You gotta love Larry Brooks. Need a reason? Take the intro to his column today concerning the halt of contract talks between the Rangers and winger Sean Avery:

Sean Avery will be able to find another team that will meet his price this summer if the Rangers won’t. The fans in the Garden blue seats who have been notified they will have to pay five times their regular-season per-game price for the Stanley Cup Finals, don’t have the same kind of option on their take-it-or-leave-it from the Garden.

Sean Avery | No stranger to messing up a good thing.

That a boy, Larry - Stick it to them!

However, my affinity for Brooks aside, I might have to quarrel with his premise a bit if his report that Avery is seeking a three- or four-year deal for at least $3.75 million per is accurate.

At least? Since when is Sean Avery a four million dollar man? Wasn’t it only last summer that the abrasive agitator was denied his application for a $2.6 million, one-year contract by an arbitrator and was instead awarded his current deal at $1.9 million? Sorry, it just seems wacky to me.

Moreover, simply because Avery has been such a good fit on the Blueshirts doesn’t convince me that other teams won’t be gun shy about adding such a volatile personality to their locker rooms. After all, this is a player whose value in the league had depreciated a year ago to the point where the Rangers were able to acquire him for mid-level prospect Marc-Andre Cliche and spare part Jason Ward.

Brooks is fair to point out that two weeks ago GM Glen Sather rewarded defenseman Fedor Tyutin with a four-year deal worth $2.875 per - figures he has not approached in negotiations with Avery. However I would counter that Tyutin is a 24-year-old defenseman with his best hockey in front of him, playing for an organization that’s thin on the blue line at every level, and is deserving of a contract exceeding that of the soon-to-be 28-year-old Avery, whose impact on this team could very well fluctuate year-to-year.

Listen, don’t get me wrong. I love Sean Avery. But it seems to me that an offer of roughly 8 or 9 million over three years is extremely fair. If Avery’s looking for more than that, he can test the open market with my blessings.