Corey Locke was highly motivated to score a bunch in the AHL this year. So motivated in fact, that he finished third in scoring in the league with 31 goals and 54 assists for 85 points. Locke is at the end of an entry-level contract @ $500K/year (AHL salary $275K/year). The 85 point season is Locke’s way of saying he’d like to become a millionaire. Wait a minute, the Rangers need scoring...nah, it’s too simple, Slats (Rangers general manager Glen Sather) will never go for it. Locke is a slightly built player at 5’ 9” and 189 pounds. The Toronto native is also a pacy skater, with deadly accuracy on shots and passes.
Prediction: Rangers retain Locke
The Rangers would be foolish to overlook scoring when it’s right under their noses. If you look at Locke’s resumé he scored a silly amount of points in junior (132 goals, and 180 assists for 312 points in 186 matches with the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s. That’s a rate of 1.7 ppg.), and has produced consistently (466 matches, 141 goals, 252 assists for 393 points with Hamilton, Houston, and Hartford - an average of 0.84 points a game.) as a professional in 6 AHL seasons. I think it’s fair to label this guy a veteran, at the age of 26. Oddly, he has only played in 4 NHL matches, one with Montreal, and 3 last season with the Rangers. Why has no one given him the better part of an NHL season to prove himself at the top level? Do the front offices in Montreal and New York know something we don’t about Locke? His record indicates that all this guy does is score. However, now that he’s 26, it’s going to take some grown up professional player dollars to sign him. You get the feeling that if the Rangers don’t want to make him a millionaire, another club surely will be happy to oblige him.
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