Look, Marge! A couple of bucks!*

So Chris Drury comes homeward, and the Rangers remake their middle for $14 million a year (how do you think The Hockey Rodent feels?).... I tell ya, when even Michel Ouellet is getting a mill and a quarter a year, doesn't getting Jason Blake at $4M per for five years look downright affordable?

The forced dismantling on the Island now includes Ryan Smyth to Colorado. The gutsy move got them a playoff round, but that's it. Poti and Kozlov went to Washington, and Zednik went to Florida.

And now that the Rangers have a new Future Captain (tm), Jed Ortmeyer is off to Nashville.

Columbus signed Sheldon Brookbank, the AHL's top defenseman this past year; Pittsburgh re-signed Dany Sabourin, the top AHL goalie of two seasons ago, to a two-year deal after losing him on waivers early in the past season.

BTW (have I ranted on this before?), in today's salary-capped world, shouldn't team policies be changed to disclose contract terms? Not that they don't work their ways out, but they're kind of pertinent.

*-3F16 (how could I forget that one?).