Losing Gaborik would be a HUGE blow to this team. I don't see how anyone can honestly disagree with that. We can argue over whether or not it is a "dismantling" but losing him for a salary dump would undoubtedly be a tremendous problem going forward. For a few years now, NYR has been the team that's got solid D and solid goaltending but falls just short in the offense department. Gaborik has, except for some spells, been the backbone of that "almost good enough" offense. His goal scoring numbers here have been nothing short of incredible. To lose him at this point, effectively replacing him with Nash, a guy who might be able to do what Gaborik has been doing for a few years now, more or less sets this team back the entire Nash trade. Good D, great goaltending, just short on offense.
Also, I think that people need to realize that Sather is the one making the roster decisions. What we'd do isn't terribly important - what Sather would/will do is really what matters. I don't think he'd trade any of the big name guys who sell tickets and win games unless he absolutely had to. He loves big names. He loves players that have that game breaking potential. As much as I might not agree with it, I'm very, very confident that one of Girardi, Staal or McD will be sacrificed to keep Gaborik if it comes down to that. Most likely Girardi or Staal. Girardi has less star power but he's shown that he and McD make a solid NHL first pair. You can't keep 3 first pairing guys and have a first line like Nash- Richards - Gaborik all at once in this league, especially with the cap going down. I don't see Sather losing any of those offensive guys unless he has to. I think he'll move one of those d-men and try to fleece some other GM into taking guys like Asham and Rupp, replacing them with cheaper utility guys.
