Dubinsky Update: Expected to Sign Before Camp

Larry Brooks of the New York Post had an update on the Dubinsky situation this morning, after recently talking to Brandon's agent, Kurt Overhardt. The Rangers apparently have a one year deal on the table, which would be the qualifying offer that Rangers assistant GM, Cam Hope states is $522,500. Sather supposedly has also offered Dubinsky a multi-year deal, but again, Brandon will most likely want the one year deal, this way if he happens to have a breakout season in 2009-10, he will be looking at a payday next summer, and possibly go to arbitration.

Here is a portion from Brooks's article: (Click for full Story)
"The qualifier, as per Rangers' assistant GM Cam Hope, is a two-way offer of $522,500/$60,000, though the minor league number is essentially meaningless given that Dubinsky would have to pass through waivers in order to get to the AHL.

That $522,500, however, appears to be the Blueshirts' standing one-year offer to the 23-year-old unsigned Group II free agent one week before players are due to report to training camp."

Quote from Dubi's agent:
"We've had a number of positive and amicable discussions with the Rangers and we'll continue to work at it," Kurt Overhardt, Dubinsky's agent, told The Post yesterday. "Neither Brandon nor I have any interest in attempting to negotiate this through the newspaper, so we'll keep the conversations private.

"I know that Brandon is extremely enthusiastic about the upcoming season with Torts [head coach John Tortorella]. We all have every expectation that this will be done before camp."

With that said, we now have two confirmations that a) Dubinsky wants to be a Ranger, and b) This deal will be completed in due time, and these confirmations coming from both Dubi and his agent. The qualifying number that is coming from Cam Hope is much less money than originally reported, so this would be a cheap signing on the Rangers part. As I have reported, Dubinsky has in fact been skating with the team every day at the training facility for the informal practices/scrimmages that have been held in the past week.

It was evident that Dubi wanted to be a Ranger from day one, but that was held up by Glen Sather when it came time to make trade offers, as it was confirmed that Brandon was offered in at least one, which saw him going to Ottawa, but it did not end up working out. So it may have taken until September, but it looks like this thing will finally get done, and we can all move on.
(Photo courtesy of Getty Images)