The following is a transcript of our first Authors' Roundtable, recorded May 30, 2009:

Adam Raider: Hello and welcome. I'm joined by my "100 RANGER GREATS" co-authors, Russ Cohen and John Halligan. We're going to talk a little about the Rangers' offseason plans and discuss some other hot NHL topics. Russ, let's start with you. What would you like to see the Rangers do to improve for the 2009-10 season?

Russ Cohen: The first thing they need to do is get a linemate for Scott Gomez. It's even more critical than finding someone to play with Chris Drury, because Drury is a guy you can match up with a lot of people. Clearly, you can't do that with Gomez. He needs linemates who can skate with him. The Rangers need someone fast. I don't know if Brian Gionta is that guy, but he'll be out there and he's probably someone they should look at.

John Halligan: I think the Rangers' needs are broad and they'll need to be addressed across the board. They need to get the best players available at every position, with the exception of goaltender, which I think will be set for quite a number of years. Offensively and defensively, they've got to shake things up to the tune of five or six players on the 20-man roster.

AR: The thing that scares me the most about the Rangers is that even with a new coach, and a few new faces, the power play continued to be inept. Their power play was the worst I've ever seen. They don't have a good power play quarterback and they don't have anyone with the willingness to crash the net and look for garbage goals with any consistency.

JH: There's no question about that. It was a problem that was identified very early on but there was no improvement, even with the change of coaches. It underlines the fact that they need to retool the entire power play and get somebody who'll go to the net.

AR: When camp opens, fixing the power play has to be John Tortorella's main objective, but they have to add some guys who can help in that area. Russ, you and I were talking about Mike Knuble the other day. He's someone who'd crash the net.

RC: Definitely, and I think the Rangers could get Knuble. He might even be cheaper than a Brian Gionta or a Mike Cammalleri because of his age (37 in July). He'll be looking for a two or three-year deal. He's been a leader in the locker room for the Flyers for a couple of years. He scores a lot of his points on the power play -- mainly goals. Having already played for the Rangers, he's also aware of how to deal with New York. He's a mature guy who gives you everything he's got on every shift and he would be a good addition. But he's the only player out there in his late 30s that I would want to add.

JH: I remember the days of Mark Messier and, long ago, Steve Vickers and Phil Esposito, standing in front of the net on the power play. That just didn't exist this past season. Mike Knuble would be a heck of an addition and would change the whole dynamic of the power play.

RC: Knuble plays hurt. He'll get banged up during the season -- he always does. But he'll play the bulk of the games and even when he's not producing, he's helping others by going to the net. But thinking pie-in-the-sky, do you think the Rangers could talk Scott Niedermayer into coming to New York to quarterback the power play?

JH: I'm a Niedermayer fan, but he's been around a long time and the Rangers need to keep an eye out for youth while also trying to fix their specific problems. You don't want to build a hockey team around 35-year-olds. You can have one or two older guys but, beyond that, I think you're really rolling the dice.

AR: Niedermayer is still an effective player but the Rangers have enough offensive defensemen coming up through the system where they don't need to invest in someone like that. Besides, from what I hear, he might have interest in closing out his career in Vancouver because he's from British Columbia. I don't think you could get him to New York, even if you wanted to.

JH: The pressure is on the Rangers this year because every other team in their division, with the exception of the Islanders, is a good, solid hockey team. They face the possibility of looking up for the entire season at Philadelphia, Washington, Pittsburgh, and New Jersey.

RC: Among other free agents, Jordan Leopold is someone I would look at. Getting someone to go to the net is part of the equation for improving the power play, but the Rangers also need someone who can move the puck around. Leopold can do that, and he's not overly expensive.

JH: In case you haven't noticed, Brian Leetch is retired.

AR: I know that Ranger fans are looking at all the impending free agents, and a name I see coming up quite often is Marian Gaborik. Would you want to see him in New York?

RC: No way. He's pretty divisive. Look what he put Minnesota through this past season. Is he playing? Is he not playing? Is he hurt? Is he not hurt? He helped kill their season as much as anything else, which lead to the coaching change and the GM change. Another name I hear, and you'd have to acquire him through a trade, is Ilya Kovalchuk. I wouldn't want him either. As good as they are offensively, players like this don't add anything to the locker room. If anything, they take away.

JH: I agree. Hockey, more than any other sport, is a chemistry sport and one guy can spoil the whole barrel. We saw that in New York with Theo Fleury and, to a certain extent, with Sean Avery, and other players over the years. You have to avoid, at all costs, a rift in the locker room.

AR: John, can you recall a time in the history of the Rangers when they've struggled this badly offensively?

JH: In the early to mid-1970s, the Emile Francis teams were finally petering out. John Ferguson came in as GM and the rebuild was on, based primarily around the two Swedes, Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg. That's the only era, in recent memory, that I could compare to the current one.

RC: Adam, I can come up with another one. Back in 1998, I had high hopes for the Rangers when they added Brian Skrudland and Mike Keane, who they hoped would fortify the offense, but it just didn't work out.

AR: Are there any prospects in the Rangers' system who could be an immediate help?

RC: Yes, I think Bobby Sanguinetti will have a good camp and make a good showing, but I don't think he'll be a top power play guy this year. He'll start off on the second pairing and eventually work his way up. Visitors to rangergreats.com can listen to an exclusive interview I did with Bobby. The other guy that will get a look, but who is probably still a little too young to have an impact, is Michael Del Zotto. Down the line, if you're looking for a power play quarterback, he could be the closest thing to Brian Leetch.

AR: I would expect to see Del Zotto in Hartford next season. The other guy who might make the Rangers out of training camp is Artem Anisimov, who was one of the top scorers in the American Hockey League last year. He's a center, though, and the Rangers have enough of those. He'd have to play out of position which, unfortunately, is nothing new for the Rangers.

JH: We're visiting old territory here but it's worth repeating: any improvements have to be made and made quickly because of the strength of the division. New York fans are not exactly known for their patience. They'll still show up, but they can make it awfully uncomfortable.

AR: John, don't you think that stuff about Rangers fans not being patient is exaggerated? If you give them some young players who show some effort, like Marc Staal, Ryan Callahan, and Dan Girardi, they'll be a little more patient than the media gives them credit for.

JH: I agree that Rangers fans want to see effort. If they see light at the end of the tunnel, they'll give a player time to make some mistakes and learn on the job. It's like New Yorkers in general: you gotta know how to catch a taxi, or else you get run over by the C Train.

AR: This is a little off-topic, but I think the Rangers need to ask themselves whether it's worth keeping Drury and Gomez because both players have struggled to perform since coming to the team. I don't think either player has been what the Rangers expected him to be, and it's worth exploring the possibility of moving one of them to get a goal-scoring winger. Marcus Naslund didn't have a great year, but he did get 24 goals so that's even more offense that the Rangers will need to replace.

RC: Mike Cammalleri will be a free agent, so you wouldn't need to make a trade to get him. He's a left wing who had 39 goals last year, including 19 on the power play. Two years before that, he had 34 goals. He can score and he's only 27. Brian Gionta would be a good Plan B.

JH: Cammalleri's time is certainly here. He does have good power play numbers and it's time for him to get more than a good, long look.

Check back soon for Part II of our first Authors' Roundtable!