It was time to move on, Alexander Frolov said, and the Rangers were all too happy to scoop up a player with all the tools to add some of the scoring punch they’ve so desperately needed in recent years.
Frolov and the Rangers put the finishing touches on a one-year, $3 million contract Tuesday, bringing a two-time 30-goal scorer to Broadway after a decade in the Kings organization. The signing ends a trying summer for Frolov – two months of free-agent uncertainty and a difficult decision over where he wanted to pave his career path.
The 28-year-old spurned a more lucrative offer to return home to Russia and play in the Kontinental Hockey League in favor of a short-term deal in New York, where he hopes to quiet his doubters and cash in for bigger bucks in next summer’s NHL market.
“It’s been a long three weeks for me,” Frolov said Tuesday night by telephone from Los Angeles. “I had a good offer from Russia, but I thought a lot and decided that New York is going to be the best fit for me. I think I can really help the Rangers.”
He may help them on a formidable top line alongside Marian Gaborik, although his question marks are sure to follow him across the continent, particularly following his exasperating 2009-10 that saw him fail to break the 20-goal mark for the first time since his rookie campaign in 2002-03. Frolov – who scored 168 goals in seven seasons and 536 games for L.A. – sat out only one game last season, that as a healthy scratch as Kings coach Terry Murray blasted his performance and questioned his drive.
Frolov’s agent, Sergei Isakov, was quoted in a Russian paper this week accusing the Kings of intentionally ruining Frolov’s season in order to dodge a big payday; L.A. approached Frolov about a new contract once its pursuit of Ilya Kovalchuk had fallen through, but by then Frolov had set his sights East.
“It’s pretty frustrating,” Frolov said of the way he left L.A. “There are going to be some not-good years in your career. There were a couple of issues about why it happened – when you’re playing a different role, playing the second line, it’s tough to score 35 goals in a season (his career high in 2006-07). You don’t play 5-on-3, you’re not playing power play, or the first power play, it becomes tough. But that is all in the past.
“I know what I can do. People around the league, the people in New York, they know what I can do.”
It’s what made the risk/reward of a one-year pact in New York prove ideal for both sides, although it tightens the squeeze on Glen Sather‘s books. The Rangers sit within $1 million of the $59.4 million ceiling and still have restricted free agent Marc Staal to sign – all of which further promotes the option of burying Wade Redden‘s $6.5 million cap hit in Hartford. Payrolls must comply with the cap by opening night in October.
