Now, Sather may have finally solved that problem. Or he might have created an even bigger one.

Yesterday, the Rangers signed former Ottawa Senators defenseman Wade Redden to a six year contract that will pay the 31-year-old an average of $6.5 million per season. That’s a lot of money to pay a guy who, by all accounts, has been on the decline for two seasons. Especially when you consider that, just hours earlier, the team re-signed their own defenseman, Michal Rozsival, to a four-year, $20 million dollar contract.

Twice an All-Star (in 2002 and 2004), Redden’s stock in Ottawa dropped dramatically over the last two seasons. Some point to the death of Redden’s mother, Pat, as the beginning of his decline. Pat passed away after struggling with brain cancer in April of 2006. Others point to the seemingly wrong decision made by the Senators’ brass in choosing to re-sign Redden while allowing Zdeno Chara to walk away and sign in Boston before the 2006-07 season as the event that led to Redden’s downfall.

Over the last two seasons, the Senators, in very public fashion, tried to deal Wade Redden a number of times, but Redden refused to wave his no-trade clause, claiming that his desire was to win a Stanley Cup in Ottawa. Those instances probably didn’t do much for his on-ice performance, either.

Now, some will say that all Redden needs is a change of scenery, and that may very well be true. In fact, I actually feel the same way. It’s also been mentioned that Redden has a good relationship with assistant coach Perry Pearn, once an assistant with the Senators. Who knows? Maybe he can find his game. I sure hope he does. I’ve seen Redden play a lot of times, and he used to be a pretty good defenseman. He was solid in his own end and adept at moving the puck up the ice. He’s certainly a better option on the power play than Rozsival, too.

But, and this is a pretty big but, what if the change of scenery doesn’t do it? If Redden can’t return to form, what then? If this guy continues to play the way he has the last two seasons, then this will turn out to be a humongous blunder. Most of the times I saw this guy play the last year or two, he was skating like a zombie, avoiding physical play and just showing a total lack of emotion and desire.

This guy is going to be earning $6.5 million a year until he’s 37. He’s under contract through the 2013-14 season. That’s a long time to pay a guy when you’re not sure he’ll ever be the player he once was.

But if you’re going to go out on a limb and take that risk, why would you also overpay Rozsival? It doesn’t make sense. Rozsival is a decent player, and at the age of 28, he’s just entering his prime, but he’s a second pairing defenseman. He’s not worth $5 million a year. No way. He’s not a good option to run the power play, he’s not particularly great defensively and he’s prone to making horrendous gaffes with the puck. We’ve all seen Rozy cough up the biscuit at the most inopportune time on more than one occassion. Rozsival’s blunders will be giving Henrik Lundqvist nightmares for four more years.

Do you really need both of these guys, especially when you’re already paying Fedor Tyutin almost $3 million a season, too? Not in my eyes.

Plus, you’ve already got Chris Drury, Scott Gomez and Lundqvist earning about $7 million a year. Each. So, for the next four years, when Rozsival’s contract expires, this team will be paying about $33 million dollars to five players. In case you haven’t heard, this year’s salary cap is set at $56.7 million.

Meanwhile, with Sean Avery signing in Dallas (more on this later), and the questions surrounding Mats Sundin and Jaromir Jagr, what the Rangers will do with their forwards remains unclear. So far, they’ve signed Patrick Rissmiller and Aaron Voros, a couple of third or fourth liners from the San Jose Sharks and Minnesota Wild, respectively. Neither figures to light the lamp very much, though they may prove to be affordable replacements for Avery.

This all leads me to believe that the Rangers are planning to make a trade. This is merely speculation on my part, but I just don’t see them standing pat, whether they sign Sundin or bring back Jagr or whatever they decide to do with that whole thing.

I can see the Blueshirts packaging a guy like Tyutin and his salary, along with a Nigel Dawes or a Petr Prucha and perhaps a prospect or draft pick for an upgrade on forward. I thought they might pursue Michael Ryder, but he signed last night with the Boston Bruins.

All in all, a lot of questions remain for this team. But look at it this way, at least one thing is clear.

The Rangers re-signed Steve Valiquette to be their backup goaltender next year.

It’s a relief, I know.

First he mused about a “N/R’ ron the wall at the Prudential Center looked like a “NYR”

Then he spoke about the goalies he played with joking they used to drink more than the defenseman [his position].

Finally he said he was a fan of the Western Conference meaning he could watch the games and enjoy them instead of worrying about coaching.

I guess it’s good to be up 3-1, and not getting relieved of his duties, unlike his counterpart at the Garden. Mercifully Isiah Thomas was relieved of duties and will go onto his next job as a popcorn maker. [Patrons still have to pay for the food at Ranger games.]

But it will be worth it in the second round if the Blueshirts can pull of the game tonight. It won’t be easy and Renney did warn about taking the game for granted like what happened in Montreal last night.

Should be interesting and the puck drops in an hour.

Tonight the Rangers will look to continue to take advantage of mistakes, nut must forecheck the puck into the Devils zone more. New Jersey will try to take advantage of the young New York defense, while keeping with the gameplan that worked in Game 1, but couldn’t score against Henrik Lundqvist.

The Devils may play more desperate tonight because a 2-0 Ranger lead going into the Garden probably spells certain doom for the merry band from New Jersey.  

And a mea culpa: It was Brendan Shanahan who assisted on Nigel Dawes empty netter rather then Chris Drury. That’s what happens when you see it on the way to the elevator. Thanks to my friend in life and hockey, Patrick Hoffman, for pointing that out.

Also their one power play looked bad. If the Devils power play is sponsored by PSE&G then the Rangers is brought to you by the ‘77 blackout.

BTW Willie O’Ree, the first black player in the NHL dropped the first puck. A real nice man, you can read more about him here.

More later… 

“I hope not,” Renney said. “This is the Ottawa Senators. This is the NHL. This is what we get paid to do to put a product on the ice in front of our fans. They want to support us for the right reasons. We have to play.”

The fans will get to see the play of Sean Avery, who Renney said will provide spark to the team as he comes back from surgery back on Nov. 27. The wrist is fine and after the doctors checked it out this morning, he was given the good to go.

“What he brings us is what he always has,” Renney said. “He’s an intelligent player, who doesn’t scarifice the defensive side of the puck to do his things. I like his speed, naturally. He’s an abrasive guy.”

What Renney is hoping for is a trickle down effect, where the rest of the Rangers follow No. 16’s lead.

“To a point,” said the coach. “There are a number of times during the hockey season where you are looking to establish traction and gets parts of your game back. When he is not in the lineup, there’s a vital part of our game that is missing to a point. He helps everybody to understand this is [what we are missing.]”

Avery will be in. Petr Prucha is a scratch, along with Paul Mara. Marek Malik in, as will be Nigel Dawes on the third line.

Scott Gomez will now be centering Jaromir Jagr and Marty Straka with Chris Drury becoming Brendan Shanahan’s pivot. Brandon Dubinsky goes to line No. 3 with Ryan Callahan and Petr Prucha.

Now this makes sense. As long as the Rangers were winning, Renney wanted to leave well-enough alone, but now it’s time to get Jagr a true puck moving center like Gomez and Drury with Shanahan works well too.

Let’s see if it puts more goals in the net tonight.

Avery said to me after the last Islander game at the Garden, he hurt the wrist in the “Tucker Fight” as he was leaving. HE then had a puck hit it in Tampa.

After having a Cat Scan, it was determined that surgery was necessary to clean it out. So expect Ryan Callahan to slot right into the lineup as a replacement.

The Rangers will miss Avery though. They were 17-6-6 with him last season and 9-4-1 this year. Without the forward, the Rangers stuggled to a 4-5-1.

Now there’s no telling until after the surgery how long he will be out. He said to reporters in Greenburgh today a “week or two,” but he said that to me a week after his shoulder was seperated and he was out a month.

The Rangers have dominated this game, even though a Petr Prucha goal was waived off, they still looked good, keeping the puck in Washington’s end.

No penatlties either in the second for the Blueshirts, so that’s good too.

Only Olie the Goalie is keeping this from being a blowout.

More later…

Now Shanny was not too happy about it as it looked like it wasn’t a penalty. But it made it even strength.

Then Fedor Tyutin came back at 2:09 of the second to score on a one timer. So it’s 1-1 halfway through.

In the second though, the Rangers picked it up a bit as they forced the puck into the Islanders zone.