Welcome to Camp Wade Redden, or should we call it another season of Survivor - Special Edition Wade Redden?
New York Rangers camp begins tomorrow and for months now we've heard that veterans and highly paid Rangers will have to compete for a spot on the 2010 starting roster. All bets are off as Coach John Tortorella has made it clear that no one is safe and youth may be served. Recently, this now includes some 'camp invitations to veterans' who want to play and could provide some depth (Fedotenko, Semenov, Exelby).
So that can only mean that Wade Redden this afternoon will be overdosing on Pepto-Bismol and Tums - he will have to compete to even make the roster. The disappointing defenseman will continue to make $6.5 million a year through 2014 in the NHL or buried in the minors, but more importantly, if AHL-bound, will Glen Sather actually aknowledge that he screwed up and awarded the most bloated contract in NHL history? Blueshirt Banter did a nice analysis of the effect of burying Redden to the minors here - also here for a realistically replacing post at BB. (nice job guys)
Redden has an impossible feat ahead of him as he is not the player of 'long ago' and will be competing against recent minted players (i.e. Girardi, Staal), some upcoming newbies (Ryan McDonagh, Pavel Valentenko) and some 'over-the-hill' veterans that could probably outperform him as well (Semenov, Exelby). So sad for overpaid Wade.
I do think Wade Redden is collectively in all our thoughts --- and though I am certain he's a nice guy off the ice, we are all tired of boo'ing someone on our starting roster. Think Hartford. Think Wade. (repeat over and over)...
The NY Rangers Training Camp Roster (here) has been released and things are looking up.
See you over the weekend. It's been a long off-season and finally......hockey is back.
tdr
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