As we all know, Sean Avery was waived by the Rangers yesterday in what some likely term as financial move, however Tortorella's comments to reporters yesterday made one think that the writing was on the wall on Avery for awhile.
"To me, we have a better team now, and I think we have better players than Sean Avery. I don't want to throw dirt on the guy, and Sean had a very good camp, but our depth has put Sean in this spot. We are a better club now." -John Tortorella
Torts went on to add that Erik Christensen, the man who beat Avery out for a job (somehow) could be used in a variety of roles such as on the power play, a top 6 guy (which admittedly had me scratching my head) and on the shootout. Avery despite having some chemistry with Gaborik last year, was rarely used in any of those situations.
I enjoyed having Sean Avery in a Rangers uniform. He was a key part to the Rangers success during the prime Renney years here. However with the youth movement that the Rangers have been pushing for the past season and a half it was clear that there wasn't anymore room for a 3rd-4th line agitator in his form.
In more pressing matters, it was revealed today per Larry Brooks and the NY Post that Marc Staal could be out as much as one month due to his intermittent headaches from a concussion in the middle of last season. This will cause the Rangers to make roster moves once the waiver statuses of Sean Avery, as well as Brendan Bell and Stu Bickel, defensemen also waived by the Rangers yesterday are known. Tim Erixon, the Rangers highly touted defensive prospect, will be on a plane today heading to Stockholm to meet up with the rest of the team who only have 5 healthy jet lagged defensemen at the moment. It has been rumored for a while and later confirmed that the Rangers are in talks with Paul Mara, a former Ranger defenseman to be added as a 6th-7th pointman which can be done after noon today once the Rangers players clear waivers.
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