That the Rangers were a mere shootout goal from quashing the Flyers postseason chances is an even more bitter pill to swallow now that Philly has reached the Stanley Cup Finals.  But despite the Philly hatred that runs through Rangers fans’ veins, perhaps we should take the success of the Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks as a sign of hope for the future.  Neither team is immune to the albatross contracts for which the Rangers are so frequently lambasted.  We all know the Rangers are bound to Chris Drury, Wade Redden, Michal Roszival, Marian Gaborik, and Henrik Lundqvist.  But both Finals teams have shown that having large contracts is not necessarily the end of the world.

The Blackhawks boast one of the league’s best collections of young talent, but they have their share of high paid players.  They’ve marched to the Finals despite missing one of their top paid players, defenseman Brian Campbell, who makes over $7 million a season.  The ‘Hawks also pay Marian Hossa, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Cristobal Huet over $5 million a year.  Despite their strong chance at a Stanley Cup this season, the Blackhawks may be in worse shape financially than the Rangers.  They were already forced to trade promising young defenseman Cam Barker this season to ease their cap situation, and they may be forced to make similar moves this summer.  

On the flip side, the Flyers were cellar dwellers for a brief period not long ago but successful drafting and player development helped them recover from a down period faster than anyone could have imagined.  They too have huge contracts on the books, including Danny Briere, Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne, Mike Richards, Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timonen, and Chris Pronger who all make north of $4 million.  But the Flyers have been able to incorporate young and mostly still cheap talent in the form of Richards, Carter, Claude Giroux, Ryan Parent, Braydon Coburn, and James Van Riemsdyk despite their financial constrictions.

So as upsetting as this Rangers season was, perhaps we should look to the two teams that are about to compete for Lord Stanley’s Cup for hope.  Though the Rangers have an extremely frustrating history when it comes to spending on players, the Flyers and Blackhawks have shown that spending sprees are not impossible to overcome.  The Rangers do have several blue-chip prospects, and whether they succeed or not is no certainty.  But the two teams that are about to battle for the Stanley Cup have shown that an infusion of young talent can conquer financial woes.  Obviously the Rangers are in a tight spot, but believe it or not, Drury and Roszival will soon be off the books.  And when they are, Chris Kreider, Derek Stepan, Evgeny Grachev, Ethan Werek, and others may be ready to rescue the Rangers sooner than any of us imagined.  After all, Stepan already captained the United States to a World Junior Championship title.  Is it so hard to imagine him in a “History Will Be Made” commercial?