Monthly Archives: April 2009
We spoke with Islanders prospect Justin DiBenedetto on the eve of Game 4 of the AHL first round matchup between his Bridgeport Sound Tigers and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The 2008 sixth round pick made his pro debut on Sunday in Bridgeport’s come-from-behind, overtime victory in Pennysylvania. The Sound Tigers trail the series, 2 games to 1. Wednesday’s game is at the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport at 7:05 pm.
You made your pro debut on Sunday in Game 3 of an AHL playoff series. What was it like?
It was a bit of a challenge because my last game with Sarnia was three weeks ago. I was a little rusty and I figured my timing might be off. But I worked hard at every practice since joining Bridgeport and did everything I could to be ready if I ever got the call.
Did you learn anything from watching the Bridgeport games?
Definitely. I didn’t miss a second of them. I got to see four – two in Bridgeport the final weekend of the regular season and the first two playoff games at the Coliseum. I was taught our system in practices and in extra sessions with the coaches, but it was really beneficial to see it in action.
How would you rate your pro debut?
Overall it was a good experience. I thought as the game went on, I started to get my timing. I was more comfortable. I don’t think I looked like I didn’t belong. I learned a lot from it.
Late in regulation, you joined a few teammates in a scrum.
You never feel more like you’re officially part of a team than when you’re backing a teammate up, or guys are backing you up. Yeah, that was good.
Is the Islanders/Sound Tigers system one you can thrive in?
I think it definitely plays to my strengths and my offensive ability. The key is to keep your feet moving. As long as I do that consistently, I should be all right.
What did you do on Monday and Tuesday in preparation for Game 4?
Monday was an off-ice day for most of the team, but since I only played Game 3 I skated with all the extras in Shelton. I’m not a regular in the lineup. No idea if I’m back in for Game 4, but I have to approach it like I am. (Assistant coaches) Matt Bertani and Eric Cairns gave us a good workout. Tuesday was a regular practice for everyone. At night, I just lay low, grab some dinner and make it an early one.
Who do they have you rooming with at the team hotel?
Nobody, actually. Everyone’s paired up, and I’m the odd man out. I guess it has its pluses and minuses.
I figured you would have been with (Sarnia teammate) Mark Katic.
Nope. Mark was already in a place with Jason Pitton before I got here.
You came back with another strong season after you were drafted in the sixth round. Your critics thought your production a year ago was a result of playing in Sarnia with Steven Stamkos.
Yeah, I had something to prove. Whenever you play with a guy who becomes the first overall pick, people are going to say your stats are inflated. You can say I had an extra spark, some added motivation this season. I think I kept the doubters a little more quiet.
I thought your entry-level signing might take longer than it did because you were drafted in the sixth round but put up huge numbers in your last year in junior.
I was anxious to get it done. No matter when I was drafted, the Islanders were the team that gave me the chance. It was also the Islanders organization that sent coaches and scouts regularly to Sarnia to pay close attention to me, Kats and Matt Martin. This is a very good situation for me. My goal is to get to the NHL so it pays off for everyone.
What do you think you need to improve to get to the NHL?
Like a lot of players just out of junior, I know I have to get quicker and I have to build strength. It’s on me, with the Islanders guiding my development, to get there.
You seem pretty low-key for someone who just made their professional hockey debut.
No way. It might just seem that way over the phone. To say all this has been exciting would be a major understatement.
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As he predicted to us on Friday at the Coliseum, Blake Comeau (fractured wrist) has been cleared to play and has been officially re-assigned to Bridgeport. No word yet if he’ll be in the lineup Wednesday night.
We’re now in a twilight zone where every story posted automatically morphs into a thread about Tavares, Hedman and the draft. The vibe I felt off the coverage by Kevin Schultz and I of the first three games of the Sound Tigers’ playoffs led me to believe maybe there isn’t a big audience for it. So tonight you are the managing editor. Would you like Point Blank to cover Game 4 in Bridgeport against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton live from the Arena at Harbor Yard? One response per reader, on this topic only. I will take your direction.
If I owned a sports team, and that team had so much riding on the first overall pick in the draft, I would want to check out the top kids, too. Not to scout, mind you – I’d leave that to the people I pay for their expertise – but just to get a little feel for how the 18-year old handles himself on the ice. And let’s be real: if you owned the Islanders, so would you.
Presenting Charles Wang with Garth Snow last night, watching John Tavares and the London Knights take on Ryan Ellis and the Windsor Spitfires. For the record, I think it’s admirable Wang took the time. Some PB readers still say most sports team owners are just in it for the real estate. I don’t know any who take a night away from home and business to fly to London, Ontario to watch a junior league hockey game.
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One reason provided by the defense in the case of You Must Consider All First Overall Pick Trade Options goes something like this:
What if the Islanders are offered a later first round pick, another second, two threes and a team’s first round picks (whenever they will be) for the next three years?
To which I say, when is enough enough?
2008
1 Josh Bailey
3 2nd rounders (Trivino, Ness, Hamonic)
3 3rd round picks
2 4th round picks
2 5th round picks
2 6th round picks
2006
1 Kyle Okposo
2 Jesse Joensuu
3 Robin Figren
4 4th round picks
2 5th round picks
3 6th round picks
In 2009, the Islanders currently have the following:
1 1st overall pick
1 late 1st round pick (San Jose, between 26-30th overall)
3 second rounders – including the first pick in the round, the 37th overall (from Toronto in the 5-7-9 maneuver) and the 59th overall from Boston (with Ben Walter for Petteri Nokelainen)
2 3rd round picks – their own (the first in the round) plus Pittsburgh’s if Bill Guerin and the Pens get by Philadelphia
Plus selections in the 4th, 5th and 6th rounds
To sum up, the Islanders in June are scheduled to acquire the franchise player of their choice with the first overall pick. And then they have 3 picks between 26th and 37th overall. On the bet that the Islanders are not going to be a powerhouse that improves from last overall to a playoff berth in 2009-2010, they should have a top-15 pick (and quite possibly much better) in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.
And then it would be fair to say the Islanders have finally had enough kicks at the draft can.
You would hope that after all the picks in 2006, 2008 and 2009 – including Kyle Okposo and at least one cornerstone in June – the Islanders would move on to the next stage of the program: trades and free agency. With unrestricted free agency beginning at the early age of 26, you cannot build solely through the draft.
To be clear, the Islanders organization itself has never defined the upcoming season as Year 2 of a three-year rebuilding program. That’s been my projection of when an NHL franchise can reasonably right the ship via the draft without blowing the salary cap on premature, ill-conceived offers to UFAs. Perhaps the NYI see it as a four-year plan or a two-year plan or a five-year plan. I can’t answer for that, and I don’t think the Islanders will publicly put a deadline on it.
But wasn’t the point of the 5-7-9 last summer to add quality and quantity of prospects to the launch of the rebuild? That’s fine, but now the team doesn’t have to push back the timeline any further. You have to believe the Islanders will not. They cannot. The Islanders still have openings all over the roster if they are to contend for a championship, but they should only need so many draft selections to fill them. Wherever they fall short, there are other ways to acquire talent.
After the Islanders make the first overall pick on June 26 and spend a few minutes greeting the kid and his family, they will turn their attention to the middle of the first round. Garth Snow will be on the draft table phone throughout packaging San Jose’s late first rounder with one of the Islanders’ early 2s. To get closer to the 15th overall pick than the 20th, he might need to include more than he (and probably you) would like.
But even if Snow is unable to move up, it’s on Ryan Jankowski and the scouting staff to get a trio of impact players with their three current selections after the first overall. Anyone can get it right with the first overall pick (right?). Jankowski and Co. make their money by nailing picks like the 26th, 31st and 37th overall. They earn bonus bucks – or at least eternal gratitude – by hitting later-round steals.
The Islanders’ scouts made 13 selections in the 7-round 2006 draft. They grabbed some solid prospects like Mark Katic and Jason Gregoire in the Ryan Smyth-shortened 2007 draft. They had their choice of 13 prospects in the 6-round 2008 draft. If they don’t make a single move, they have a bonanza of selections in June. If the scouts are good at what they do – and so far, they’ve proven to be pretty good – they don’t need to be spoiled with any more draft picks.
Unless, that is, you want to be perpetually rebuilding. The Islanders’ first round pick in 2010 should signal the end of the drafting phase of the tear-it-down, build-it-up process.
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Islanders prospect Justin DiBenedetto played the last four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League against John Tavares. The 2008 sixth round pick – the OHL’s third-leading scorer – says he’ll let the scouting mavens decide which 18-year olds should be drafted first, second and third, but he was not shy in his praise of Tavares.
“John Tavares is going to be a great player in the National Hockey League,” DiBenedetto said by phone Monday night from his Connecticut hotel, where he’s staying during the AHL playoffs with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
“As much as any player I went up against in four years in the OHL, Tavares was the guy our team always had to pay attention to,” said DiBenedetto. “From the hashmarks down, he’s just unbelievable. You know he’s going to score.”
I mentioned to DiBenedetto about some of the recent talk in the scouting community that Tavares may be a pure goal scorer but not a playmaker. He let out a small laugh.
“I’m going to have to disagree on that one. Believe me, Tavares can score goals and make plays,” he said, recalling four years of playing against the phenom when DiBenedetto was with St. Michael’s and Sarnia and Tavares was with Oshawa and London. “You know how that works sometimes in the press as the draft gets closer. Everything starts to get picked at. What did he have – 58 goals? If his goal and assist numbers were reversed, they’d still be great but everyone would say he’s not a finisher.
“That’s just the way it is this time of year. John’s been an incredible player for four years in the OHL and I’m sure he will be wherever he ends up in the NHL.”
DiBenedetto is less familar with Brampton center Matt Duchene, expected to go in the top 3 overall selections in the draft. “He’s only been in the league two years,” said the Sound Tiger, “but from what I saw Duchene is going to be a very good all-around hockey player.”
ETC: DiBenedetto was named the OHL’s Overage Player of the Year for 2008-09. Three years ago, forward Ryan Callahan – one of the Rangers’ most effective players this season – took home the honors. More on DiBenedetto coming soon.
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UPDATED at 9:50 pm - Windsor wins tonight in London, 5-4 in overtime, after the home team rallies with three goals in the third to tie it. The winning goal is scored 59 seconds into overtime by Andrei Loktionov, assisted by Taylor Hall and Dale Mitchell. Hall, for now, is the consensus first overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft. With Garth Snow and Charles Wang in attendance (as per Greg Logan), John Tavares is held without a point.
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Greg Logan, bloggin’ maniac of late, has two excellent items tonight. He breaks exclusively that Charles Wang and Garth Snow are watching London vs. Windsor. He also has an interview with Pat Brisson, the agent for London’s John Tavares. Brisson tells Newsday that Tavares wants to be selected first overall by the Islanders and he has some interesting comments on scouting reports and Matt Duchene, also a client. My hat’s off to you, Greg. I’ll do my best to meet the challenge.
In other items, I want to clarify that Kyle Woodlief’s work on the Redline Report has nothing to do with Toronto or any kind of conspiracy. He has Duchene over Tavares, I had some fun with it, and that’s all there is. Heck, this site had Duchene in the conversation for the last four months, too.
Said it before and I’ll probably say it a few more times over the next few weeks: if any scout or hockey ops person is going to place 80% of their grade for Tavares in these OHL playoffs after a four-year body of work, that’s how legendary mistakes are made. In an unrelated item, apparently there were concerns about Zach Parise’s skating when he was 18.
My point exactly.
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If I owned an independent scouting service – as opposed to an independent, “team-sponsored” blog – the last thing I would do is echo the chorus.
No, if I owned an independent scouting service and relied upon cash-paying subscribers signing up for the privilege of my expertise, I’d have to give them something different.
If I owned an independent scouting service and ranked John Tavares and Victor Hedman 1-2 (in any order), my work would be worthless. How could I promise my subscribers a perspective they won’t get anywhere else? How could I charge between $40 (for a 4-page report) and $275 (for the full 12-page newsletter)?
Here’s what I would do. I would put Hedman at No. 1 (can’t go too much against the grain) and then place Matt Duchene ahead of Tavares. I would over-analyze every shift of Tavares in the playoffs of his fourth and final season in the Ontario Hockey League. (Tavares is an awful 9-10-19 in 12 games). To really stir it up, I would criticize his “sense of entitlement.” I mean, he’s 18 years old. Grow up already, kid.
And then, if I had a scouting service, a few years later I would hope no one remember that I ranked Matt Duchene ahead of John Tavares.
Congrats, Kyle W. You’ve got people talking – always a good thing. I welcome a response. Sign up here for the Red Line Report. Comments. Comment Guidelines.
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