FanHouse Wade Redden

Depending on who you ask, Donald Brashear's introduction to Rangers fans was either a success after a rocky beginning, or simply the beginning of what will be a rocky relationship. At a season ticket holders meet-and-greet on Wednesday night, an event that featured Brashear, Chris Higgins, Chris Drury, Ales Kotalik and Marian Gaborik, the Rangers' new enforcer was greeted with a smattering of boos according to Michael Obernauer of the Daily News, which prompted him to -- jokingly -- challenge anyone in the crowd who was booing him.

The reaction from the fans isn't really surprising given the run-in Brashear, then playing for the Capitals, had with former Rangers forward Blair Betts during the Stanley Cup playoffs in a series that saw Washington overcome a 3-1 deficit.

The New York Rangers continued their free agency spending on Thursday by signing 30-year-old forward Ales Kotalik to a three-year, $9 million deal. It's a move that could signal the end of restricted free agent Nikolai Zherdev's tenure in New York after one, uninspiring season.

As for Kotalik, he spent the 2008-09 season with Buffalo and Edmonton, while he's scored at least 20 goals in three of the past four seasons. He's also one of the best shootout specialists in the league. General manager Glen Sather, however, continues to sign checks with a stamp. Or so it seems.

Ah yes, another July 1 passes and the Rangers make another splash in the free agent market. This year they signed the oft-injured and cranky Marian Gaborik to a five-year deal worth $37.5 million, and tough guy Donald Brashear for two years and $2.8 million. Also, former big July 1 signing, Scott Gomez, was shipped off to Montreal in a seven player deal that brought back forward Chris Higgins, among others.

But will all the superstar swaps and signings pay off for the Rangers? They've made similar moves for the past two years and have a grand total of eight playoff wins and a mid-season coaching change to show for it. So is this summer different, or are the Rangers sticking to the same big money strategy that has failed them before?

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We continue our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Atlantic Division.

It will be an interesting summer for the five teams in the Atlantic. Four teams made the playoffs, including the eventual Stanley Cup champion, and the one team that didn't make it -- the New York Islanders -- holds the first pick in Friday's draft, which isn't a bad consolation prize. All around it was a pretty successful season for these five teams.

The real NHL awards will be handed out Thursday night in Las Vegas, so FanHouse decided to hand out its own special awards for the 2008-09 season.

It's designed to maintain competitive balance and parity across the league, but if you waste valuable salary cap space on free agents that don't pan out or contribute the way you expected, you're pretty much stuck without a paddle because nobody is going to bail you out and take that albatross contract off your hands.

Introducing the FanHouse nominees for the Wade Redden Award for Wasted Cap Space.

After jumping out to a 1-0 series lead in the Western Conference Final, Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock held a press conference on Monday and fielded a variety of questions from the media. For the most part, it was your typical, run-of-the-mill press conference.

About half way through, a reporter started asking Babcock about how he once joked that he was ready for the salary cap to break up the young talent the Chicago Blackhawks have assembled over the years. In Babcock's mind, he wasn't joking.

WASHINGTON -- As the Washington Capitals left the ice at the end of a scoreless second period Tuesday with the team tied 1-1 with the New York Rangers in Game 7 of their first round playoff series, the team should have counted itself lucky.

Though the game was tied and the shot count close, the Caps, who had climbed back from 2-0 and 3-1 series deficits to tie the series 3-3 and force a Game 7 at home, had been thoroughly outplayed by the visitors.

How? The Rangers just seemed to want it more. All series long, New York coach John Tortorella had said that he wanted his team to work the puck down low deep in the Caps defensive zone. And on shift after shift during the second period, the Rangers took up residence in Wayne Gretzky's office, continually throwing the puck out front to wingers cutting to the front of the net. If it hadn't been for some otherworldly goaltending by Russian rookie Simeon Varlamov, the Caps could very well have been left for dead.

But in one moment in the third period, an old veteran proved he had something left in the tank, and 11 years of playoff frustration evaporated in a flash.

---

---

Weeks of rumors, innuendo, and e5s will finally come to a head on Wednesday. At 3pm Eastern, the NHL trade deadline will pass. You can follow all the activity with our NHL Trade Deadline Tracker.

Entering play Tuesday night, 23 NHL teams are either in a playoff position or within six points of one. While this is great for the playoff races, it's not so good for the deadline. It minimizes the number of potential sellers, drives up the trade market for the few players who should be available, and leaves us wondering if any big deals will go down. Here's a look at how the Eastern Conference looks heading into the deadline.

Penguins defenseman Ryan Whitney was out of the lineup on Wednesday night for what was described as "family matters." As it turns out, Whitney was traded to the Anaheim Ducks for forwards Chris Kunitz and Eric Tangradi.

Update: Whitney did have family matters to attend to in Boston. The trade happening on the following day was simply a coincidence.

For the Penguins, they finally get some help on their wings as Kunitz can provide immediate help up front, while Tangradi instantly becomes the best prospect in a depleted Pittsburgh farm system. According to Hockey'sFuture, he was the No. 2 prospect in Anaheim prior to the trade.

Things are getting ugly in New York as the Rangers continued their recent slide with a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday afternoon, their seventh loss in the past eight games, putting them in the quagmire that is the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

Aside from getting booed much of the afternoon (the only emotion the Madison Square Garden faithful showed) the Rangers were also getting crushed by NBC analysts Pierre McGuire and Mike Milbury for their lack of effort and intensity.