Surprising? Not exactly. After all, it was over a year ago that we wrote in this space that Alex Rodriguez and wife Cynthia seemed on a collision course with splitsville in the wake of A-Rod’s well-publicized philandering. Who woulda thunk that Madonna, of all people, would be the straw that broke the camel’s back. But wait, there’s more. This is where Lenny Kravitz comes into the mix.
Kravitz is letting Cyn-Rod stay at his Paris home, though in a statement released by the formerly-popular rocker, there is nothing to the rumor of an affair between the pair, and Lenny is simply lending a helping hand to a friend in need. You can’t make this stuff up.
As a brief aside, I learned today that Madonna and A-Rod share a mutual agent. Why is that not remotely surprising?
Via the Daily News:
Kravitz said references to him as an adulterer …
According to TSN, the New York Rangers have traded defensemen Fedor Tyutin and Christian Backman to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for Nikolai Zherdev and Dan Fritsche.
Now that’s what I’m talking about.
Zherdev is a 23-year-old Russian right wing, drafted by Columbus in 2003 with the 4th overall pick. Â After a breakout ‘05-’06 season in which the sniper recorded 27 goals and 27 assists, Zherdev was a bit of enigma to the Jackets in ‘06-’07 when he scored just 10 goals and finished with 32 points. Â The kid’s slump was short-lived, however, as he bounced back last season, recording 26 goals and 35 assists. Â
Without question, Zherdev is the first-line scoring wing that the team so desperately sought to partner with center Scott Gomez.  Does this mean the end of the Jaromir Jagr Era on Broadway?  It sure looks that way, though the team technically still has the cap space to squeeze Jagr in - that is, if his feelings aren’t too badly hurt.
It certainly …
Marian Hossa is a Detroit Red Wing and I’m confused. According to TSN, Hossa agreed to one-year, $7.4 million contract today to join the defending Cup champs - the same Cup champs who ironically downed Hossa’s own Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals. The figure is evidently the most that the Wings organization is willing to pay a player, as they are committed to keeping Nicklas Lindstrom as the highest paid player on their roster. I guess Jaromir was on to something with that whole money and respect thing…
This is a baffling development to me. For starters, it’s unusual to see a team drop this amount of coin on a superstar player on the heels of bringing home the Stanley Cup. Moreover, I had heard nary a whisper of Detroit’s involvement in these negotiations before this news broke. Here’s what we did know: Pittsburgh was interested in retaining Hossa and had offered the winger a highly competitive …
Update:Â TSN says four years, $15.5 million.
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Sean Avery is strapping on his spurs and heading to Dallas, where the Stars have agreed to lavish the professional pest with a four-year, $16 million deal.  While it seems the Rangers were interested in bring Avery back, GM Glen Sather was unwilling to come anywhere near that exorbitant figure.  As I’ve stated in the past, Avery is a guy who was denied his petition for a $2.6 million annual salary in arbitration last offseason and was instead awarded a one-year, $1.9 million pact.  The notion that the diminutive winger is worth anywhere near $4 million annually is absurd, regardless of the Rangers’ win-loss record with and without him. Speaking of which, that win-loss record might not be so stark were Avery in the lineup every day.  Avery missed a whopping 25 games last season due to injury.
We’ll miss you around here, Sean. Â Hell, I made a t-shirt design in your honor. Â But as we noted here yesterday, …
Well, it’s been weird. Â That’s the best way to describe this first day of free agency in the NHL. Â In New Jersey, where GMÂ Lou Lamoriello began the day by retaining free agents Bryce Salvador and Jay Pandolfo, the next order of business was to bring back a pair of heroes from the team’s late-90s glory days.
Shortly after announcing that the team had signed former-Dev Brian Rolston to a 4-year, $20 million deal, the Devils put the final touches on a one-year, $2.5 million agreement with center Bobby Holik. Â Not exactly five-years and $45 million, but still good work if you can get it.
“Bobby is still one of the top size-strength forwards and will add size and strength to our center ice,” said Lamoriello.
I don’t recall “size and strength” being a glaring weakness during their five game series loss to the Rangers this past postseason, but evidently Lou felt it was, and who am I to question Lou?
The signing of Rolston is much …
According to TSN, the Rangers have signed 31-year-old Wade Redden to a six-year deal worth $6.5 million per. Â The deal comes just hours after the team announced it had re-signed Michal Rozsival to a four-year, $20 million contract.
Meanwhile, it was only moments ago that I got through telling you good people that Rozsival’s deal reduced the chances of the team adding another top-tier defenseman. Â I guess next time I should wait for these things to play out…
Redden should help fill a huge void on the blueline, where the Rangers have lacked a true point man for the powerplay since the NHL emerged from its lockout. Of course, the question becomes whether or not Redden can fill that void to the tune of $39 million. The answer? Â Probably not.
Redden’s 38 points last season tied him for 21st among NHL defenseman with Atlanta’s Tobias Enstrom and - guess who - the Rangers’ Michal Rozsival. Â Those aren’t numbers that cry out ‘SIX YEARS’ or ‘39 MILLION’ to …
The Hudson River rivals agreed to a pair of four-year, $20 million deals today with defenseman Michal Rozsival returning to the Rangers and Brian Rolston returning to the team with which he began his career.
In the duel of duplicate deals, the Devils come out on top here, adding a player who has scored 30+ goals in each of the last three seasons to their anemic offensive, not to mention a player who they already know will thrive in their system.
Meanwhile, Michal Rozsival hits pay dirt with the Blueshirts.  Here’s what I had to say on the prospect of Rozsival returning back in early May:
One has to imagine that Rozsival will be seeking a sizable raise over the $2.3 M he earned this past season, especially given the fact that [Christian] Backman is pulling in $3.4 next year. Putting aside my personal feelings on Rozsie, the defenseman played first-pair minutes all season-long and appeared in at least 80 games for the Blueshirts for the third consecutive year. He’s scored …
On the heels of signing rough and tumble winger Aaron Voros, the Blueshirts have agreed to terms with San Jose’s Patrick Rissmiller, another physical forward. Â Neither player is going to make New York fans forget Sean Avery any time soon, but at least the diehards in the blue seats need not fear the team going soft in Avery’s absence.
The Rangers have also reportedly agreed to a deal with Andreas Jamtin of the Swedish Elite League, a diminutive but aggressive player described as “a pest on the ice.”  Hmmm, why does that sound familiar?
The writing’s on the wall, folks. Â I just hope Avery didn’t overplay his hand here, for both sides’ sake.
The Rangers dove head first into free agency this afternoon, signing Aaron Voros from the Minnesota Wild. The 26-year-old forward scored seven goals and seven assists in 55 games as a rookie last season. Alright, so maybe it’s not so much a “dive” as an exploratory toe in the water, but hey, it’s something to talk about on what’s been a surprisingly quiet day. Voros adds size and depth to the forward corps, but perhaps little else. I wonder what this means, if anything, for fringe players like Ryan Hollweg, Colton Orr, and Petr Prucha.
Over the last several days the word through the grapevine seemed to suggest that Sean Avery is most likely ticketed out of town, possibly to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have cut ties with agitator Darcy Tucker. Earlier this afternoon, the Journal News’ Sam Weinman reported that there were “rumblings” that Avery’s exit was imminent, but nothing official has been announced as of yet.
If true, this would be a …
When the sports section and the gossip pages intersect, you can bet that Alex Rodriguez is involved.
According to the new issue of Us Weekly, baseball’s most infamous Material Boy might be embroiled in a love triangle with none other than Madonna, whose seven-year marriage to director Guy Ritchie is reportedly on the rocks. Writes Us:
Rodriguez, 32, has made numerous solo nighttime visits to Madonna, 49, at her spacious home and would sneak out “as late as midnight.” Says the source, “All the doormen are talking.”
Gotta say, she certainly seems like A-Rod’s type; the slugger allegedly as an affinity for “she-male, muscular” women, and post-1998 Madonna definitely falls under that category. She certainly has the guns for it…not to mention the man-hands.
As of 12 o’clock noon, the NHL free agency period officially began. Rangers’ unrestricted free agents include: Sean Avery, Mitch Fritz, Andrew Hutchinson, Jaromir Jagr, Darius Kasparaitis, Marek Malik, Paul Mara, Michal Rozsival, Brendan Shanahan, Martin Straka, Jason Strudwick, Steve Valiquette.
Despite the free agent splash that GM Glen Sather made last season when he signed both Scott Gomez and Chris Drury in one fell swoop, this year’s offseason is arguably much more interesting. There seem to be two schools of thought concerning the Rangers:
1) That last year’s team was only a player or two removed from being a legit Cup contender and that management should make another run at it with a roster built around Jaromir Jagr. Under this scenario, the Rangers would pursue free agent Mats Sundin to partner with Jagr while Drury would move to Gomez’s left wing on the second line.
2) That Jagr can no longer dominate games over an 82-game schedule and that his lack of a two-way game, not to mention …
Stay classy, New York City. Honestly, I couldn’t believe my ears when the Garden faithful loudly booed Danilo Gallinari whenever his face was flashed across ESPN’s cameras. Hey, I still have nightmares of Frederic Weis just like the rest of you, so I understand where you’re coming from. But this draft got a whole lot less interesting for the Knicks as soon as they lost out on the opportunity to move up to a top-3 selection. Are Knicks fans so convinced that Gallinari is a bum compared to the likes of guys like Kevin Love, Eric Gordon, Russell Westbrook, etc.? Better question: Are Knick fans that ignorant?
According to ESPN’s Chad Ford, despite the fact that new Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni played ball with Gallinari’s father in Italy, D’Antoni wasn’t initially a fan of the younger Gallinari’s game until Gallinari’s …
