This is, of course, assuming he chooses to leave the turmoil of the ongoing Phoenix Coyotes' ownership saga.
As far as the Rangers' aura shifting, The Post believes the addition of Nash to an equation from which Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov and Brandon Prust have been subtracted makes the Rangers more of a top-heavy team going into 2012-13, whenever it begins.
Depth has been compromised. Dependency on young Chris Kreider and Carl Hagelin to accelerate the learning curve is not insignificant. If the season starts on or close to schedule, Marian Gaborik likely would miss at least the first quarter of the year.
That's why the Rangers remain keenly interested in signing Doan, who will turn 36 in early October and is seeking a four-year deal as he confronts the separation issues that will accompany his departure from Phoenix, his home for the last 16 years.
At the same time, albeit unlikely, it isn't impossible Doan could accept three years to come to Broadway for a reunion with coach John Tortorella, who may have issues with people skills, but sure doesn't drive people away from wanting to reunite with him on his hockey team when given the opportunity.
There was a price to be paid for acquiring Nash beyond the $7.8 million per on his contract that runs through 2017-18. At 28, the 6-foot-4, 220-pound power winger was a formidable and often dominant force through the first part of his nine-year career before becoming somewhat less than that playing for a perennially bad team and a dysfunctional organization.
Now, Nash has the opportunity to shine on the big stage, the chance to reassert his dominance playing meaningful games. The Rangers will need him to be a force, will need him to play big and score big goals, not only throughout the regular season, but more importantly, in the playoffs, where the team got to three only seven times in 20 games last year.
The creation of chemistry between Nash and Brad Richards shouldn't prove as painstaking as the process a year ago with Richards and Gaborik. The power winger's game is more elementary than Gaborik's nuanced approach.
No other team in the East has added a player of Nash's significance. But in doing so — and while concurrently, albeit correctly, allowing Prust to defect to Montreal — the Rangers evolved into a different team.
It should be a better team come April and May and into June. That's really all that counts now. Division, conference, seed, not so much.
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