Posted - 01/26/2011 : 07:55:16 The Ottawa thread got me thinking about all of the moves the Rangers made at the deadline in 2004, when basically every veteran player on the roster was made available. I was curious to see how those moves panned out, so i looked them up...
1. Anson Carter to Washington for Jaromir Jagr. The Capitals also picked up 50% of Jagr's salary for the duration of the contract...so Jagr only cost the Rangers a $4 million cap hit during his time in NY!
2. Alexei Kovlev to Montreal for Josef Balej & a 2nd round pick (Bruce Graham).
3. Petr Nedved & Jussi Markannen to Edmonton for Dwight Helminen, Steve Valiquette & a 2nd round pick (Dane Byers).
4. Brian Leetch to Toronto for Maxim Kondratiev, Jarkko Immonen, 1st round pick in 2004 (Lauri Korpikoski), 2nd round pick in 2005 (Michael Sauer).
5. Chris Simon & a 7th round pick (Matt Schneider) to Calgary for Jamie McLennan, Blair Betts, and Greg Moore.
6. Vladimir Malakhov to Philadelphia for Rick Kozak & a 2nd round pick (used to trade up to draft Marc Staal).
7. Matthew Barnaby & a 3rd round pick (Denis Parshin) to Colorado for Chris McAllister, David Liffiton, & a 2nd round pick in 2004 (after a swap of picks with Phoenix, ends up being Brandon Dubinsky).
8. Greg de Vries to Ottawa for Karel Rachunek & Alexander Girioux.
9. Paul Healey to Florida for Jeff Paul.
10. Martin Rucinsky to Vancouver for RJ Umberger & Martin Grenier.
I was surprised to see how many of the prospects the Rangers got in return never panned out, and same with the high draft picks they recieved. In the Rucinsky trade, RJ Umberger never ended up signing with the Rangers & went on to sign with Philadelphia as a UFA that summer. 2 of the picks recieved were used to select Marc Staal & Brandon Dubinsky, who are currently 2 of the most important players in the organization. But outside of that, really only Blair Betts went on to have much impact with the Rangers. Sauer made his debute this year and has been solid as the Rangers 5th/6th defensemen. Steve Valiquette was the back-up for a couple of seasons, and Korpikowski is finally showing some of his potential this season in Phoenix...but Liffiton went on to be a complete bust. Same with Josef Balej, who i remember at the time was being compared to a young Pavel Bure by Rangers fans/management.
Still it was the fresh start the Rangers needed, and going into the lockout, there wasn't a better time to do it.
