Who cares about what he did under Torts?
I do. I care about it quite a bit, actually, primarily because what he did under Torts makes up the vast majority of his playing career. And unlike the vast majority of people here, I think evaluating a player based on one half season with numerous factors affecting his play is extremely foolish.
And no offense, but I'm sure Callahan hasn't sold 6.3 million worth of jerseys. Look, we get it, you love the guy, and so do many of us, but i'm not going to support a bad move by this franchise because of how hard someone played for us and how good a Ranger he HAS been.
I'm not asking you to. I don't really get the point of this comment. Do you want me to stop posting my opinion and just read you (all of you) post the same redundant denigration of Callahan and calls for him to be traded/not re-signed?
I get it, too. Generally, when the vast majority of this board agrees on something regarding a major roster move, they turn out to be dead wrong. As many people here that want Callahan gone wanted the Rangers to sign Scott Gomez and Wade Redden. As many people here that want Callahan gone wanted the Rangers to do X number of things that would have been disasters if they had went down. So I'm not too worried about the fact that most people here disagree with me.
It's about what he'll do in the future and this year has shown he's already trending downward and is not as vital a part of this team as under Torts.
Pretty difficult to establish a trend based on one half season, since so many players struggle for even an entire season and regain their previous level of play. Trends require several examples to become trends. One of anything is not a trend.
It's about the name on the front, not the back.
Apparently it isn't, because AFAIC, over the last few years, Ryan Callahan has displayed far more commitment and respect toward the name on the front of the jersey than anyone else associated with the team (perhaps with the exception of Henrik Lundqvist, who certainly didn't take much of a hometown discount, nor should he have). AFAIC, the Rangers have been giving me a big "**** you" for as long as I can remember, routinely putting out subpar products and making it less and less affordable for me to remain a diehard fan. The Rangers have been mailing it in as far as running the franchise. The Rangers have refused to sacrifice anything in order to build a real winner.
Ryan Callahan has shown that he is willing to sacrifice far more for the good of the team than the team itself. Ryan Callahan was one of the things that made watching Ranger games enjoyable for a number of years when the team, with very few exceptions, was a steaming pile of boring *******. And Ryan Callahan is still enjoyable to watch, even when he isn't scoring as much as he has in the past, because of how many other things he still does right, even during an unarguably poor season for him so far.
