There was a bidding war for Derek Boogaard. Seriously.

Derek Boogaard’s job in the NHL is a simple-to-explain yet difficult-to-do job. He’s out there to intimidate opponents, fight other enforcers and generally be a menace to everyone on the ice. He’s not a goal scorer by any means (he hasn’t scored a goal since his rookie season in 2005-2006 and has a 222 game goalless streak. He’s yet to play a full 82 game season in the NHL and he’s finding it increasingly more difficult to find willing opponents to drop the gloves with.

The Rangers and Glen Sather in their questionable wisdom decided that giving Boogaard a four-year contract worth $6.6 million was the right move to make. Be that as it may, the New York Post’s Larry Brooks reports that somehow, someway the New York Rangers had stiff competition when bidding on the services of “The Boogeyman.”

Boogaard’s four-year, $6.6 million contract seems wildly excessive and will challenge coach John Tortorella’s familiar assertion that paychecks don’t influence lineup decisions. It is a fact, however, that Edmonton actually offered Boogaard -- who is going to Russia this summer to train with Pavel Datsyuk --$7 million over four years.

I’m not sure which is the more shocking fact in that paragraph, the fact that Boogaard is training with Pavel Datsyuk in Russia or that the Edmonton Oilers had a more lucrative contract offer at the same number of years for the enforcer. The Edmonton Journal’s David Staples is sort of thankful that Boogaard declined the Oilers offer and not just for the obvious reasons.

Derek Boogaard isn’t just the toughest NHL player, he’s one of the dirtiest. He consistently beats up other goons but he’s also a guy looking to hit players both well before and well after they’ve touched the puck. He has nailed both Ales Hemsky and Ryan Jones in this manner, just to name two. I hate this last aspect of Boogaard’s game and believe the NHL should regularly suspend players like this for 20 or 30 games or 40 games. There should be no place for the late-hitters in the NHL.

Yikes. Staples does rationalize, however, that Boogaard’s presence in Edmonton would be helpful in protecting the bevy of youth the Oilers will be putting on the ice next year in Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson. That said, the kind of money ponied up by both the Oilers that wanted him and the Rangers that signed him is staggering when you consider that he plays, on average, about five minutes per game.