TRADE WINDS
Rangers weathering Cally, Girardi rumors
Slowly but surely, things are starting to return to normal for the Rangers.
The Winter Olympics have concluded, and six of the Rangers who went to Sochi — Ryan Callahan, Carl Hagelin, Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan McDonagh, Rick Nash, and Derek Stepan — returned to New York Monday, and will be back at practice Wednesday.
The seventh Rangers Olympian, Mats Zuccarello, will miss threetofour weeks with a fractured left hand suffered while playing for Team Norway.
However, all is not quiet around the team, as trade rumors continue to swirl around two of the team’s heartandsoul players: Callahan and defenseman Dan Girardi.
It was reported in Monday’s Post general manager Glen Sather prefers dealing the pair, as opposed to seeing them leave for nothing as free agents come July.
“We’ve been really concentrating through these — distractions might be the word — on making sure that we focus our group on the game at hand,” coach Alain Vigneault said after Monday’s practice in Greenburgh, when asked how the trade rumors have affected the team. “I have to give a lot of credit to both Dan and Ryan at how they’ve handled this.”
The Rangers have been unable to strike a contract extension with Callahan, looking for a sevenyear deal at approximately $6.75 million per season. Sather, meanwhile, has countered with a fiveyear extension worth approximately $6 million per season.
Meanwhile, the team is also at an impasse with Girardi, seek ing a sixyear extension at approximately $5.75 million per season. Sather is looking to ink Girardi to a fiveyear extension at a lower average cost.
Despite the increasing possibility one or both are dealt before the March 5 deadline, Vigneault took an optimistic approach when commenting on the chance of a trade.
“They’ve been New York Rangers since the beginning of their careers,” he said. “I know that they both want to stay here, and as much as they might say that it hasn’t bothered them, they’ve handled it in an incredible way.”
Said Brad Richards: “Ideally we’d like to keep the team together, we’re winning and going good, but we all know the business of hockey. Things are probably going to change sometimes and management will figure that out. ... It happens every year.
“Every team has those issues, unrestricted free agents. Guys have been professional. We all know the situation. It will all be over one way or another soon.”
Backup goalie Cam Talbot added that while the team hopes the two stay in New York, they can’t let speculation get in the way of the task at hand — trying to secure a playoff spot for the fourth consecutive season. The Rangers (32243, 67 points) are second in the Metropolitan Division, but only three points clear of a playoff berth.
“As far as we know, they’re still part of this team until further notice, [and] they’re obviously two of the leaders in this room,” Talbot said. “Until anything happens, that’s how we’re going to approach every game.”