Jarret Stoll Gets Second Chance with New York Rangers

By Diana Driscoll |

The New York Rangers are a very charitable organization. They give back to the community through their Garden of Dreams foundation and they are in the business of giving NHL players who have been arrested or linked to drug-related incidents a second chance.

In recent years, the Rangers employed Ryan Malone after he was arrested for cocaine possession. Now, the Rangers have signed former Los Angeles Kings center Jarret Stoll to a one-year deal, worth about $800,000.

My emotions are a bit torn on this deal. Just looking at the hockey aspect, I believe that Stoll can help the Rangers in the center position, which is always a plus. He’s a big-bodied player who is great in the faceoff circle. Stoll’s faceoff win percentage has never been lower than 51 percent in his career and his lifetime faceoff percentage is 55.4 percent. You have to like those numbers.

Stoll can also be a great addition to the penalty kill unit and brings veteran experience to a pretty young team (although do you really want him influencing hockey’s future?). He’s been to the big dance three times and has won two Stanley Cups in the last four years.

His numbers weren’t fantastic last season. Stoll only registered 17 points (6 goals and 11 assists) in 73 games. OK, so those numbers are downright awful, but you also have to take into consideration that he did draw more defense-oriented tasks while on the Kings. Stoll had the second highest average of ice time among forwards on the PK. So, he is a defensively minded forward. That’s not a bad quality (although the Rangers definitely need more players who can score).

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In all honesty, the deal is not that risky for the Rangers. It’s only one year and it’s worth less than $1 million. Essentially, if Stoll does anything that would turn into a PR nightmare for the Blueshirts or is just not performing at all, the team can always send him down to the minors—just like they did Malone.

What I don’t like is Stoll’s extracurricular activities this summer. Yes, I do believe that people make mistakes and they should be given a second chance. But I also get very angry when talented people waste their opportunities by doing something idiotic, like possessing illegal drugs. When other teams pick these players up, it seems to me that they are saying their former transgressions don’t matter. I’m not OK with that.

In the last season and this summer, we have seen Stoll get arrested in Las Vegas, as well as a player suspended by the League for domestic violence, another player detained at the Canadian border for drugs, another player under investigation for sexual assault, and another player crashing into a Tim Horton’s while under the influence and then leaving the scene of the accident. What is going on?

This is not the type of publicity the League needs. Right now, Gary Bettman should be thanking his lucky stars that the NHL is not as big as the NFL (at least in America) because if it were, the media would be going nuts over these arrests and investigations and they would all be anticipating the commissioner’s next move to rectify the situation.

Personally, when I root for a player, it is mostly based on how I perceive their personality. Of course, I love watching people who are extremely talented, but I only respect the ones that put the game and their teammates first. To me, Stoll has failed to do that this season.

So, I don’t respect him. But that doesn’t mean I can’t or won’t because maybe, just maybe, the events that transpired in April will light a fire under him and keep him on the straight and narrow. He can prove, with the Rangers, that the arrest was just a mistake—one lapse in judgment—and all of that is behind him. I’m sure it’s what the Rangers organization is hoping for anyway.

Next: Jake Allen and Blues Goaltending Situation

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