A Day in Court
During the summer months of the hockey season, there are a few days that keep us going throughout the summer; the draft, beginning of free agency, and for some teams arbitation hearings. Tomorrow Garth Snow will go to court against Trent Hunter and his agent to determine his contractual value for the upcoming season.
We all remember our introduction to Trent Hunter. It was our first year back in the playoffs and we were short a forward against Toronto. When it was announced that Trent Hunter was called up and was to play in his 1st NHL game in the playoffs, many of us wondered who this kid ever was. In his first game during that series, Hunter scored a goal and played with a fire that we wished all our players would play with.
This summer has been all about building a team to contend for Lord Stanley's Cup. With Ted Nolan coaching our squad, Snow has worked hand in hand with Nolan, to build a team correctly that will not only make it to the finals one year then fall apart but hopefully be in the running year after year.
Snow and Nolan have determined that they want players that skate, hit, sacrifice their bodies for the betterment of the team, never give up and contribute timely scoring (aka Ted Nolan type players). Trent Hunter is the embodiment of this type of player. While his skating is not as fast as many would hope, Hunter brings everything else you can want from a hockey player on a nightly basis.
There have been rumors that Hunter may have reached a multiyear deal and will bypass the arbitation hearing, but I believe they will go to the hearing, and use the 1 year contract handed down by the arbitator as a foundation to the multiyear they will work out at a later time.
All I have read/heard over the summer is that going into this arbitation hearing there have been no bad feelings from either party about going to arbitation to hammer out a contract for Hunter. If you look to our hated rival the Rangers, you can see how nasty some of these hearings can get. Sean Avery and Henrik Lundqvist saved the Rangers season, where Lunqvist personally posted a 17-6-6 record after the acquisition of Avery. One would think that after helping his team to such a strong finish, that the GM who traded for Avery would have nothing bad to say about this player. But GM Glen Sather stated in his arbitation brief that Avery was, 'a reasonably effective player as well as a detriment to the team.' With the Rangers dangerously close to already going over the cap with both Avery and Marcel Hossa, it comes to no surpise why Sather played the case this way. He is hoping to save some money on Avery.
The fact that both the Hunter camp and Snow have only had positive statements regarding the contract situation as well as toward each other only can lead us to one conclusion: Trent Hunter will be back in an Islander uniform next year and hopefully many more years to follow. If Hunter keeps improving his game, which I believe he has done over his few seasons in the NHL, I would more then happily let Hunter captain this team once Guerin decides to hang up his skates.
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19 comments:
Good point about Avery. Remember when Mike Milbury made Tommy Salo cry at a similar hearing. Salo was never the same again. I don't know if Avery will cry (he might he cries enough to the Refs on the ice), but it's possible that degrading a player in an arbitration hearing can actually weaken the player's performance on the ice.
I'd like to see Hunter inked to a deal before the hearing..somewhere between 4 and 15 years sound good. :)
great post....hunter has a knack for stepping it up in our bigger games. wasnt he the only one who really brought an intesity in the sabres(refs) series? ive been to a couple games in sunrise to watch the isles, and i usually just watch hunter. you get a different view of the game that way, and hunter NEVER stops. we need one more forward, another d(sutton), and a healthy martinek, and i think we will be ok....ill set an early goal as maybe the 6th seed in the east after our recent string of 5 and out against the 1 seed(buff ott and tb) that would be a good starting point. thanks for all the great work guys you guys rock!!!!
nice redesign
You got it...
There are rumors floating around that the Isles plan to sign Hunter to a long term deal so that they might include him in a package trade for a bigger name player.
I personally have not gotten that feeling from the Isles management, but I guess anything is possible.
Laffs,
You're correct. Hunter is a big game player. However, I have never really felt that Hunter could carry this team, or even carry his line. He's an above average goal scorer but it too slow footed to become the dominant power forward the Isles hoped he would be.
The Hunter situation should be wrapped up in a day or two.
Still no update on today's arbitation hearing.
On another note, the rangers are now officially over the cap with the acceptance of Avery's arbitation case. It will be interesting to see what they do with their roster as summer begins to come to a close
I hope we do make a deal but that it does not include Hunter
Snow is a fool if he doesn't sign Hunter to a long term deal. So far he has shown to be woefully over his head as far as running a hockey team.
He gambled on Smyth (and lost), let a forty goal scorer go for nothing (Blake), lost our best D-man for nothing (Poti) and gave away this years second round pick for a guy who never took his coat off (Zednick).
To add to that glorious record, he signed a bunch of fourth liners, vastly overpaid for a household name (Sim), an underacheiver (Fedotanko), a problem child (Comrie) and an aging ex star who nobody else wanted (Guerrin).
The to top it off, he names Guerrin team Captain, even though he has yet to play a game for the team. I bet that went over well with Hill, Hunter and Sillinger.
And yet Mr. Snow is too "busy" to deal with Danny Markov who would improve the defense mightily.
He also fails to understand that other teams see the handwritting on the wall and are locking up their good players for three, four or five years at a clip (Parise comes to mind, tonight).
So far, this off season has been a DISASTER. You can drink the Kool Aid if you like, but a hard dose of reality will slap you in the face in October. This team, as it is put together right now, is not competitive.
Wake up Islander fans! Snow looks every bit the inexperienced GM he is. He needs to sign Hunter to a 3 or 4 year deal, get some defensive help and unload the deadwood he has compiled. If not, it's going to be over by January......Bill
By the way, I came over here to escape the crap that Logan seems to ignore on his blog. Let's hope this site does not degenerate into
what that has become.......Bill
Bill, welcome to the blog. Both Justin and I created this because we too could not deal with the nonsense that is the newsday blog.
I think you will actually be presently surpised at our team this year. Why is Comrie a problem child? Because he had been traded numberous times in his short career? I guess that makes Sillinger the biggest problem child of all. Yes, I have read the rumors of his problems in Edmonton but I think that is more made up there then actual fact. Also if you at Salo's play early in his EDM career compared to the latter years, and on top of that a Canadian media who always trys to find something out of nothing, you get Comrie banging Salo's wife rumors started.
While we may have somewhat overpaid for the free agents we signed, no deal is longer then 2 years. All this means is that instead of giving the players lower per year salary with more years (the 3/4 years you wrote about), you give the player a little more for the less years. This is simple sports contract negotiations.
The fact that you are crying about letting Blake and Poti walk for nothing shows me that I don't believe you understand the cap situation fully. Poti got way too much money for way too many years, along with Blake as well. While if we kept Poti at the price, it would have annoyed me but I probably could have lived with it. Blake on the other hand, makes no sense to give him that 5 year deal. Yes, he shows up everynite and plays his butt off. But he also skates with his head down, never passes and is quite the puck hog. If we coudl have signed him to a two year deal, I would have gladly taken him back and dealt with his antics until a younger/cheaper/better version of him showed up from our prospect pool(Tambellini?/Jason Gregoire?).
I am fine with Guerin being named Captain before playing a game based on this alone, he is the ultimate professional and has won a cup previous as well as highly respected within USA hockey. I don't think Hill really would care as he signed with the Wild, I think you ment to say Witt. And as we saw last year, the C on the jersey, while meaning alot, doesn't mean he is the only leader on the team. Sillinger, Witt, Hunter play the same type of game as Guerin (that grinding in your face, ole sytle hockey we all love), and will be more then happy to welcome Guerin as not only a new teammate but the Captain as well.
As far as not getting that defensemen we both realize we need to solidify the d-corp, I say patience my friend patience, In the next week or so we will see more activity from the free agent markets as teams are going to finalize rosters prior to training camp.
I recently was at the Coliseum for a concert and wished it was October already so the building can be used what it was really built for...Islander hockey. Closing in on a month til training camp, can't summer end sooner?
Bill,
I tend to agree with most of your points. Here is my take on your post...
If Hunter could be had long term for the right price then I think the Isles def should lock him up long term. He scores big goals at big times, yet prob isn't worth too much more than $1.8-2 million a season. Remember all, he only had what 35 points last season.
Blake - I think both you and Jeff are both right here. We did let Blake walk for nothing (bad) but we didn't match Toronto's outrageous offer (good). The best way to have rectified this problem would have been to trade Blake at the trading deadline last season. We easily would have obtained a first round pick in this year's draft, if not more.
Zednick deal goes down as one of worst in Isles recent history. Although I do understand why Snow made this deal, it seems a 4th rounder would have been more than enough to land Zednick.
Fedotenko - Hopefully Nolan can light a fire under his a$$. That being said, a career 4th liner should not have his salary tripled after an unproductive season. Snow missed the boat here. I don't know how a team can reward mediocrity.
Comrie needs a place to fit in. He doesn't seem like a bad guy at all, but he probably has been judged everywhere that he has played. In reality, he doesn't have to play hockey to earn a living so other players probably get jealous when they see a teamate with so much financial security. But I would rather have a player like Comrie--who plays for pride, than someone like Blake who makes it clear he is playing for $.
Guerin - I agree, Isles should have waited till the end of training camp before announcing a new captain. But I don't think this decision is as disatrous as you make it out to be. The players respect Guerin and I don't believe any current Isles have had a problem with Guerin being named captain. I mean, they probably threw themselves a pizza party--NO MORE YASHIN!!
Yes, you are right. I meant to say Witt not Hill.
I am not sad to see Blake go, I just wish that we would have gotten something in return. If Sonow had no intention of signing him, he should have traded him or his rights.
This is my core problem with Snow. I think he grossly underestimated the value of his contract players. He seemed to be shell shocked at the prices that players were commanding. He "lowballed" every one of his free agents, and because he misread the market, the team got burned. Poti seemed to really want to stay here, but Snow procrastinated and ended up losing him. He is making the same mistake with Hunter.
Hunter is a core player who needs to be locked up for several years. How does it look to other players when they see that the Isles won't committ to one of their better players. It is not really an incentive to come to the Island, is it?
Snow did the same with Kozlov. He was a usefull palyer and our best bet in the shootout. Snow allowed him to walk and replaced him with Fedotanko (who is another one year rental).
As for Comrie. His rep preceeds him. I see him as a spoiled rich kid who doesn't need the hockey paycheck and plays accordingly.
I also think he is basically using the Isles to enhance his playing time and numbers, and then will flee as fast as he can at the end of the season.
Your logic concerning Sillinger does not ring true, as he was traded for by teams heading INTO the playoffs for most of hs career.
Teams WANTED him to bolster their playoff run. Big difference between that and being unloaded by teams who don't wish to put up with your nonsense anymore.
Snow has to wake up and see the market for what it is. Perhaps one of his problems is that when he was a player he was used to accepting less money. Those days are over and he better understand that they are.
It is nice to discuss pure hockey points in a reasonable manner without the garbage that Logan puts up with.......Bill
Great blog. I hope my points can be respected here, even though I'm from a country in the out-skirts of Europe... There are some die hard fans of the game over here to, although not too many Isles fans.
Bill: Comrie wasn't traded from Phoenix to the Sens in order to bolster their squad in front of the play offs?
I think you're wrong about the guy. Except for the trade from the Oilers, I think all his trades have been based on roster decisions by the teams involved. Give him a chance. Remember he needed pain killers to play in the Stanley Cup this spring. Sacrifice...
andyman, welcome this blog is for all isles fan no matter where you are, so tell your friends the more Isles fans here, the better
Bill,
I agree with andy in that outside of the deal from edm to phx, he has been traded to teams in the hunt for the cup rather then on a team and being dumped.
Are you really that concerned about letting Kozlov go because of he was our best shootout player? I suggest you look at some of the videos on the main page of Comrie's goal against us on a breakway, I am 100% sure he will be dazzling us all season during the shootout.
To a degree I do believe you are right about Snow low balling our UFA's but the length of the deals I think is really what made them leave the island. If we had signed both Blake and Poti to those contracts we would all be going crazy that he did that. My guess is that Snow wanted to trade Blake at the deadline especially since he made those nasty remarks about how he should get whatever he asks for around that time. But the return was probably not equal to what Snow had Blake valued for last season's playoff run, which if not for the refs, I think we could have done some damage.
Also keep in mind, when discussing the failed attempt to keep Blake, Kozlov, Poti, etc, that it's probably a great path that Snow chose in allowing those players to sign elsewhere.
I mean, did you really want Blake, Poti, and Kozlov back? Does anyone really want to see the same team as last year? You know, the same inconsistent bunch that only squeaked into the playoffs because Toronto and Montreal collapsed during the last weak of the season and somehow Dubie managed to make himself an Isles hero.
The truth is the group from last year had very little potential and I'm excited that Snow chose to start over with fresh talent with the possibility of giving the kids a chance to crack the lineup.
Look for big things from Tambellini...
1. Is the team better off today than it was at the end of last year?
The answer is NO. The team as it stands now has a great goalie, two solid Dmen and one line of top six forwards. The rest is a crapshoot.
2. Wiil the promosing young forward that the Isles drafted make the team.
Once again, the answer is a big, loud NO.
Snow has signed too many fourth line players who will eat up roster spots that should be devoted to the younger players.
Before people start bellowing about paying to see the Bridgeport Islanders, I am talking about working three or four new prospects into the line up.
As it stands today, only Bergenheim is assured of a roster spot. Tambellini deserves one but with Park, Simon, Hilbert, Sim and Bates all sigend, where does that leave him? Or Neilsson?
If Snow was going to make wholesale changes for the sake of allowing the younger players to develop at the NHL level I would be all for it. But he has shown by his actions that he is once again going back to the Islander tradition of trying to make race horses out of mules. And we are loaded with mules.......Bill
Touche. Way too many 4th liners. I think I can count 8-9. If the season started today then yes we would be in big trouble. Somehow it worked out last year. I'm at least hoping Snow has some tricks up his sleeve this year.
But there are no forwards available via UFA. And this team is starving for forwards. How do you think Guerin feels. He signed here thinking he was going to be the first in a string of moves. None of us thought Snow would go the rest of July with out making a move at all. Let's hope now that the arbitration cases are out of the way that Snow can get back to business.
Way to soon to throw Snow under the bus! Agreed, his inexperience has shown a little in the "ones that got away" and to some degree, the price for the players he has signed. That said, I appreciate the fact that the Isles are not playing RFA Bingo but instead, playing to a philosophy that will build a real Islander identity. 30 to 1 million miles away... Let's see how the Rangers do with their fantasy roster...
as far as having a weaker team, now-- months before the season and $15 million under cap-- I'm not panicking. With Markov... our D is better, as Markov is a much better Hill than Hill and a healthy Martinek is a better Poti than Poti... add a Sutton and it's a slam dunk.
Not sure Smyth is a much better Guerin than Guerin and he looked lost in an Isles sweater (I don't blame Snow for the trade- it was aggressive and didn't pay off, but a smart effort) Tanks- for all the criticism, is not afraid to cause drama in front of the net and cause ugly goals for the team. Blake does not worry me one bit- Comrie can play the skater/rainmaker role. And don't hate him cause he money-
I do think we're a little shy still on 1st line talent- at C, for example, we're going with two 2 2nd (tho Sil is silly versitile and perfect for special teams) and 2 4th line guys... and the wings look the same. As much as I love Hunter, most clubs today would have him on their second line.
We need more sizzle on O. I am hopeful, tho, Snow will find the RIGHT guy.
Finally- any thoughts on Asham's future w/the club?
nice post and great feedback...
I don't believe Asham is in the future plans for the Isles. He would merely be another 4th line caliber player to a laundry list of 4th liners like Bates, Sim, Simon, Hilbert, Bergenheim, Park, Tambellini, etc.
We have enough old dirty socks...
Justin- You're right... and I'm not consistant in saying sign Asham, while we're loaded with 2nd to 4th line c's and wingers already. There's no need to carry him and Simon both- I'm digging that the Isles had the ba11s to resign Simon amid the drama (not excusing his action).
In the meantime, is Markov gonna happen... you think we'll get cute with a trade for McCabe? I dig Cabes (am a little curious to the bad rap he gets from many posters), but I'm not too comfortable in dealing Camps or Bruno (Asham?) along with picks... or in helping TOR with salary. Maybe it's best we put TOR out of their misery and sign Peca ourselves...
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