Avery Awarded $1.9 Million; Rangers Re-Sign Hossa

An arbitrator in Toronto has awarded Rangers Forward Sean Avery a $1.9 million salary for the 2007-2008 season. Avery made $1.1 million this past season and was seeking $2.6 million for the upcoming season, while the Rangers were offering $1.3 million. The arbitrator essentially split the difference. The Rangers immediately announced that they have accepted the arbitrator’s award. Rangers GM Glen Sather issued the following statement:

"We are pleased to have Sean under contract and are looking forward to him returning with the same passion and enthusiasm he brought to our team last year. He is a terrific competitor, who we expect to play a significant role in a successful season."

That sounds slightly different from what Slats was telling the arbitrator. I understand it's just business, but both sides should have been able to reach an agreement before it got to the contentious arbitration process. Hopefully, both sides can put this behind them and focus on the upcoming season, but it won't change the fact that this was poorly handled by Rangers' management.

The Rangers did manage to avoid arbitration with Forward Marcel Hossa (if Sather was able to make such a forceful argument against Avery, I would love to get my hands on a draft of the Hossa brief) by signing him to a one-year, $780,000 deal.

Right now, the Rangers are at $51.144 million for 12 forwards, 9 defensemen and 2 goalies, counting all of Shanny's bonuses. Now, they still have to add one more forward to the roster and subtract a defenseman. If the defenseman is Paul Mara, then they will be a little more than 2 million under the cap. If it's a younger defenseman, then things will be a little tighter. But, it appears the pieces to the Rangers' roster puzzle are beginning to come together, and the cap situation certainly appears to be manageable.