When free agency opened on July 1, the Rangers had a clear need for a true number one center. Conventional wisdom was that the Rangers would push hard for Chris Drury to fill that spot, with Scott Gomez as a fallback option. With Drury signed on to center the team’s first line, they would most certainly look to re-sign Michael Nylander to pivot the 2nd line. Matt Cullen and Blair Betts would complete the team’s depth chart down the middle.

The Rangers’ approach that day was anything but conventional. Shocking the hockey world, the Broadway Blueshirts bagged both Drury and Gomez. The spending spree was the first post-lockout free agency splash made by a team that had become known for registering more wins in July than they did in October through April.

The reaction throughout much of the hockey world, including a majority of Ranger fans was that, after making the playoffs two straight seasons, the team was returning to the Same Old Ranger$. The signings were a reminder of past big name free agent acquisitions that ultimately led to seven straight seasons of missing the playoffs.

Of the two moves, the Gomez signing seemed to draw the most criticism. Seven years and $50 million for Gomez seemed outrageous for a team that had also invested five years and $35 million in Drury. Adding to the anxiety of Ranger fans was the fact that Gomez had come from the Devils. And, after the ill-fated signing of Bobby Holik, most Ranger fans were hesitant to throw big money at another Devil. The prevailing feeling was that the Rangers would have been better off just signing Drury and saving some cap space by bringing back Nylander, who had successfully meshed with Captain Jaromir Jagr.

The negative feeling toward the Gomez contract intensified when the Rangers decided to deal Matt Cullen Back to Carolina, in a move designed to clear cap space. While the 34-year old Nylander signed a 4-year $20 million deal in Washington. Was Gomez really worth losing Nylander and Cullen? While the Rangers were struggling to score goals in the early part of the season, and Head Coach Tom Renney seemed at a loss for finding the right line combinations, it certainly didn’t look that way.

But now, 70 games into the season, the answer is a resounding YES. The Rangers have brushed off their early struggles and have surged to a 15-3-3 record since January 20, and have gone 13 straight games in which they’ve earned at least a point, the team’s best stretch of hockey since 1993-94. And, they certainly seemed poised to make a run deep into May and possibly June.

This could not have happened without the Gomez signing. He leads the team in scoring and was the team’s lone representative at the All-Star Game. While the man he essentially replaced, Michael Nylander, is out for the season for the Capitals with a torn rotator cuff.

But, the value of the Gomez signing goes beyond the fact that he is better than Nylander at this point, and that ,when Gomez’s contract expires, he will be younger than Nylander is right now. It also must be understood that, without signing Scott Gomez, instead of re-signing Nylander, the Rangers never would have needed to clear cap space by trading Matt Cullen. And, while Cullen is a good player, his presence on the roster would have prevented Brandon Dubinsky from making the team out of camp, and developing into a Calder Trophy candidate.

The emergence of the 21-year old Dubinsky has not only energized Jagr, it has allowed Renney to settle on line combinations that give the team three lines that can strike at any time. Since moving between Jagr and Sean Avery, Dubinsky has centered the Rangers’ most consistently dominant line, while the Drury and Gomez lines have given the team the kind of scoring depth it has not possessed in more than a decade.

When judging the Gomez signing, understand that, in order to put it in proper perspective, you must compare the value of Gomez and Dubinsky versus Nylander and Cullen. Both Nylander and Cullen are good players and good people, but the Rangers would be on the outside of the playoff picture looking in, with them on the roster in place of Gomez and Dubinsky.

Not only do the Rangers have two better players for essentially the same money, but Gomez is seven years younger than Nylander and Dubinsky is 10 years younger than Cullen. Imagine that. The Rangers opting to go for younger, better players.

While the Gomez signing was originally dismissed as the return of the Same Old Rangers, it has turned out not to be that at all. In fact, it is really the exact opposite.