I really believe that this season, the Eastern Conference is wide open, to the point where I can see anyone of six or seven different teams representing the East in the Stanley Cup Finals. Based on that, I, like a variety of others, expected the Rangers to do what was necessary to address their biggest need today by acquiring a top-notch puck moving offensive defenseman.

Now, several hours after the trading deadline has passed…clearly, they did not.

Instead, the Rangers dealt one of their supposed top prospects, former first round pick Al Montoya, along with Marcel Hossa to the Phoenix Coyotes. In return, former Rangers Assistant GM and current ‘Yotes GM Don Maloney sent back forward Fredrik Sjostrom, winger Josh Gratton and goaltender David LeNeveu.

Rangers GM Glen Sather also sent a fourth round pick to the St. Louis Blues, while former Ranger goalie and color commentator and current Blues GM, John Davidson, sent defenseman Christian Backman to New York.

Interestingly enough, the Rangers traded two former first rounders away today and acquired two former first rounders, as well. It’s a lot less glamorous then it sounds, though.

There is no doubt that the Montoya deal will go over quite badly with virtually all Ranger fans. Montoya was the sixth overall selection in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, chosen ahead of such already-successful players like Rostislav Olesz, Alexander Radulov, Travis Zajac, Wojtek Wolski, Andrej Meszaros, Mike Green and even Brandon Dubinsky. The Rangers chose Montoya then even though they were already fairly confident in Henrik Lundqvist, still a prospect at the time, while their prospect pool was virtually bare of any significant scoring forwards.

Still, the Rangers chose to select Montoya. Since then, Lundqvist has become one of the top goaltenders in the league while Montoya has struggled with injuries and consistency playing for the Rangers farm team, the Hartford Wolfpack, although he has shown flashes of the talent that made him such a coveted prospect.

Marcel Hossa was a former first round pick of the Montreal Canadiens. They clearly were hoping that Marcel would follow in his brother Marian’s footsteps as an elite scorer, but that never happened. The Rangers traded grinder Garth Murray for him before the start of the 2005-06 season, hoping to make something out of him. After all, at 6’4” and 220 lbs., Hossa certainly has the frame to be a useful player.

The Rangers coaching staff put a lot of effort into trying to mold Hossa over the last few years and to their credit, they did manage to make Hossa into a very solid defensive forward. He is very difficult to knock off the puck and he can open up the ice for his linemates. Unfortunately, one brief spurt playing with Jaromir Jagr aside, Hossa just did not improve offensively.

Sjostrom was the 11th pick in the 2001 draft, but he too has struggled to live up to expectations. He’s actually become quite similar to Hossa. In Phoenix, head coach Wayne Gretzky was using him in a defensive role. He’s almost as big as Hossa, but has more speed. Unfortunately, he hasn’t done much offensively, either, although he is on pace to have his best NHL season, with 10 goals and 9 assists in 51 games.

LeNeveu was the Coyotes’ second round pick in 2002 and was supposed to be their goaltender of the future, but after a few call-ups, he’s spent this entire season with the Coyotes’ farm club. Following the deal, Sather claimed that Rangers goaltending coach Benoit Allaire believes he can revive LeNeveu’s career.

Gratton is nothing more than an enforcer, a typical goon, though an effective one. Still, with Tom Renney’s infatuation with Colton Orr, Gratton likely won’t see much time in New York, unless Orr’s current injury is worse than the team has led the public to believe.

Losing Hossa is no big deal, as its highly unlikely he’ll ever become more than a fourth liner, while Sjostrom should be a more-than-adequate replacement for him. What remains to be seen is what happens when Ryan Callahan, Nigel Dawes, Petr Prucha and Sjostrom are all healthy? Maybe this may finally prompt Tom Renney to sit Ryan Hollweg and add a guy like Sjostrom to the fourth line, since the Rangers could really use at least some minor offensive contributions from their bottom trio.

The trading of Montoya, however, is tough to swallow. Rather, it isn’t the fact that the team dealt Montoya, but how little they got back for him, that is the problem.

This trade clearly points to several things. For one, signing Lundqvist to a six-year contract a couple of weeks ago probably hurt Montoya’s already diminishing trade value. Montoya’s difficulty sustaining good play, along with his inability to stay in the lineup, was probably the biggest factor in why the return for him was so small. Likewise, it doesn’t seem like there is much of a market for goalies. Just look at what the Washington Capitals had to give up to get Cristobal Huet from the Montreal Canadiens. A 2nd round pick, that’s all. Granted, Huet is an unrestricted free agent, but that isn’t much to give for a goaltender of his caliber.

Other factors to consider include the surprising play of Ranger prospect goalie Miika Wiikman in Hartford, as well as Sather’s somewhat disappointing habit of only dealing with general managers that he has a personal relationship with. Look, maybe Don Maloney really was the only guy with any interest in Montoya, but maybe there were a couple of other teams that were interested, maybe even giving slightly better offers. Whatever the reason, Sather practically gave Montoya away to Maloney.

The acquisition of Backman isn’t really something to complain about, as he only cost a fourth round pick, but I’m still not particularly sure what purpose he serves. Yes, technically he qualifies as an offensive defenseman, but he’s not much of one. In his fourth year in the NHL, Backman has never recorded more than 18 points, nor has he ever played even close to a full season without suffering injuries.

Pretty much everyone around the hockey world expected the Rangers to trade Marek Malik, so unpopular with his refusal to play physical defense despite his size. Well, not only did the Rangers keep Malik, they added Backman, who despite being 6’4” and 210 lbs., also doesn’t play physical defense. Backman has one more season left on his contract after this one. His cap hit will be $2.3 million, way too much for a guy with his numbers.

The bottom line is neither of these trades really hurt the team, in fact even though none of these players are stars, they will probably provide helpful depth. What is hurting is the team’s pride, at least for the Ranger fans. It’s one thing when your team doesn’t make a significant move to upgrade before the playoffs, but it’s another when they deal a guy they’ve been telling you is a future star for another team’s loose ends.

At least the day’s two main acquisitions, Backman and Sjostrom, are both Swedes who played for Henrik Lundqvist’s old team, the Frolunda Indians. Maybe a few fellow countrymen will prompt the King to return to form.

We can hope, can’t we?