The New York Rangers have agreed to terms with unrestricted free-agent Ruslan Fedotenko to a one-year contract worth $1 million on Monday.
Fedotenko was invited to the Rangers’ training camp September 14th, and has worked his tail off to impress the original-six club in efforts to earn a contract.
Fedotenko has led the team in pre-season with one goal and six assists in five games, and appears to have found chemistry on the third line with agitator Sean Avery and prospect Derek Stepan.
The 31 year-old was let go following the 2009-2010 season from the Pittsburgh Penguins where he had arguably his worst season in his nine years in the NHL. In 80 games he scored 11 goals and 19 assists with a team worst -17 rating. Although he’s never scored over 41 points in a season, after an outing like that it was crucial for the Russian to perform as the list must have been short in terms of teams knocking on the door.
Fedotenko has won the Stanley Cup twice. First, with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2003-04, and then again in 2008-09 with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It was Fedotenko’s obvious drive in pre-season that ultimately got him the contract, but he does provide a veteran presence with two Cup rings worth of success.
There’s no doubt he got an extended look from head coach John Tortorella, as he lifted the Cup with Fedotenko in 2003-04 as head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Fedotenko may want to thank him for any good words passed along to management.
Fedotenko’s numbers by no means are staggering. In 677 games he’s scored 150 goals and 158 assists for 308 points. In 83 playoff games, his numbers are slightly better with 20 goals and11 assists for 31 points. His nine years in the National Hockey League have been split playing with the Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Islanders, and Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Rangers need offense, and more importantly timely offense. Fedotenko’s signing deepens the scoring depth a bit on the third line (assuming that’s where he sticks), but the jury is still out on whether or not it will be enough to get them over the hump.
The Rangers missed out on the Playoffs just barely last year to the Philadelphia Flyers in the last game of the regular season in a heartbreaking shootout loss. The Flyers went on to become the Eastern Conference Championship winners, and took the fight to the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Finals leaving the Rangers to wonder what could have been.
Fedotenko joins along with a host of new signees with the likes of Tim Kennedy, Todd White, Alexander Frolov, Derek Stepan, Derek Boogaard, Steve Eminger, Michael Sauer, and Martin Biron in the Rangers' off-season shake-up.
- Kendall Grubbs
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