Today's Lesson: Rumors

Yes, they may be called rumors, meaning holding various levels of truth, but sometimes, you need to look beyond what is being reported.

Take, for example, the current speculation surrounding the New York Rangers. Rumors through various sources have made it quite apparent that the Rangers are in on the Dany Heatley sweepstakes. Sounds like a simple, harmless thought, right? The Rangers have an estimated $17+ million in cap space that they don’t know what to do with.

Simple, until one actually looks at the Rangers current roster.

Of the 23 available positions allowed on an NHL roster, the Rangers currently have a mere 10 filled. Of those 10 positions, only 4 are forwards. Assuming for a minute, and quite on the naive side, that the Rangers acquire Heatley for no one on the active roster, they would take a $7 million cap hit and be left with $10 million to find 12 players.

Even with being granted a gift from the hockey gods with the retirement of Markus Naslund and his $3+ million cap hit, the Rangers are in an interesting financial situation. Their AHL team does have some players who, if given the chance, could make an impact on the NHL roster, but you cannot go into a new season with the majority of your team having little or no experience at the game’s highest level.

The list of restricted free agents provides glimmers of hope, but they’re only hope if Glen Sather can convince the players to take minimal raises. Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan are both in for decent raises of at least double their previous salaries.

Adding all those numbers back into the mix, presuming the Rangers decide to keep all RFAs, the Heatley salary seems next to impossible to fit under the cap without moving multiple regulars, if not a marquee name in Gomez or Drury, both of which carry tags quite similar to Heatley’s.

One of the main motivations for Ottawa to move the left winger is not only to meet his request to being traded, but also to free up some cap space, which currently sits at $51 million. If they trade Heatley, they would have $12 million to spend on three players, again, presuming they do not take anyone off the Rangers current NHL roster, which would make for an interesting free agency period come Wednesday at 12:01 AM for the Sens.

Ottawa is two players from having 23 on the roster, so having some extra cash could allow them to pick up middle-to-upper echelon players, something desperately needed for a team that finished 12 points out of a playoff spot.

What’s the moral of the story, you ask? When looking at these rumors, look past the number of quotes from guys who know someone on the inside who once picked up a tissue discarded by a player, and do some research on your own. You’ll see that while they sound great in writing, the facts sometimes just don’t add up, nor make much sense.