Are These The Last Days Of Captain Callahan?
Just how much longer will Ryan Callahan be the captain of the New York Rangers? If you believe the news, not long.
Multiple reports have stated that Glen Sather is heavily shopping Captain Cally in order to not lose him for nothing on July 1st to the UFA feeding frenzy. The drama is real folks and it may be a good time to start saying your goodbyes.
MILES APART
The Rangers and Ryan Callahan are miles apart on contract talks. The Callahan Camp is firm on a 7 year deal worth about 6.7 million a year. Sather and the Rangers are hard lined at 5 years and 30 million (6M yr). If you thought they could bridge the gap, you may want to reconsider.
Today at practice Ryan Callahan stated that he wants to help the NYR win, but he can only control what he can. That is the biggest cliche in sports for any athlete trying to negotiate a contract. If he really wanted to “stay” on the Rangers, he’d have moved off his contract demands. Of course, the same can be said for Glen Sather. What we have here is an unwillingness by both sides to negotiate.
WHO HAS CONTROL?
In this case, Glen Sather by a landslide. The Rangers organization is loaded with talent ready to take Callahan’s spot. JT Miller is the leading candidate there, but let’s not forget the progress of Jesper Fast and Danny Kristo in Hartford as well.
As for trade partners, there are plenty, starting with the Vancouver Canucks. John Tortorella would love to get a hold of his old captain and the Canucks have kicked the tires. Maybe there’s a match there because Vancouver is loaded on defense and Dan Girardi is also a potential issue.
Other teams sniffing around are the St. Louis Blues who have already offered Chris Stewart. The Columbus Blue Jackets and the Boston Bruins. Hold on to your seats, it’s going to get bumpy.
WHAT CAN CALLAHAN GET THE RANGERS?
At the age of 28 and all those great leadership qualities, plenty! Is he a rental? Yes, but Sather has already granted teams the right to negotiate before. Meaning that if a better trade was there, he would allow other teams to discuss contract in order to get it done.
Even if Callahan was unwilling to negotiate, you can still expect an NHL player and prospect/pick in the deal. Remember, we are talking about Ryan Callahan, not Brian Boyle. While Boyle is also a UFA this summer, he would fetch you a 2nd draft pick at best. Callahan is the coveted grinding forward who can play big pressure minutes in a Stanley Cup run.
FULLTILT FORECAST
The trade deadline is March 5th at 3PM EST. As of today I am saying it’s 50/50 that he gets traded. Come March 3rd, if you don’t hear the NYR and Cally’s agent are negotiating, he’s 99.9% gone.
Update 9:30PM: As per Darren Dreger on TSN’s Insider Trading segment, Ryan Callahan is 99.99% getting traded. The same will gold true if Girardi doesn’t sign.
Dreger previously mentioned the Stewart for Callahan trade with the Blues. Apparently the a Kings have big interest as well as Vancouver.
More About:New York Rangers Analysis