NEWSDAY, POST KICK SOME PB BUTT
Intriguing stories on Snow, the draft and more
An outstanding two full pages of Islanders coverage in today’s Newsday.
Greg Logan on Garth Snow saying he’s “not inclined” to move the first round pick.
Mark Herrmann looks at the options with the first overall pick and has anonymous executives and former players critique Snow’s work so far.
For added measure, Larry Brooks writes in the Post that when Brian Burke made his power play, Snow said he wanted the Leafs’ 7th overall pick for the NYI’s late first rounder and some seconds.
And Matt Gilroy is just like almost every other professional athlete. He took the highest contract offer and then gave a bogus reason. Matt tells Mark Herrmann that MSG is “the greatest arena in the world. That’s a big reason why I decided to go there.” Oh, that’s why.
Some excellent reads today. I got my butt kicked. I need to have a good next week.
Comments.
68 Responses to NEWSDAY, POST KICK SOME PB BUTT
Intriguing stories on Snow, the draft and more
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beatlebailey says:
how is that brooks doesnt know the isles have the leafs second rounder also? Does anyone do any fact checking before writing. and I love the Post which is the highest form of daily journalism in NY
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spelling and grammar checking would be helpful by certain posters..lol you tell em Garth. F the leafs, rags, and scranton too. Geez is the coliseum ice cursed or what? Painful loss last night
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Aaron says:
the most interesting fact i found was the rebuttal to Tavares not wanting to go to the island being he shares an agent with mark streit. If there is one person to speak on behalf of the franchise, its Streit (maybe Weight).
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Jeff W. says:
Oustanding reply from Garth…that ought to shut up the “fawning Toronto media” for a bit….but, probably not.
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flatpoint says:
I was very pleased to see and read Islander articles in the newspapers you mentioned, but I think you are being a little hard on yourself saying you got your butt kicked. This site has been such a gift to all of us information starved Islander fans.Thanks for all of your hard work.
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Islesphan25 says:
CB never say that….Beacause of you The other news services are just trying to keep up. Any coverage of the Islanders is great.
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Isles6 says:
CB, this site has been the best site all year to get Isles coverage, and you are a one man show. Those other folks have many more resources.Nice to see that the GM still has some of the fiestiness in the front office that he had on the ice.
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Isle be Damned says:
Don’t beat yourself up CB. You’re also the only person who bothered to cover the Soundtigers game. I realize a minor league hockey playoff series isn’t going to get much press in NYC, especially when you consider 2 local teams are involved, but still.
anyway, if the Brooks story is accurate then I LOVE it. Burke probably was not expecting that at all.
Snow is a heck of a lot better GM than the fans & the hockey media give him credit for.
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art says:
From a publicity point of view the best thing that Snow could do is to pick Tavares NOW! That would keep the ISLES in the local and national spotlight. This in turn would be a positive for also keeping the Lighthouse project in full flame. The bottom line; We want the future to be the NY Islanders and not the KC Prarielanders!
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IslesFanInBkNY says:
CB you are the best hockey writer in my book with BD close second and young mr.Bourne and Greg Logan tied for third. That’s enough reading to go through the week, so screw everyone else.
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bob says:
The Isles made the playoffs two years ago. This year they finished with the worst record in hockey. Were they the worst since th lockout?
To give Garth Snow high marks would be absurd. After the Smyth deal, he declared the Isles a “cup contender”…. look it up. And now they are the worst team in hockey.
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Brian B says:
I was just thinking…if there’s a trade it’s definitely not gonna be toronto. Cause other teams are probably looking at what toronto has to offer and are saying to themselves, “hey…i can do better.” So if Snow does trade the pick, it’ll be to another team and probably for a really good package
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greg says:
What is the best we can do with San Jose’s pick if Anaheim pulls off the upset (much ado about pittsburgh/guerin pick but anaheim is the team we should be rooting for)? I have heard 15th but is that right?
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Warren says:
Hi, Islander Fans now take a breath and hopefully Garth would not take the temptation from the Leafs and make the wise pick. Lets hope that will happen. Like I said in other posts. We will be in chase for the “Cup” next year. “Lets go Islanders”
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kabbage says:
Now when I think of Burke I picture a small monkey that can’t climb trees looking up at the fruit (Tavares and Hedman) hanging in the tree that he can’t have! Instead he picks up some of the fruit that has fallen to the ground (college FA’s).
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Coach B says:
Tavares agent, Pat Brisson was on Toronto radio the other day and said what has been said all along-Tavares will go where he is drafted. No need to worry.
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bergie20 says:
it annoys me that hermann blames snow for don waddel’s stupid decision to trade coyburn for zhitnik. nobody saw that one coming. he got fair value for zhitnik with meyer and the pick. otherwise a good article. glad that we are apparently keeping the pick.
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lefty says:
If Snow can pull off that deal for the 7Th pick that would be great.
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Seth.P says:
so let me get this sraight he will not trade the number 1 pick but he would like to use some of his other picks to move up? and if so is that a sign we will draft tavares or hedman at number 1?
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john says:
First of all CB, great job this year. Other than Newsday this site is the only place to go to get accurate information about the Islanders. Plus I think because of this site, you’ve forced Newsday to work a little harder.
2) I was the first to say “here we go again” when Snow was hired. The whole Neil Smith – Isles Committe and then hiring the backup goalie to be the GM was laughable. It made the franchise look second rate, which it was.
However, I think Snow has done a good job. The Smyth trade was bold and could have help the team win a playoff series. However, when Smyth decided to leave, Snow came to the realization that the Isles could not continue to attempt to make trades and sign marginal FA to become a cup contender. He would have to gut the team and rebuild through the draft. This was a touch decision to make for an new GM. But, in a short time he is off to a good start on the rebuild. I think all the injuries and problem in 2008-09 was a blessing in disguise. With the 13 picks from 2008 and the 11 in the 2009 draft, plus a few picks from the prior years (Okposo, Joensuu, Figren, Katic, Kessell MacDonald ect) the Islanders have a foundation to start to build from. Be patient, 2009-10 (Rebuild part 2) will be another long year, with lots of loses. But will give the Isles one more good draft (2010) to build from. The Islanders are finally headed in the right direction, thanks to Smyth leaving. -
Blizzard says: I love the dealing for their seventh pick angle, that was great. JT is an Islander, and rightly so. Funny noone bitched at Pitt and Washington when they drafted superstars. Its our time.
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islesphan says:
Brooks says the highest the San Jose pick can be is 26? CB….can you clarify? I keep hearing different things. What is the best we can get? I believe it’s 22. I may be wrong. Thanks.
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matt says:
If i were snow i would try to trade with tamba. imagine getting Vinny and hedman i would do it u get 2 solid players..
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vinny dosent want to be a islander and i think he has a no trade clause too
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HIs no trade clause kicks in July 1…Thats why the Habs are trying to get in or were…
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Islesphan (23): Its 26, not 22. playoff seeding only works later on, if they go out early they are seeded based on the regular season.
lefty (19): Aint gonna happen IMO. I think Garth was just making a point with that- and a good point to make, too.
Seth (25): I believe Vinny’s NTC kicks in this upcoming season… which is what has led to all the speculation of dealing him. I dont see him coming here, though.
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DM says:
#14 – who knows how high we can go with that pick and either of the high 2nds, but i would hope Snow calls every team from 8 – 17 and sees if they’re interested in any kind of deal. getting tavares would obviously be amazing, but getting another top-tier prospect (forward or dman, doesn’t matter to me, we just need more good players everywhere) would REALLY make this a huge draft.
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seth – who knows…all depends what prospects they like in the 8 – 17-ish range…i can def see them taking tavares OR hedman then hoping a guy they like drops to a spot they can make a trade up to DURING the draft. i would think snow has to know they can use more talent everywhere, offense or defense.
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Post 20 – I don’t think it really gives us any definitive idea as to what they’ll do. But IF Snow was able to get the 7th pick, then I’d have to take a guess and say that they’d go with Hedman #1 & draft a forward @ #7. I say that only because there seems to be a lot more forwards in the top 7 than Dmen in most prospect ranking lists I’ve seen.
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i have read that about more forwards in the top part of the draft, but i’m honestly ignorant about who’s on anyone’s boards in the mid-first round range, which i think is more likely to be where we trade up to if we do trade up.
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Michael from T.O. says:
First off, CB this site is awesome. You cannot find the insight you bring to Isles fans from anywhere! Keep writing and we will all keep reading.
Secondly, I’m tired of Burke trying to bully the GMs around the league. He tried to do it to Lowe in Edmonton regarding the Penner situation. I’m glad Snow took the approach he did. Who does this guy think he is. I really hope the nobody deals with the Leafs and they are stuck at the #7 spot. It is time people give back to Burke what he has given to them.
As for Snow, I love the way he has handled the entire situation. The only move I question was the fact he waited so long to fire Nolan. It would have been good to see Gordon at the draft table last year, but that is water under the bridge. I hope Snow can move up into the top ten by trading a few other picks.
This draft is going to be very interesting as is the team in October. -
Rob76 says:
The more i read the more i think that they will take Hedman and disappoint the 90% of Isles fans that want Tavares
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steve says:
while i prefer hedman over tavares, if the isles are able to move up, it would be great to see them select tavares and then another foward. with, KO and Bailey, your looking at two sets of young players developing together, forming our top 2 lines. that would make next season fun to watch.
you’d have to find somebody in the top 10 looking for draft depth opposed to a single high pick.
a reporter begging tavares not to come to Long Island. that isn’t reporting, thats creative writing. Hes an embarassment to the profession. -
StevieL says:
I thought I was reading the Hockey News with Newsday today!! Great stuff on Tavares and Hedman. I also loved the bios on the Isle mgmt. decision makers. I loved the story on how Milbury was asked by the press about his decision to pass on Zach Parise, “We questioned his skating ability”! (where have we heard that before!) There is also a great story on Landon Ferraro in there! I would love to know who the GM’s were that were giving observations! Lou, is that you??
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mike 8 says:
Gilroy admits in the article that he never even attended a hockey game at msg. Funny how it suddenly became the greatest arena to play in.
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db says:
i think the islanders are drafting tavares and if they moved up to a top 10 pick it would be to draft cowan, who was a top 5 pick until he hurt his leg. other wise i think hes just playing games with burke and will move up to the mid teens to get a big defensemen like despres, kulikov or moore.
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Pat says:
Are there 27 other teams in the NHL ( Rags do not count) – so is Toronto the only team with a shot to trading up to # 1 ? What a joke.
Tough loss by the S.T. last night. Good chance to see them play and I was heartbroken when we lost — hope they win today !
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Michael says:
haha thats awesome garth did that…. well played….and im sure he genuinely wants that pick though. We could maybe steal Cowen at #7. Or Schenn’s little brother.
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Luke R says:
i’m sure garth was serious, but burke can’t give up the 7 without trading up. the fans and the media in toronto would lose their minds.
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streit 02 says:
Also, one guy even went as far as discrediting the Isles 4 cups and their rich history b/c john tavares wasnt born at the time. Tell me what has Toronto accomplished since Tavares was born. hahaha
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BC says:
If the Islanders were able to move up and take Toronto’s number 7 pick, I think they Islanders will and should take Tavares number 1 and take a defenseman at 7 such as Jared Cowan, who is almost as big as Hedman.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I do think the lowest the San Jose pick can drop is 22. After the first round, 8 teams are out of the playoffs, and they will be given picks 15-22. These picks are decided by regular season standings. Since San Jose had the most points in the league in the regular season, they could only get pick 22.
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geduffer says:
#47 – The conference finalists are seeded 27-30 and everyone else is by record so the Sharks pick would be 26th if they lost in one of the 1st 2 rounds, 28th as a losing conference finalist, 29th as losing finalist or 30th.
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kreatiiv says:
CB a question that i havent seen discussed anywhere regarding the rangers and gilroy…. didnt the rags have cap issues already heading into next season to pull off another high profile high dollar contract? are we going to see craziness over the summer with them trying to dump salary for this signing?
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and if that is the case, is this really a smart long term signing for a 25 yr old entry level contract for a player that might not develop NHL until he is a free agent? i would love to see them dump proven players from this years team because they signed him and then have him not pan out, as much as a long islander as he is… he is now a rag.
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Tom D 37 says:
geduffer #50, you have everything correct, except that if SJ loses in round one, the pick is at #22, #26 if they lose in the 2nd round.
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yeah, I stand corrected. Sorry, about that. I thought they did it with first round losers picking between 15-22, it would have made more sense, but oh well. Here’s a link for anyone who wants it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHL_Entry_Draft -
Hock says:
I’m really interested to see what Garth will pull off with his other first round pick. I hope he can move it up and land a good D-man or a big goal scoring winger.
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HilbertSnipe says:
On Gilroy…. Snow had a plan all along! Let the Rags overpay him just to develop him for two years. He then becomes a UFA and signs with the Islanders just in time for their first run for the cup since 1993!!!!!!!!
Nah, I don’t like him that much. Could have been a developing asset… and still can become a developing asset for us, just a little later down the road.
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Nice post John (21)-A very good look at the big picture and how the plan is taking shape. Snow is going to do something at the draft, likey not with the first pick but he could be very active.
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CB what do you think the odds are of the Isles moving up in the draft from SJ’s pick? Do you think current roster players could be offered into a package?
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Matt says:
keep that payroll as low as possible and then when we have our core formed, sprinkle in some free agents.
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i agree 100% with John(21) post as well. Garth could have put together the same teams we had with the Yashin era, but we werent going anywhere with them. However, i dont feel like we started from scratch. I feel we have some very important pieces on the team right now. If Dipietro can stay healthy (and the rest of the team for that matter) i think all we need is 2 big ticket FA signings (1D and 1F) and we can be in the playoffs in 2yrs.
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Hey CB can you please put a countdown to the draft clock on the homepage?
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DPS says:
I can see the snow cool aid has made its way on to the blog again. Guys we are miles and miles away. We were by far and away THE WORST team in the nhl. The idea of signing 2 FAs and making the playoffs is crazy. We need at least 2 marquee free agent fwds and at least 2 marquee free agent dmen. While trading our prospects for over the hill vets is clearly not the right move, we need to have a good offseason in free agency. Players do not want to play here because they believe the islanders are a team that is not committed to winning. We need to add talented players to this roster. The Guerrin trade was horrible. A third rounder is useless. Billy is playing on the first line in Pitt with Crosby and Malkin. What does that say? He should have been given another 1 year deal. In a salary capped sport, building a competitive team just isnt as hard as Snow wants everyone to believe. Its as simple as drafting well scouted players and signing free agents in their prime who have TALENT.
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Neil says:
The next thing Mark Hermann writes that I didn’t already know will be the first. CB, don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be the first to break whether it’s Tavares or Hedman coming to the NYI. In fact, I’ll post odds.
CB- Even
Logan – 4-1
McKenzie 8-1
Dreger 10-1
Brooks – 15-1
Francesa – 50-1 (To announce a scoop of the wrong guy 30-1)
A news organization in Sweden: 75-1
NY Times: 100-1 (To go out of business before the draft 90-1) -
DPS you make some good points, but you need to put things into perspective. The reason why we were by far the worst team in the league is b/c most of our roster was hurt the whole season. Our starting goaltender was lost for the year! There are only a handful of teams in the league that would be able to handle that alone. The injuries this team faced the past season were absurd. Add another year of experience to the kids and that we now have a solid system in place that doesnt have to be taught from scratch next year. The Guerin trade was not horrible. At the time of the trade Guerin’s value was not that high. Im sure Snow did pass on better deals to take a conditional pick with the potential for it to be a 3rd rounder. He simply got what he could based on the market. He also should not have been signed to another deal as it was obvious that he wasnt happy with his role on the team anymore. Snow also made the best FA signing of last summer in Streit. And according to your last statement of “its as simple as drafting well scouted players and signing fA’s in their prime who have TALENT”, thats exactly what Snow is doing so i dont understand what your animosity is towards Snow. Lighten up a bit we’ll be fine, its just not going to happen overnight
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West Coast Fan says:
CB, you’ve provided the best Isles coverage since the Pat Calabria days. I read Newsday online, and no offense to the staff writers, but… I pretty much skim through their articles as an afterthought on my way to the Point Blank link. Keep up the outstanding work, and let us know if there’s any lobbying we can do to ensure this keeps going past Memorial Day…
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DPS, even healthy we suck. Snow has not proven anything yet.
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Akeem says:
Didn’t know that JT’s agent was the same agent who represents the Matza Man. Bodes well for us.
Also, CB is SO right. The hockey hubris of Torontonians is so apparent it’s nauseating. I think people underestimate the fanbase of the Islanders. The Isles had respectable attendance figures considering they were a last place team. There are plenty of die hards out there, Simmons, Burke and the fawning media just don’t know about us… -
I think the only way the Isles could trade up with the SJ #1 pick is to link it with a present roster player, (i.e. Witt, Sutton, Hunter, Martinek) and trading it to a team that didn’t make the playoffs this year and needs to make them next year (Edmonton, Florida, Nashville, Buffalo, Minnasota). This doesn’t get the Isles to the top ten but a 10 to 15 pick would be nice.
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Rich says:
“Snow hasn’t proven anything yet”. Really? I have to disagree. He proved he could learn from his mistakes by stopping with the stupid notion that they could build this team through free agency when NO top free agents want to sign here. This is something some fans still have not learned. FREE AGENTS WHO ARE GOOD DO NOT WANT TO PLAY HERE. Hellllloooooo? They sign with other teams for less money then we offer them! He proved he could find diamonds in the rough by signing Streit. He proved he could recognize heart and grit by resigning Jackman. He proved he can be tough and tell other GMs where they can stick their laughable offers (Burke). He proved that he can trade away mediocre players and get good return for upcoming drafts ( see Mike Comrie). He has also seemed to talk Wang into stepping back a bit to let the hockey people do their jobs. I could go on but I will stop there and just add that Snow has made mistakes in the past but has obviously learned from them and improved to the point that other hockey people are now giving him credit for doing the right things for this organization.
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Pd says:
its pretty funny that noone likes brian burke or the leafs b/c they try to attract as much attention as possible. I think Garth will make the right move as long as millbury is nowhere near the draft table on june 26.
who needs gilroy anyway? the rangers just throw a nice number at him and he hasnt played 1 nhl game yet. watch this bust.
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Rich, that was hilarious. Snow is part of the reason that players do not want to come here. There is no reason for any good FA to have any confidence in Snow. Heelllloooo lol! Yea that Jackman who gets beat up constantly is a real find. Another career 4th liner. There is a bottom line and that is Snow’s team absolutely sucks.
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lefty (66): The Islanders by many accounts had two of the best FA signings of the year last summer in Weight and Streit. Also, Tim Jackman was ranked top 10 in the NHL in fights- and out of his nineteen fights he was deemed to have lost a whopping 5 of them. So you can of course feel however you want, I just dont think the two reasons you gave here are doing anything to hold up your argument.
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Ducks WIN!!! Up to 2-0 & going back to Anaheim…If San Jose loses in this round or even if San Jose loses in 2nd rd, we will get the 26th overall Pick!(not the 30th) That gives us a shot at Zach Budish, Landon Ferraro & Calvin Dehann..
Nice retort by Garth, “Hey Burkie, here’s our late first and some sloppy seconds”. Snowy throwin off the gloves!
Let Gilroy play at The Garden. Maybe his contract will end up being Redden light. How’s that one working out for the Rags so far?