Semenov pleased it worked out

Alexei Semenov signed a one-year deal worth $600,000, deciding he would take what the Rangers considered their best offer rather than try to make more elsewhere.

"We were talking for a couple of days, just talking about what was better for us, what was better for them," Semenov said by phone tonight. "It's a good thing that we agreed on the contract. We had a couple of more opportunities to go to but I felt like this is one of the best teams out there. I feel that Glen Sather and the head coach (John Tortorella) and the rest of management are just perfect."

The 6-foot-6, 245-pound Semenov comes as advertised - a big body who has not displayed much offensive flair in his career and is not the fastest-skating defensemen. Those last two non-attributes might make it seem like he's a bad fit for Tortorella's high-octane brand of hockey but there's also value in a veteran who can spell rookies Matt Gilroy and Michael Del Zotto can keep veterans Marc Staal, Dan Girardi, Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival motivated with the threat that there's a veteran who could come off the bench to supplant them for a game or stretch of games.
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Semenov didn't sound 100 percent thrilled with his salary number but, as stated above, it wasn't a deal breaker for him.

"You always want to get better numbers out there," Semenov said. "But their cap budget is really high. They offered me one thing and then they got up a little bit and Glen said, 'That's all we could do.'"

Meanwhile, Semenov said neither Sather nor Tortorella have discussed a specific role for him, i.e. being a seventh defenseman.

"I kind of feel like I know what kind of role I can play out there," Semenov said. "They didn't tell me exactly what kind of role but it's be good defensively, be physical and use my shot, that's the main thing. Power play? Why not?"

Comments

[graves9]

he's awful. Man the defense is gonna be scary this year.

[Rogan]

I suppose it's one of those, it has to get worse before it gets better kind of things. But if our offense doesn't score, with this defense and Torts system, it could get ugly fast.