Over the past couple of seasons, the Islanders have made no secret of the fact that they wanted to add some more skill up the middle. On Friday night, they took a huge step forward in accomplishing that goal.
After missing out on Ryan Johansen at last years draft when they ended up taking Nino Niederreiter, the Islanders had their choice of a couple of centers in 2011. Many fans seemed split on whether they wanted Sean Couturier or Ryan Strome.
As many of you know by now, I was a big fan of Couturier's and wanted the Isles to select him. But in the weeks leading up to the draft as we learned more about Strome, I was warming up to the idea. It seems like the Isles did as well.
Strome fits a need of what the Isles are looking for. They wanted to add that skill, but in Strome they also add some speed and a great style. Strome is a guy who isn't afraid to cut to the net, and by many accounts is as far from a perimeter player as you can get which is remarkable when you consider he isn't the biggest guy out there.
Knowing that, it definitely puts some more attention into Josh Bailey's corner. While his primary position is center, Bailey has also spent some time at the wing. The Islanders need to decide if they prefer to have Bailey at center or wing, and at the same time Bailey needs to step up a bit and prove that he can play anywhere at any time. He's now going to have Strome breathing down his neck for that 2nd line center spot for sure in the future.
When it comes to analyzing some of these guys that we may not know much about, we usually always rely on scouts. While that is obviously one of the better means, it's also good to hear from analysts who watch him more regularly.
Enter Jeff Marek. In the end, he really sold me on the idea of Strome.
Marek, an analyst/radio host for Hockey Night in Canada, sang the praises last season of Jeff Skinner. I'll have to be honest - as much as people pointed that out, I didn't listen because I was too enthralled with what the "scouts" had to say.
Last week in an interview with Chris Botta, Marek sang the praises of Strome. He even went as far to say the Islanders hit a "home run" with their selection after they made the pick.
I really like the pick of Strome because it helps to solve some of the issues that this team has up the middle. We all love Frans Nielsen and how he plays, but in a perfect world he is centering a 3rd line. Strome has the ceiling to center one of the top two lines, but given the fact John Tavares is a center and should remain there will make for an excellent second line pivot.
Some folks were upset in not grabbing a defenseman, but I'm fine with leaving Dougie Hamilton on the board. The defenseman I really wanted was Adam Larsson, and do think that if he slipped past the Devils at 4th then Snow would have taken him.
The Islanders will have some chances to get some solid, big defenseman in the second and third rounds at the beginning of day two (11 AM ET). Look for Scott Mayfield as a potential target. He's a big, nasty defenseman who spent last season in the USHL. The Islanders have gone down the USHL pipeline before and have picked out a couple of solid guys (Kyle Okposo and Matt Donovan to name a couple).
We got some great video footage last night, and have put up some of the clips from last night on our YouTube page. We have a couple of more that will be uploaded as the day goes on so be sure to check for those. We're also going through some of the photos we took to put into a photo gallery. We hope to have that up for our draft round-up post.
Be sure to check back later for any possible big news in Isles Country.
-Chris
nyifyi@gmail.com
Showing posts with label 2011 NHL Draft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2011 NHL Draft. Show all posts
June 25, 2011
June 24, 2011
Don't Expect Trade of 5th Overall for Big Name
As we get down to the final hours before the 2011 NHL Entry Draft takes place, I'm seeing more and more people saying that Garth Snow should trade the 5th overall pick for NHL talent.
The calls for this seem to grow with the news of the blockbuster trades made by the Philadelphia Flyers as they sent Mike Richards to the Los Angeles Kings and Jeff Carter to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Don't get me wrong - this line of thinking is a great one. Sean even brought this up during our podcast last weekend, saying that he expects them to trade the pick - but was more hinting at trading down to pick up other assets and then parlaying some of those into NHL talent.
In all honesty, while the second scenario seems like it could be a fantastic approach to Friday night, I think that if the Isles are moving down for a player they like then it's with the idea of drafting one or two of those players high on their draft board rather than to move the picks.
When Sean mentioned that he wanted to see that pick moved, I pressed him on who had in his head that could be had in exchange for the 5th overall pick. The only (realistic?) idea he could come up with is Paul Stastny of the Colorado Avalanche. Other names he came up with? Zach Parise and Drew Doughty.
As nice as Paul Stastny is, he's not a player I'm giving up a 5th overall pick for. In reality, there is no one out there that could be had for a top five pick.
When people talk about making trades for "proven talent," you have to keep in mind what they were traded for. The last time a top five pick was traded for proven talent? Our very own New York Islanders did in 2001, in a package for Alexei Yashin (2nd overall).
There are only extenuating circumstances where a player like that becomes available, and as usual that is not the case this year. But what about the trading back scenario? Well, that would be more plausible.
2006:
- The Avalanche traded Alex Tanguay to the Calgary Flames for Jordan Leopold, a 2nd round pick (59th) and a conditional pick.
- The Kings trade Pavol Demitra to the Minnesota Wild for Patrick O'Sullivan and the 17th overall pick.
2008:
- The Flames trade Tanguay and a 5th round pick to the Montreal Canadiens for a 1st (25th overall) and 2nd round pick (48th).
- The Kings trade Mike Cammalleri to the Flames for a 1st round pick (17th).
- The Flyers trade R.J. Umberger and a 4th (118th) to the Blue Jackets for a 1st (19th overall) and a 3rd (67th).
2009:
- The Anaheim Ducks trade Chris Pronger and Ryan Dingle to the Flyers for Joffrey Lupul, Luca Sbisa, a 2009 1st round pick (21st) and a 2010 1st round pick (29th).
2010:
- The Florida Panthers trade Keith Ballard and Victor Oreskovich to the Vancouver Canucks for Steve Bernier, Michael Grabner and a 1st round pick (25th).
At the end of the day, if the Islanders are bringing in that proven vet at the draft then it would most likely come after trading down once or twice to gather up assets they can use to move for talent. Those of you hoping for it to play out this way can keep that in mind with thoughts of Brent Burns, Ryan Malone, Scott Hartnell and whoever else you may have dancing in your head.
What do I think? I think the Islanders are going to stay right where they are at five and make their pick. After the dust settles, the Islanders will have drafted Ryan Strome.
Sean and I will both be at the draft today and are planning to make our way around the parking lot. We'll both have cameras, and I plan to take some candid shots of fan activity for a photo gallery of some kind. So if you see us roaming around, please do come up and introduce yourself. We'd love to meet some of you.
There are couple of things going on that you may have noticed I haven't written about yet (Doug Weight's award, Radek Martinek update, analysis of the Flyers' trades) but that will be coming at some point later. We're trying to focus solely on the draft items for now and go from there.
-Chris
nyifyi@gmail.com
The calls for this seem to grow with the news of the blockbuster trades made by the Philadelphia Flyers as they sent Mike Richards to the Los Angeles Kings and Jeff Carter to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Don't get me wrong - this line of thinking is a great one. Sean even brought this up during our podcast last weekend, saying that he expects them to trade the pick - but was more hinting at trading down to pick up other assets and then parlaying some of those into NHL talent.
In all honesty, while the second scenario seems like it could be a fantastic approach to Friday night, I think that if the Isles are moving down for a player they like then it's with the idea of drafting one or two of those players high on their draft board rather than to move the picks.
When Sean mentioned that he wanted to see that pick moved, I pressed him on who had in his head that could be had in exchange for the 5th overall pick. The only (realistic?) idea he could come up with is Paul Stastny of the Colorado Avalanche. Other names he came up with? Zach Parise and Drew Doughty.
As nice as Paul Stastny is, he's not a player I'm giving up a 5th overall pick for. In reality, there is no one out there that could be had for a top five pick.
When people talk about making trades for "proven talent," you have to keep in mind what they were traded for. The last time a top five pick was traded for proven talent? Our very own New York Islanders did in 2001, in a package for Alexei Yashin (2nd overall).
There are only extenuating circumstances where a player like that becomes available, and as usual that is not the case this year. But what about the trading back scenario? Well, that would be more plausible.
2006:
- The Avalanche traded Alex Tanguay to the Calgary Flames for Jordan Leopold, a 2nd round pick (59th) and a conditional pick.
- The Kings trade Pavol Demitra to the Minnesota Wild for Patrick O'Sullivan and the 17th overall pick.
2008:
- The Flames trade Tanguay and a 5th round pick to the Montreal Canadiens for a 1st (25th overall) and 2nd round pick (48th).
- The Kings trade Mike Cammalleri to the Flames for a 1st round pick (17th).
- The Flyers trade R.J. Umberger and a 4th (118th) to the Blue Jackets for a 1st (19th overall) and a 3rd (67th).
2009:
- The Anaheim Ducks trade Chris Pronger and Ryan Dingle to the Flyers for Joffrey Lupul, Luca Sbisa, a 2009 1st round pick (21st) and a 2010 1st round pick (29th).
2010:
- The Florida Panthers trade Keith Ballard and Victor Oreskovich to the Vancouver Canucks for Steve Bernier, Michael Grabner and a 1st round pick (25th).
At the end of the day, if the Islanders are bringing in that proven vet at the draft then it would most likely come after trading down once or twice to gather up assets they can use to move for talent. Those of you hoping for it to play out this way can keep that in mind with thoughts of Brent Burns, Ryan Malone, Scott Hartnell and whoever else you may have dancing in your head.
What do I think? I think the Islanders are going to stay right where they are at five and make their pick. After the dust settles, the Islanders will have drafted Ryan Strome.
Sean and I will both be at the draft today and are planning to make our way around the parking lot. We'll both have cameras, and I plan to take some candid shots of fan activity for a photo gallery of some kind. So if you see us roaming around, please do come up and introduce yourself. We'd love to meet some of you.
There are couple of things going on that you may have noticed I haven't written about yet (Doug Weight's award, Radek Martinek update, analysis of the Flyers' trades) but that will be coming at some point later. We're trying to focus solely on the draft items for now and go from there.
-Chris
nyifyi@gmail.com
April 13, 2011
Capuano Hits the Lottery, Isles Don't
On a day when Jack Capuano had the interim label removed and was given the reigns for the next few seasons as the man behind the bench, the Islanders weren't as lucky.
Tuesday night the NHL held their annual draft lottery. The Islanders sat with a 10.7% chance of winning the lottery and moving up to the top pick. Unfortunately, it was the New Jersey Devils and their 3.6% odds that would prevail on this night.
It seems fitting for the Devils to get the pick. All they did for much of the last few months is win, and after just falling short of the playoffs they seemed to have just a little bit more luck in them for one more victory.
After hitting the lottery, the Devils will move up to the 4th spot from 8th. The Islanders, who held the 4th spot going in, move down to 5th as do the other teams down the line to Columbus who now takes the 8th spot.
Just before the lottery show started, I made the comment that I had an odd feeling that a team not in 1st was going to win and jump up. It seemed that statistically speaking, it was time. The previous three seasons saw the worst team win the lottery and retain the first pick.
The Islanders will still be able to pick a solid player at 5th, but unfortunately for me that player most likely won't be center Sean Couturier. Unless of course a few NHL teams are buying what the scouting services are selling and he is slipping in their rankings.
More importantly, it emphasizes the Isles need to have a good offseason. As we said on the show this past weekend, this team can ill afford to have another offseason of just drafting high, putting that player in the line-up, signing guys who have toiled in the minors and hoping for extreme maturation (or in some cases exceeding expectations) across the board. Now, it most likely makes it a little bit tougher to justify putting the player we pick in June on the roster in October (forget for a moment the ability to have players come in for nine game "try outs," of course).
INTERIM NO MORE: Regardless of who is on the roster next season, we know that Jack Capuano will be behind the bench coaching them.
The Islanders officially removed the interim tag off of Capuano as they made him the official head coach.
Of course, this was all just a formality by this point. When you look at what Capuano had done with an injury ravaged roster, it is quite a feat.
Neither Sean nor myself were happy with the decision to fire Scott Gordon back in November. Sean wasn't a big Gordon supporter from the get go, but given what the team was we both felt it was a bit unnecessary.
I can't speak for him, but I can speak for myself and say I have been pretty impressed with Capuano. I didn't think he would come anywhere close to doing what he was able to do, but I was flat out wrong. This was the right decision for the team to make, especially since they still qualify as up-and-coming. Could they have gone out and looked at the Todd Richards' or Corey Clouston's of the world? Sure, but at this point if something works, don't mess with it. The best coach in the world isn't going to make this current team as constructed into a contender over night.
It's nice to have this situation settled barely into the off-season too. I remember how frustrated I was back in July 2008 when the Islanders fired Ted Nolan, which was a long time after teams normally would make coaching changes. There were still plenty of candidates to choose from, but it seemed odd to wait that long to fire a coach.
At any rate, good job by the Isles and congrats to Capuano. This is well deserved.
-CH
nyifyi@gmail.com
Tuesday night the NHL held their annual draft lottery. The Islanders sat with a 10.7% chance of winning the lottery and moving up to the top pick. Unfortunately, it was the New Jersey Devils and their 3.6% odds that would prevail on this night.
It seems fitting for the Devils to get the pick. All they did for much of the last few months is win, and after just falling short of the playoffs they seemed to have just a little bit more luck in them for one more victory.
After hitting the lottery, the Devils will move up to the 4th spot from 8th. The Islanders, who held the 4th spot going in, move down to 5th as do the other teams down the line to Columbus who now takes the 8th spot.
Just before the lottery show started, I made the comment that I had an odd feeling that a team not in 1st was going to win and jump up. It seemed that statistically speaking, it was time. The previous three seasons saw the worst team win the lottery and retain the first pick.
The Islanders will still be able to pick a solid player at 5th, but unfortunately for me that player most likely won't be center Sean Couturier. Unless of course a few NHL teams are buying what the scouting services are selling and he is slipping in their rankings.
More importantly, it emphasizes the Isles need to have a good offseason. As we said on the show this past weekend, this team can ill afford to have another offseason of just drafting high, putting that player in the line-up, signing guys who have toiled in the minors and hoping for extreme maturation (or in some cases exceeding expectations) across the board. Now, it most likely makes it a little bit tougher to justify putting the player we pick in June on the roster in October (forget for a moment the ability to have players come in for nine game "try outs," of course).
INTERIM NO MORE: Regardless of who is on the roster next season, we know that Jack Capuano will be behind the bench coaching them.
The Islanders officially removed the interim tag off of Capuano as they made him the official head coach.
Of course, this was all just a formality by this point. When you look at what Capuano had done with an injury ravaged roster, it is quite a feat.
Neither Sean nor myself were happy with the decision to fire Scott Gordon back in November. Sean wasn't a big Gordon supporter from the get go, but given what the team was we both felt it was a bit unnecessary.
I can't speak for him, but I can speak for myself and say I have been pretty impressed with Capuano. I didn't think he would come anywhere close to doing what he was able to do, but I was flat out wrong. This was the right decision for the team to make, especially since they still qualify as up-and-coming. Could they have gone out and looked at the Todd Richards' or Corey Clouston's of the world? Sure, but at this point if something works, don't mess with it. The best coach in the world isn't going to make this current team as constructed into a contender over night.
It's nice to have this situation settled barely into the off-season too. I remember how frustrated I was back in July 2008 when the Islanders fired Ted Nolan, which was a long time after teams normally would make coaching changes. There were still plenty of candidates to choose from, but it seemed odd to wait that long to fire a coach.
At any rate, good job by the Isles and congrats to Capuano. This is well deserved.
-CH
nyifyi@gmail.com
April 7, 2011
R.I.P. EJ McGuire; Thought on Isles - Bruins; Nelson Hurt
The hockey world received some sad news on Thursday when we all found out about the passing of NHL Central Scouting Director EJ McGuire, who lost his battle with cancer. McGuire was 58.
In all honesty, I had no idea that EJ was sick and when I logged on at lunch time and saw the news I almost choked. EJ was a guy Sean and I hoped to get on the show in the near future to talk about prospects.
He was such a great hockey mind, and one of the most involved folks when compared to others who hold high positions around the sport. When prospect videos were released, he was always the scout talking about the player and could talk about seemingly anyone for any length of time without needing much material in front of him. He never judged a player solely on his numbers.
It's folks like him that make people know so much about the future of this sport. EJ's insights were something I would go out of my way to find in order to brush up on a prospect I did not know.
More importantly, McGuire passing away at such a young age is really a killer. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
ISLES - BRUINS THOUGHTS: Michael Grabner tried his hardest to give the Isles a win over the struggling Bruins, but in the end it wasn't meant to be.
Grabner scored two goals - one on the power-play, the other short handed - but the Isles could not overcome two quick Bruins goals in the 2nd period and lost 3-2.
For the Islanders, it was one of the better efforts they have had in a loss lately. Rick DiPietro, in my opinion, looked the best he had in a number of games. Early on he made some nice saves and really kept the Islanders in the game. On the Bruins 3rd goal (Greg Campbell), Mark Katic looked just plain silly. I have a hard time faulting DiPietro for something like that.
Speaking of goalies, Wednesday night they needed the netminding to be stellar as they were icing five defensemen with under 60 games played in the NHL.
The newest member of the defense, courtesy of injuries to Jack Hillen and Milan Jurcina, was Matt Campanale. Campanale actually has a cool story about how this all came about, starting with originally planning spring break, to signing an ATO with the Sound Tigers, to signing a one-game ATO with the Islanders. Campanale would only get 8:21 of ice-time, and it's difficult to really say how he played. I don't recall seeing him make any glaring mistakes in his brief time, but he didn't do anything spectacular either. Congrats to him and his family, as he can at least say he played one game in the NHL. Who knows what happens to him in the future. In the meantime, he'll go back down to Bridgeport where he had only played two games thus far.
Josh Bailey had a better effort than he's had in the past. He was cutting to the slot area at the right times to get passes and good chances on net. If it were anyone other than Tim Thomas in net, Bailey may have ended with a couple of points to show for all of his troubles. But Thomas was very confident in net, coming far out of his crease at times to make saves. Twice Thomas made miraculous, sprawling saves on Bailey.
Radek Martinek looked a bit shaky, and has in the past few games. I'm chalking that up to the defensemen that he's being surrounded by right now as the clock winds down on the season.
John Tavares played well, had a couple of penalties and didn't get on the score sheet. However, one thing I did notice that perhaps some of you picked up on as well (if Jiggs and Butch discussed it then I didn't hear it) was that he was wearing an 'A' on his jersey with Frans Nielsen now out for the remaining games.
There aren't a ton of options on the ice right now, but I do think it's rather telling that Zenon Konopka, who has pretty much been the voice for the team all season long, did not get a letter to close out the year. I think the team has plans to try and explore other options for their money.
All in all, while it wasn't the greatest effort it certainly was not the worst. It's a shame that a decent start by DiPietro and some great play from Grabner goes to waste, but that's what happens when you play extremely short handed and have such a green line-up.
The Isles now get to return home for their last home game of the regular season as they take on the Penguins. I will be at this game, but not in the press box. I'll be a paying customer for the first time in a couple of months. I'm really looking forward to sitting down in the seats one final time this season.
If anyone is expecting similar stuff to go on like the last time these two teams met, then I'm sorry. Neither I, nor many other folks are expecting much of anything to transpire. This is a very good Penguins team battling for home ice advantage right now, and what they have done without Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin is commendable. A win for the Isles would be huge here.
BROCK NELSON HURT: On Thursday night, Isles prospect Brock Nelson was taken off the ice in a stretcher during UND's final four match-up tonight with the University of Michigan. He was taken to the hospital as a precaution, and the team is calling it a lower body injury for the time being. Hopefully it really is one big precaution. This team has had enough injury and the NHL and AHL level that they don't need it dipping into their prospect pool right now, especially with some of those higher quality prospects playing big games at this time of year.
-CH
nyifyi@gmail.com
In all honesty, I had no idea that EJ was sick and when I logged on at lunch time and saw the news I almost choked. EJ was a guy Sean and I hoped to get on the show in the near future to talk about prospects.
He was such a great hockey mind, and one of the most involved folks when compared to others who hold high positions around the sport. When prospect videos were released, he was always the scout talking about the player and could talk about seemingly anyone for any length of time without needing much material in front of him. He never judged a player solely on his numbers.
It's folks like him that make people know so much about the future of this sport. EJ's insights were something I would go out of my way to find in order to brush up on a prospect I did not know.
More importantly, McGuire passing away at such a young age is really a killer. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
ISLES - BRUINS THOUGHTS: Michael Grabner tried his hardest to give the Isles a win over the struggling Bruins, but in the end it wasn't meant to be.
Grabner scored two goals - one on the power-play, the other short handed - but the Isles could not overcome two quick Bruins goals in the 2nd period and lost 3-2.
For the Islanders, it was one of the better efforts they have had in a loss lately. Rick DiPietro, in my opinion, looked the best he had in a number of games. Early on he made some nice saves and really kept the Islanders in the game. On the Bruins 3rd goal (Greg Campbell), Mark Katic looked just plain silly. I have a hard time faulting DiPietro for something like that.
Speaking of goalies, Wednesday night they needed the netminding to be stellar as they were icing five defensemen with under 60 games played in the NHL.
The newest member of the defense, courtesy of injuries to Jack Hillen and Milan Jurcina, was Matt Campanale. Campanale actually has a cool story about how this all came about, starting with originally planning spring break, to signing an ATO with the Sound Tigers, to signing a one-game ATO with the Islanders. Campanale would only get 8:21 of ice-time, and it's difficult to really say how he played. I don't recall seeing him make any glaring mistakes in his brief time, but he didn't do anything spectacular either. Congrats to him and his family, as he can at least say he played one game in the NHL. Who knows what happens to him in the future. In the meantime, he'll go back down to Bridgeport where he had only played two games thus far.
Josh Bailey had a better effort than he's had in the past. He was cutting to the slot area at the right times to get passes and good chances on net. If it were anyone other than Tim Thomas in net, Bailey may have ended with a couple of points to show for all of his troubles. But Thomas was very confident in net, coming far out of his crease at times to make saves. Twice Thomas made miraculous, sprawling saves on Bailey.
Radek Martinek looked a bit shaky, and has in the past few games. I'm chalking that up to the defensemen that he's being surrounded by right now as the clock winds down on the season.
John Tavares played well, had a couple of penalties and didn't get on the score sheet. However, one thing I did notice that perhaps some of you picked up on as well (if Jiggs and Butch discussed it then I didn't hear it) was that he was wearing an 'A' on his jersey with Frans Nielsen now out for the remaining games.
There aren't a ton of options on the ice right now, but I do think it's rather telling that Zenon Konopka, who has pretty much been the voice for the team all season long, did not get a letter to close out the year. I think the team has plans to try and explore other options for their money.
All in all, while it wasn't the greatest effort it certainly was not the worst. It's a shame that a decent start by DiPietro and some great play from Grabner goes to waste, but that's what happens when you play extremely short handed and have such a green line-up.
The Isles now get to return home for their last home game of the regular season as they take on the Penguins. I will be at this game, but not in the press box. I'll be a paying customer for the first time in a couple of months. I'm really looking forward to sitting down in the seats one final time this season.
If anyone is expecting similar stuff to go on like the last time these two teams met, then I'm sorry. Neither I, nor many other folks are expecting much of anything to transpire. This is a very good Penguins team battling for home ice advantage right now, and what they have done without Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin is commendable. A win for the Isles would be huge here.
BROCK NELSON HURT: On Thursday night, Isles prospect Brock Nelson was taken off the ice in a stretcher during UND's final four match-up tonight with the University of Michigan. He was taken to the hospital as a precaution, and the team is calling it a lower body injury for the time being. Hopefully it really is one big precaution. This team has had enough injury and the NHL and AHL level that they don't need it dipping into their prospect pool right now, especially with some of those higher quality prospects playing big games at this time of year.
-CH
nyifyi@gmail.com
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