Rangers agree with Girardi, acquire Eminger

The Rangers added two defensemen Friday - one familiar face and one new face.

The bigger deal was the agreement with restricted free agent Dan Girardi on a four-year, $13.3-million contract. That allowed the club to avoid arbitration with the 26-year-old, who has matured into a reliable second-pair defenseman and one of the few righthanded shots around.

The smaller deal was the acquisition of well-traveled Steve Eminger from the Ducks for popular but little-used winger Aaron Voros and minor-league forward Ryan Hillier.

Eminger, 26, is on his sixth team after being selected 12th overall by the Capitals in the 2002 draft. He's never played more than 71 games in a season, and that was split among three teams in 2008-09 - the Flyers, Lightning and Panthers.

But Eminger gives the Rangers valuable depth, something that was missing when Wade Redden slumped badly at times last season and North Bellmore's Matt Gilroy wore down.

"He's going to push guys, and it's important to have that push," said Rangers associate coach Mike Sullivan, who also coached Eminger with Tampa Bay. "That's going to force a competitive situation on our blue line that will be good for all of us."

Eminger's steady presence also will be good for the core of young defensemen, which next season could include Gilroy, Michael Del Zotto, 20, and Ryan McDonagh, 21. Add Girardi and the still-unsigned Marc Staal, and the Rangers could roll out an entire defensive corps that is 26 and under, along with Redden and Michal Rozsival.

Voros was popular in the locker room and liked by his coaches, but he still was a healthy scratch for 69 of the 164 games in his two seasons. Glen Sather signed him to a three-year, $3-million deal in the summer of 2008, but Voros' skills weren't enough to match his personality. Eminger is in the final year of a two-year deal with a $1.125-million cap charge.

Girardi stumbled a bit early last season but was one of coach John Tortorella's most counted-upon players as a penalty-killer and shutdown right-side defenseman. The four-year deal with a $3.325-million average annual value carries Girardi through his potential entry into unrestricted free agency and leaves roughly $4.5 million of salary-cap space to sign Staal.

"Danny's a real valuable guy for us," Sullivan said. "He does a lot of things that are hard to quantify on a scoresheet, but he kills penalties and does the little things. He's part of that young core of guys that are exciting to see grow here."

There were times last season when Tortorella desperately wanted to sit Redden, but no NHL-ready backups were available to fill his spot. The Rangers' clear offseason goal was to make sure that didn't happen again, and now there will be seven, possibly eight, NHL-ready defensemen in training camp.

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