Gloom In Ranger Land as Team Treads Water

The off season has not been kind to the New York Rangers. Mired in a deep financial pit the team dealt young superstar Marcel Hossa for aging superstar Pavel Bure and 5 million dollars in the hopes of making a splash in the Free Agent market. The team failed to land a single free agent. GM Burns was aggressive on on the RFA front when he tendered a 5 million dollar offer to the Sharks' Rotislav Klesla. The deal was matched by the Sharks even though it put them over the cap. The Rangers then went after Eric Lindros and missed him by a heart breaking $250,000. Burns was asked why they didn't offer more money and he said "The last GM left this team in a fiscal crisis. The big upside of our team is its youth and cap space. We didn't want to eat up too much capspace on one player although I definately would have offered 6.5 million if I'd known it would win the bidding. We remain optomistic that our cap space gives us flexibility on the trade front and that is where we will have to improve."