Bergenheim and Tambellini to be UFA's

On the eve of free agency, it’s become more clear what certain teams are looking for and what is out there. Teams had until Monday to qualify their restricted free agents or lose their rights, while Tuesday was the deadline to put players through waivers in order to buy them out during the NHL’s unlimited buyout window.

Needless to say, there were a couple of surprises from the Islanders standpoint.

The team opted not to offer qualifying offers to wingers Jeff Tambellini and Sean Bergenheim, meaning both will become unrestricted free agents after midnight on July 1st.

No one is surprised with Tambellini leaving as things have not worked out for him since he came here in 2006 along with Denis Grebeshkov in exchange for Mark Parrish and Brent Sopel. More often than not, Tambellini found himself in the press box rather than on the ice.

Bergenheim is a different story however, as many felt that the Islanders would qualify him. It would have cost about $1 million to keep in around, and to be honest that wouldn’t have been prudent. The Islanders can get a comparable player for a little less and save some money to improve other areas.

Bergenheim was seen as an energy/defensive player, and at times he was exactly that. But more often than not, he would disappear for long stretches not only from the score sheet, but from the defensive side of things as well as he wouldn’t hit players as much, if at all. Occasionally, he would also take some bad offensive zone penalties. There could also be some other motivators here, such as the contract holdout in 2006 and the Islanders scratching him and putting him on the block at the trade deadline this season. The latter should have alerted people that he wasn’t in their long term plans and seen as a redundant part.

The other surprise to some, myself included, is that the Islanders did not put Brendan Witt through waivers as a precursor to a buyout. Many felt that after the team waived him and sent him to the minors last season that he would surely be gone, but as of right now that’s not happening. No one knows if this means we should be thinking about him when we take into account how many defenseman that the team could be looking to add, but it should be noted that after doing the same thing to winger Jon Sim last season, he did make the club this year after improving his game in the minors.

As far as their other unrestricted free agents go, the Islanders have only re-signed Doug Weight. Goalie Martin Biron, wingers Jon Sim, Richard Park and Tim Jackman and defenseman Freddy Meyer all will test the waters, meaning the Islanders will have some holes to fill if they choose to do so through trades or free agency, unless the truly feel some of the other prospects are ready to jump in next season.

While many folks already expected the Islanders to add at least one defenseman over the summer, there is an increased likelihood that they now look into wingers as well. Letting go of Bergenheim at that price could be an indication that the Islanders could do better for their money and upgrade a bit, rather than just bring in anyone for the sake of getting to the salary cap floor. So that is certainly one way to look at it.

Either way, things just got a little more interesting. Of course, we wish our best to both Jeff and Sean.

Soon to come: I’ve been working on my free-agent primer, with guys who I think could be realistic options for the Islanders to go after. Look for that a bit later in the day.

-Chris

nyifyi@gmail.com

Islanders Begin Cleaning House

Well, just as I had anticipated we are now starting to hear some more news with the Stanley Cup Finals coming to a close. Even though the series isn’t over yet, teams are starting to decide what direction to move in with the draft only three weeks away and free agency one month away. For the Islanders, the direction seems to be more clear; a youth movement.

Speaking to Newsday’s Greg Logan, general manager Garth Snow revealed that goalie Wade Dubielewicz, wingers Ruslan Fedotenko and Miro Satan, center Josef Vasicek and defenseman Aaron Johnson will not be retained and will become free agents on July 1. This creates more spots for the young guys such as Kyle Okposo (20), Blake Comeau (22), Jeff Tambellini (24), Ben Walter (24), and Frans Nielsen (24). You can also include whoever the team drafts 5th overall later this month in that list as well.

According to the article, Snow does not yet have a concrete plan as to what to pursue in free agency, and also claims his draft board is not completely set. However, it does seem that they have already determined that a number of spots will be up for grabs for some young players.

The biggest loss out of all of this will be Dubie, who quickly became a fan favorite when he won four straight games at the end of the 2006-07 season to get the Islanders into the playoffs. Last season despite the Isles finishing under .500, Dubie still managed a 9-9-1 record with a 2.70 GAA and a .919 SV. Over the past few seasons, the Isles had difficulty getting good performances out of their backups, with Dubie being the exception.

Snow claimed that Dubie rejected the team’s contract offer, and Logan has speculated that is because the first year might have had a 2-way provision in it because of Joey MacDonald’s 1-way status for the upcoming season. Snow claimed that due to poor conditioning on Dubie’s part, the coaching staff had to ride DiPietro for too many games, thus creating the hip injuries that Rick later sustained.

Regardless of all that, it would seem to me that MacDonald is now the backup for next season. Islander fans grew attached to Dubie, as they do with many players. One has to keep in mind that this happens often especially with backup goalies all around the league, and you can’t get too upset when many of the details of the story are unconfirmed. Now, I wouldn’t expect the team to go after another backup, even though that wouldn’t be a terrible idea. However, MacDonald did look OK in his couple of games with the big club near the end of last season.

As for the other free agents to be, I can’t say I’m surprised to see them go. Satan had a sub-par season, and seems only a shell of the 30 goal per year player he once was and it would not be worthwhile to bring him back. Fedotenko and Vasicek were both one year deals because they were stopgaps, and with the infusion of youth the team is going towards they are no longer needed. Aaron Johnson is young, and due to injuries and a numbers game did not get much time to showcase himself. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t play very well in the time he was given, and didn’t put up the numbers that he proved he could be capable of, even if you projected them over an 82 game season.

Now things are starting to heat up, and while the team still plans on staying competitive next season and making a playoff run, that will all depend on what they do with free agency. A youth movement could mean some youth mixed in with veterans, or a lineup completely full of youth. With no plan in place yet for free agency, we’ll have to wait to get more of an idea.

New Podcast Posted and Some More Line Shuffling

Looking to spark some more offense out of the team, head coach Ted Nolan decided to switch up some of the lines at Wednesdays practice. Bill Guerin was moved to the line with Andy Hilbert and Mike Sillinger, while Trent Hunter was moved to the line with Mike Comrie and Ruslan Fedotenko on it. The Islanders first line did a great job the first couple of games, however they have cooled off since then. Time will tell if the new lines will work, but it does come as a bit of a surprise this early in the season, especially since the Fedotenko-Comrie-Guerin line looked great in preseason and the beginning of the regular season together. Hunter and Sillinger have been relatively quiet in terms of offence, so Nolan hopes the changes benefit both of them as well as the others.

Also spotted at practice was Shawn Bates. He is very close to returning, but has been cleared to play. On the teams website, Nolan said he will put Bates through rigorous practices over the next week and if he hold up well there he will return. Hopefully Bates can come in and chip in the way he once was able to before his groin issues.

Marc-Andre Bergeron appears to be the odd man out once again going into Thursday's game with Washington. Nolan said that he has to work his way back into the lineup, and Bergeron understands that. I know he is a small guy and I don't expect him to constantly hit people off the puck, but as a defenseman he should be able to poke check the puck off an opposing players stick or at the very least be able to control the puck very well on offence. Both of those aspects have been tough for Bergeron, but I do feel that he could turn it around. We'll see though.

As Sean and I said, it is interesting to think what could happen if Bergeron is unable to make the lineup again. With the recent appearance of Jeff Tambellini, one that didn't last very long, you have to wonder if there is something going on with Jeff. I know the Isles respect him and feel he is one of their top prospects, but he has been unable to stick even after Jon Sim went down with injury. If a deal came up where both Tambellini and Bergeron could be packaged, I would imagine Snow would look into it. It's no secret the team needs help offensively, not to mention a really good top pairing defenseman, but I think they can get by on what they have right now as far as defense goes. If Bergeron has a hard time making the lineup, I think this might be something worth watching more closely as time goes on because if the team continues to score goals, something could go down. Snow has already proven that he's not afraid to pull the trigger to fix his team, and that wouldn't be any different this early in the season.

Our podcast from this past Sunday is up at http://www.nyifyi.mypodcast.com/. It was our first live show and it went very well. We tried to do as much analyzing of the games that were in the past week and picked apart some specific things we noticed. Unfortunately, no one called in but hopefully as time goes by people will. For now, enjoy it and don't forget that we will have recaps of the games this week right here.

Chris

Leafs Crush Isles 8-1, Isles Reshuffle Lineup

On Thursday the Islanders lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs 8-1. It was such a disappointment of a game from the Isles as they seemed to be just going through the motions. The defense as a whole was terrible in front of backup goalie Wade Dubielewicz.

Ruslan Fedotenko scored the only goal for the team as he deflected Bruno Gervais' shot from the point on the powerplay in the first period. The Isles went into the first intermission only down 2-1, and it seemed that they could still try and battle back. But that's when it started to go sour.

About 7 minutes into the 2nd, Thomas Kaberle scored for the Leafs and then the goals started to come. For a period and a half, the Isles were hanging in there and could have easily scored to change the momentum but failed.

One thing that killed the isles, aside from their terrible defense was penalty trouble, especially from Jeff Tambellini, who took 3 very lazy and unnecessary penalties. On the subject of special teams, the Isles power play wasn't anything exciting either. They tried to be too fancy and the men at the point, especially Marc-Andre Bergeron had a hard time controlling the puck, which lead to some shorthanded odd man rushes for Toronto, one of which they scored on.

With a tough loss like this all you can do is hang your head high and play better next time out. As I said, for a period and a half things were OK, but the Isles were unable to take control or change the momentum when they had the opportunities.

That next shot comes Saturday night against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Isles lineup will look a bit different. On Friday, the team sent down forward Jeff Tambellini, who failed to stick after getting his shot when Jon Sim went down with injury. Sean Bergenheim, who has looked good in the limited amount of ice time he has seen, now moves up to the second line to play with Miro Satan and Josef Vasicek. Chris Simon also returns for the game, and Shawn Bates is very close to returning. On defense, the Isles are scrapping the idea of going with 7 defensemen and going back to 6, which means one of Bergeron, Gervais, Bryan Berard and Chris Campoli will not be playing. Based on play, Bergeron might be the odd man out. But there has been no inclination from coach Ted Nolan as to who will be sitting.

The game is a bigger one than it might seem for so early in the year, but it is huge. You always want to win games against your division, and a win would out the isles at 4-2, 4 points better than anyone else. With the lack of games between now and the end of the month, it is important to stay up around the top of the division now so that you are not constantly playing catch up with the others. 3-3-0 is not terrible, but seeing as how bad the 2 losses have been so far, (the one against Washington should have been one, the one against Toronto might have been a loss either way), 4-2-0 would sort of make up for all of that. The return of Simon should rally the troops well, not to mention the return of Rick DiPietro to the nets. We'll see what happens.

Park Re-signed, Tamby Recalled, New radio Show Begins Tonight!

Lots of news in Islander Country today. First, forward Richard Park was re-signed to a 2 year contract. He is now under contract through 2009-2010. The deal will pay him $1.5 million over the 2 years. A very good deal in my opinion. Park has done well as the Islanders 4th line center for most of last season and so far this season. Always good to get your own players in the fold early on.

Another big story today was that forward Jeff Tambellini was recalled from Bridgeport. He is going to play for the injured Jon Sim, who will miss some times with a sprained knee. Many islander fans will be happy to see Tamby back up with the team, and I know I am one of them. I am looking forward to tomorrows game and seeing how he does. Hopefully Jon Sim has a speedy recovery.

Last, but certainly not least, is the debut of our new radio show is TONIGHT! Our show will be on at 10 PM, on http://myweb.cwpost.liu.edu/dcox/website/home.html. When the pop up shows, click on Windows Media Player under the Webradio column and enjoy! Unfortunately, due to some programming issues at the radio station, this show was pre-recorded and is missing some news such as the Park signing and the Tambellini call up. That is just for this week though, as we will be on live every Sunday starting October 14th. Starting then we will also have a telephone line available where you can call in and talk Isles hockey with us. Also, we will be uploading a podcast version of the show on http://nyifyi.mypodcast.com/. That should be up and running by tomorrow.

So, make sure you tune in or listen to the podcast, and hopefully we'll here from most of you when we start going live next Sunday!