Rangers sign Shanahan

[Quadzilla99]

Rangers Sign Shanahan to Add Punch to Offense
E-MailPrint Reprints Save

By JASON DIAMOS
Published: July 10, 2006
Few teams relied on one player more than the Rangers did with Jaromir Jagr last season. So yesterday, the Rangers signed the veteran forward Brendan Shanahan to help shoulder the burden.

The 37-year-old Shanahan, a veteran of 18 N.H.L. seasons, agreed to a one-year, $4 million deal with the Rangers after scoring 40 goals for Detroit last season.

With Shanahan, who has 598 career goals, and Jagr, who has 591, the Rangers have the two leading career goal scorers among active players.

"It really came down to an instinct I had," said Shanahan, who won three Stanley Cup les with the Red Wings. "I had a great 10 years in Detroit, but I guess I just felt I was identified with the past there more than the future."

Though the Rangers embarked on a youth movement before last season, Glen Sather, the Rangers' president and general manager, said that Shanahan's age was not an issue in his signing.

"We were looking for somebody who could help with a leadership role, someone who could help on the power play, someone who could move people around in front of the net, and someone with a great shot," Sather said. "And Brendan certainly has all of those."

Sather said he had been under the impression that Shanahan would stay with Detroit. But Shanahan said he expressed an interest in the Rangers, who qualified for the playoffs last season for the first time since the 1996-97 season.

"I saw them as a team that made tremendous strides last year," he said.

As for the one-year contract, Shanahan said he liked the way his one-year contract worked out with Detroit last season.

He scored 81 points, third most on the Red Wings.

"The one-year deals don't scare me," he said. "I liked the pressure. It just was a good fit."

[Rip-Hamilton32]

thats not gonna get them past the first round.