Buying Out Drury: A Move Sather Had No Option But To Make

I would first like to say this: For those of you who are over-celebrating Thursday's news that the New York Rangers are going to buy out the remainder of captain Chris Drury's contract, you should take into consideration that at the end of the day, this is someone losing their job. I understand he is a millionaire with plenty of income, but nonetheless, no one deserves to be mocked when they are losing their job. Let's put on our adult faces and grow up a little. 

As each year has gone by, GM Glen Sather has started to show a pattern of admitting to his mistakes and fixing them. In the summer of 2009 it was trading center Scott Gomez to the Montreal Canadiens. In the fall 2010 it was waiving defenseman Wade Redden and placing him in the American Hockey League. This past January it was trading defenseman Michal Rozsival to the Phoenix Coyotes. And now, this summer, Sather will cross his fourth and final mistake off the list by buying out the remainder of Chris Drury's contract. 

As we know, the Rangers' youth movement is now in full swing and with head coach John Tortorella wanting to play a certain style of hockey, the physique of the squad has been changing. Management is now hungry to acquire speed, size and grit and they are looking to acquire it young and promising. Players like Gomez, Redden, Rozsival and Drury do not fit the mold of the direction this team is moving in, therefore making their contracts dead weight that served no purpose other than taking up limited space. 

When the youth movement really began in the summer of 2009, that's when Sather started noticing this and it's when the Rangers brass took a long look into the future and realized they needed to clean up some of the mess that they had created. That's when each of those hefty contracts were gradually removed, one-by-one, and I think Sather and his staff deserve a lot of credit for finding ways to relieve themselves of all four of them. I can tell you now, most GMs in this league would bite the bullet and just wait out those contracts until they expire. That was not the case with Sather and again, I think he deserves some credit for being strong-willed like that. 

Drury's numbers have been rapidly declining each year. In 2007-08, his first season as a Ranger, Chris posted 58 points in all 82 games played. The following year his scoring total dropped to 56, but it was not until 2009-10 when things became alarming as the captain's point total plummeted to just 32. And then this year, in 24 games, he was only able to amass 5 points. If he were to play the entire season, scoring at that pace, he would have finished with around 17 points. 

Seventeen points for a player that receives $7.05 million annually from a team is not going to be acceptable, and clearly it wasn't for the Rangers. After a miserable season for Drury, the worst of his career, and the fact that he was the fourth and final mistake Sather needed to admit to and correct, the GM had no other option but to buy out the remainder of Chris' contract and move on. 

The Rangers, as both a team and an organization, liked Drury for the person he was. They had the utmost respect for the guy and I'm sure it killed them to have to do this. But the truth is, hockey is a business, and when you can replace an underachieving 34-year-old with young blood that has a lot of promise, you simply cannot pass up the opportunity. This is the position Sather was left in, and he made the right decision with the team in mind. 

So to Mr. Drury, thank you for all that you have done for the city of New York. The fan base was harsh on you, but that is expected when you do not perform under the New York lights, especially as the captain. You leave us with some great memories that we will never forget, and your 110-percent effort and desire will always be respected. 

Drury will be bought out between June 15 and June 30 and will save the Rangers $3.3 million in cap space. 

Comments

[JohnP]

Chris Drury has always been a class act and big time player who came through in big times. So whether he is rich or not ( he is) or whether he was good or bad with the Rangers ( Not so good most of the time) a man lost his job. I guess he'll have to wait like the other 25,000,000 Americans for Obama to create all those jobs.LOL!!!!
Chris Drury gave his all for every team he played with, Sather and the Rangers unfortunately caught him on the other side of the mountain so it never panned out here. But Chris was a great player and leader and hockey will miss him.
Nick, is correct Sather is admitting his mistakes by ridding the team of those mistakes. However you cannot keep repeating those mistakes over and over again. Sather is lucky he has a owwner who is both clueless and classless and knows less about hockey than he does about basketball or may have been gone already. That being said I hope Slats has smartened up and doesn't go out and sign some 34+ years old " name" player for the sake of having that name or some over 30 year old player with a injury history. He needs to stay young and keep it young. If he has learned from his follies then as fans we should not have to worry about what happens JULY 1 becasue Sather has wised up! Or has he?

[lb1980]

Agree. The biggest mistake is Sather himself and the guy is lucky to survive yet. Who is next after Drury. Gaborik? He is going down in this organization.

[MvpGaborik]

couldnt agree more Nick...i was happy with the extra cap space we gained but i feel bad for Drury...he was always a classy guy and a lot of fans didnt like him...he may not have put up the numbers we wanted but he was a good guy who gave it his all...best of luck to chris drury!

[stevek]

I have no sympathy for Drury, if he had any kind of self respect he would have retired, look at Brian Rafalski and Markus Naslund...But it's all about the money

[Nick Montemagno]

He may still feel he can play...

[scrangersfan]

Chris Drry is a class individual and I have no doubt that he gave everything he had for the Rangers.Unfortunately he did not have much to give.By signing a big contract was defenetly not his fault,he would have been crazy not to sign. So shame on Slats for offering him so much money.
As for Nick's statement that he feels sorry for Drury for losing a job,I disagree. I tell you who I feel sorry for losing their job, I feel sorry for Firemen, policeman, school teachers who's got 3 kids to feed and they lost their jobs because the towns they worked for can not provide money in the budget to keep these individuals working. For peele who lost their jobs because the factories they worked in closed to move overseas and now can not support theisr families,those are the people I feel sorry for.
I'm sorry if I sound cold but I can not feel sorry for millionairs because they lose their jobs for none performance and get 3 million plus to walk away.Come on foulks! lets put things in prospective here! I would love to be in Chris's shoes and I'am sure that most of who is reading this post will agree with me. We are talking about people who are playing a game and and are revarded generously for it. Ther is also a real world out there!

[JohnP]

Well said and you are 100% correct! Good job!

[Mike]

I agree that Drury is a classy guy, and he will catch on somewhere else, and I bet he again becomes a 20+ goal scorer as a role player on a good team, but his time with the Rangers was over.

My question now is, where does this leave the Rangers on the cap? Just exactly how much cash can we spend? The team is promising, but we are still lacking in some areas.

I was also wondering how Boogaard's contract effects the payroll. I am not trying to be a ghoul or anything. I will miss the Boogeyman, and it was a terrible thing to lose such a great human being, as well as a great team player.
It's not often (thank goodness) that an active player passes away. How does this work out on the business side? Does his family receive any of his contact, and does any of it count against the salary cap? Does the organization do anything to help the family?

Please don't attack me about these questions, I am just curious about how it works.

[Michelp]

I totally agree with scrangersfan, this guy has lots of money and he won t be hurt for being kicked out.
i always liked Chris, but he was a total disaster in the rangers uniform.
time to let someone make the big bucks

[Tim]

Never ceases to amaze me how my fellow Ranger fans never bat an eye at a chance to badmouth Rozsival. His last contract was inflated, sure, but you people SO quickly forget that this guy was absolutely our #1 defensemen on the best Ranger teams we've seen since ninety-seven and right up until Staal stepped it up bigtime. This guy LED THE NHL IN +/- out of the lockout and was our clear cut #1 the two times we made the 2nd round, and you guys started the boobirds as soon as Tom Poti left town and you needed a new punching bag to help your ego. Regardless, his name shoul NOT be in this article because unlike Redden, Gomez, and even Drury: Rosey EARNED his raise in Broadway Blue. You people forgot that IMMEDIATELY. We reward strangers with contracts they earn in other sweaters and turn our backs on anyone we feel like resenting. What else is new? You'll all hate Richards 2 years after we sign him, and on a long enough timeline I'd be my arm youll be badmouthing Lundqvist the same way people badmouthed Richter and Messier during their final years. New York, what a town!

[scrangerfan]

Tim,I totally agree with you.I posted more then one comment in the passed stating that Rozsival was unfairly bood be the Ranger fans and when he was traded for Wolsky,I said it would go down as a bad trade.The proof is in the pudding. As you said,Rozsi was the most steady defensman and the record proove's it. The Rangers won more games with him then without him.Lots of fans are under the opinion that the Rangers need a veteran D. man and I would take rozsi in a NY.minute.

[scrangersfan]

Thanks JohnP. I appreciate the kind words. I just expressed my true feelings.

[Nick Montemagno]

Never said you should feel sorry for Drury. Nor did I say that you shouldn't feel sorry for people of the working class who have lost jobs. Just saying that Drury being bought-out shouldn't be over-celebrated.