Isles re-sign Campoli

The Islanders today announced that they re-signed 23 year old defenseman Chris Campoli to a 3 year contract worth $600,000 per year. As of right now, it seems that Campoli is in the Islanders plans and will not be dealt. Right now, I think it's fine to have Camps around and that price. The Isles need to definitely acquire 1 new defenseman either by trade or signing. In a perfect world, they would try to get 2 of them but that will most likely not happen. The only way that could happen is if the Isles get rid of Radek Martinek. As good as Martinek has been defensively in his time on the Island, it might be best to explore dealing the oft-injured defenseman. The Islanders can sign a banger in Danny Markov or Ossi Vaananen to replace him, and possibly acquire someone like Derek Morris to round out the defense. That would put this years defense way ahead of what the Isles started last year with. As I posted yesterday, everyone in the organization has been preaching patience and has said that Garth is working very hard. So it should be a relief to most of the fans who have been saying that the team is done adding. If we learned one thing from Garth last year, it's that you can't always believe what you hear. I remember after the Isles traded Zhitnik last year, Snow specifically said no other deals were on the horizon. Meanwhile, just 4 days later Mike York was shipped to the Flyers (same team Zhitnik was shipped to). Snow said nothing was brewing around trade deadline day, and the Isles ended up with Richard Zednik and Ryan Smyth when all was said and done. We also learned that you can trust Garth when he says he is doing something too. A few days before bringing in Marc-Andre Bergeron, Snow said to Greg Logan of Newsday that fans should expect a depth defenseman to be coming in the next few days, or something to that effect. OK, so maybe Snow lied on that one if you consider a depth defenseman as a 7th or 8th type. Bergeron helped spark the power play and put up some awesome numbers for the Isles last season. They will look to Bergeron for his offensive output once again in the upcoming season.

Right now, the best power play quaterback on the team is Campoli, and in 05-06 he proved that he was developing into a nice offensive defenseman. He had some injuries last year and had to work his way back into the lineup, but all signs point to him being in the top 6 in 07-08.

As of now, there are no new rumors to report. But there is certainly going to be news in Islander Country, it's just a matter of when. Be sure to check back here for updates and opinions when news breaks.

Chris