Summer of Change
For all us Islanders fans, it has been a roller coaster type of summer. After reaching the playoffs on the last day of the regular season and then being eliminated by the Sabres, in what seemed to be a referee biased series, our team has begun a major roster make over. It started when the team decided to buy out the rest of Alexei Yashin's contract, which was a huge burden on the cap space of the team. The free agency period seemed to start off on the wrong foot as Ryan Smyth, Jason Blake, Tom Poti, Viktor Kozlov and Sean Hill left the team to sign elsewhere. While many saw this as the team not willing to build a competitive team, I believe these players' departure enables the team to take the next step toward bringing the cup back to LI. Many fans might have been content if we had resigned the likes of Blake and Poti for the value they received from other teams. But as these these aging players signing to longer term contracts (between 3 and 5 years), it would have hindered the building of successful team for future years. On top of these player departures, all of the top free agents passed over signing with the Islanders, and we saw two of the top free agents, Gomez and Drury sign with the hated Rangers. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have both of these guys on my team any day of the week. But to sign Gomez to a 7 year deal at over 7 mill per is just ludacris. San Jose's Joe Thornton recently resigned for 7 mill a year for 3 years. Does any hockey mind seriously believe that Gomez is worth more then Thornton?
As the big names got snatched up, Islander Nation was going into a frenzy as we had lost 5 of our top point producers from the previous season. To replace what we had lost, Garth Snow and Ted Nolan along with Ken Morrow, decided to be patient and not drastically overpay the few names left out on the market. To replace what was lost in Viktor Kozlov, the team signed ex Tampa forward, Ruslan Fedotenko to a one year deal. To replace Yashin and Blake, Mike Comrie and Bill Guerin were signed to one and two year deals respectively. The team also signed forward Jon Sim from Atlanta, who most likely will be replacing Arron Asham. On top of these free agent additions, the team also resigned last years hero goalie Wade Dubielewicz, defense man Chris Campoli, and came to terms with forward Sean Bergenheim.
If the season were to start today, it is clear we would be relying heavily on some of our younger players. This being said, I believe we can still sign another free agent or two and/or possibly arrange a trade with a team that is cap trouble. While the names left on the market may not be all-stars, there are definitely a few that could help our club out. F Adam Hall, F Eric Lindros, and F Patrik Stefan could all help our club out. On the defensive end, free agents Andy Sutton and Danny Markov would give our D corps a huge boost of size and muscle.
If the Islanders are to be successful this season, it is clearly going to be on the shoulders of our franchise goalie Rick DiPietro. Last season he made huge strides in his play but for him to take it to the next level, he must learn to not play the puck as much as he has been. We all realize that DiPietro can handle the puck extremely well, the problem is when he focuses on playing the puck more, he becomes more out of position and this leads to soft goals. He must cut these soft goals out of his game for this team to be a contender. More to come on how the Isles can adreess their needs with their remaining cap space.
As the big names got snatched up, Islander Nation was going into a frenzy as we had lost 5 of our top point producers from the previous season. To replace what we had lost, Garth Snow and Ted Nolan along with Ken Morrow, decided to be patient and not drastically overpay the few names left out on the market. To replace what was lost in Viktor Kozlov, the team signed ex Tampa forward, Ruslan Fedotenko to a one year deal. To replace Yashin and Blake, Mike Comrie and Bill Guerin were signed to one and two year deals respectively. The team also signed forward Jon Sim from Atlanta, who most likely will be replacing Arron Asham. On top of these free agent additions, the team also resigned last years hero goalie Wade Dubielewicz, defense man Chris Campoli, and came to terms with forward Sean Bergenheim.
If the season were to start today, it is clear we would be relying heavily on some of our younger players. This being said, I believe we can still sign another free agent or two and/or possibly arrange a trade with a team that is cap trouble. While the names left on the market may not be all-stars, there are definitely a few that could help our club out. F Adam Hall, F Eric Lindros, and F Patrik Stefan could all help our club out. On the defensive end, free agents Andy Sutton and Danny Markov would give our D corps a huge boost of size and muscle.
If the Islanders are to be successful this season, it is clearly going to be on the shoulders of our franchise goalie Rick DiPietro. Last season he made huge strides in his play but for him to take it to the next level, he must learn to not play the puck as much as he has been. We all realize that DiPietro can handle the puck extremely well, the problem is when he focuses on playing the puck more, he becomes more out of position and this leads to soft goals. He must cut these soft goals out of his game for this team to be a contender. More to come on how the Isles can adreess their needs with their remaining cap space.
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4 comments:
Congrats on the new blog. Hope it can stay more "on point" than the Newsday blog. I'd like to invite everyone to check out my new blog as well at http://islandersnhl.blogspot.com/
Not looking for competition, as far as I'm concerned the more die-hards like us making some noise the better.
Welcome Mike...
The Isles really do have ample cap space to really make some noise. The team is about 2 defenseman away from having one of the top well rounded units in the league. Signing Sutton and Markov would propel us to that level.
I think the Isles should take a hard look at Lindros. He proved to be an excellent two-way forward last year. He might be quite the low-risk high-reward type player the Isles are looking for.
I'd love to see Markov get signed. I am a fan of Sutton in theory, but I tend to defer to the Thrashers fan from the Newsday blog who compared him to a slight upgrade to Cairns. That's not the kind of player we need, obviously. I disagree that we need to add 2 Dmen, though. Despite some shortcomings, I want both Gervais and Campoli to stay with the team and not get sent down. It might be near-term pain, but we need to give them the opportunity to develop. With Lindros, you're probably right. But I just hate the guy so much. Remember the preseason game from several years back when Snow went after him and knocked him into the boards? Would be ironic if he signed him now.
Wow I had totally forgotten about that incident. You're right, that would be rather ironic. I'm not convinced that the Isles can compete with both Campoli and Gervais in the lineup. While it remains possible that these 2 players excel after another full season under their belts, I believe snow should attempt to sign or trade for 2 experienced D men. Of all the rumors that are floating around, the best combination seems to be adding Markov and Morris. We don't need to rush both Campoli and Gervais into the NHL so quickly.
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