WHEN CHARLES AND GARTH MET JOHNNY T
They didn’t just scout. They met with the kid.
“How could we travel all that way and not say hello?” Garth Snow said tonight.
Turns out Snow and Charles Wang didn’t just watch John Tavares play on Monday night. They met with the potential No. 1 pick after the game. “It was the first time I met them,” Tavares told Ryan Pyette of the London Free Press. “It was overwhelming to talk to NHL guys like that.”
The great Damien Cox reports that NYI assistant GM Ryan Jankowski watched Matt Duchene’s Third Star performance in the OHL playoffs last night. Or maybe Jankowski was focused on 6-3, 210-pound (at age 18) Brampton defenseman Matt Clark as a possibility with one of the team’s second round picks.
Common sense would lead you to believe Jankowski was in Windsor tonight to watch Tavares. With a few smallish, puck-moving dmen already in the system – led by Aaron Ness – wouldn’t count on the Islanders zeroing in on the magnificent Ryan Ellis of Windsor. Ellis will definitely go top 15, maybe top 10. Can’t see the Islanders trading up to take him. A skill forward yes, but probably not another “Rafalski-like” defenseman. Comments.
75 Responses to WHEN CHARLES AND GARTH MET JOHNNY T
They didn’t just scout. They met with the kid.
-
TIM says:
well i hope he made an impression on the two
-
Jimmy Mac says:
Watching the game now.
Just going into overtime.
Windsor is awesome… imagine if Bailey would have been there.
-
alex says:
what i wouldn’t give to know what was discussed between the 3 of them!
-
Chickendirt says:
Hey man!!!
Just what exactly is it that we are looking at in the 2nd round. This is the first time I think I’ve seen you touch on the subject. If you don’t feel like writing about it is their another reliable source we can go to?
I’ve seen a bit of what’s available in the late first not much about the rounds after.
-
Mark in Ottawa says:
Chris Botta continues to confirm his status as “The Man”.
Great work – Thanks for the Info !
-
MACCH says:
I’ve flip flopped back and forth, but Tavares has to be the pick. You cant pass on a talent like JT. There are very good 2nd tier dmen in the late first and early 2nd round.
Do the right thing Garth, take JT
-
RAmen says:
love it – Do your homework boys!
-
Mike from Philly says:
Hope Charles and Garth did not scare Tavares!!
JT will look good in blue and orange!
-
Hey CB…
What’s with the moderation???
Too many bad apples???
-
Matt says:
after watching the ranger game tonight, i want islander playoff hockey to return so badly. i can’t wait for this rebuild to be over!
-
Justin Marques says:
While it is of course interesting that Garth Snow and Charles Wang took the time to visit with John Tavares, I do believe we had to expect that at some time prior to Tavares’ team possibly facing elimination. It is a big investment, and Wang does deserve to be there by all means. The face to face meeting is another good step, as I hope that Tavares is at ease knowing that the Islanders can be a classy organization as well. I really do hope, however, that the Islanders are assessing top 10-20 picks in the draft, as I truly do hope the Isles take Tavares first overall, and then jump on a blue-chip defensive prospect with size. I have said it many times before, but I hope they are looking at players like SImon Despres. He is a big time player, with a big stature.
-
RichM says:
Taveras’ team has just been eliminated in the playoffs. He was quiet in the series.
-
Nor says:
Windsor wins in OT. Tavares’ junior career is history.
-
Moose says:
Welcome Aboard, JT.
-
Larry says:
#10. 15 games 11 goals 12 assits 23 points, he was quiet? Tavares just does what he has been doing his whole hockey career, put up more points than games played
-
John k says:
Does anyone think that being eliminated from the playoffs could be a good thing for JT in the long run? Let him see everything is not gonna just come to him? Maybe add to his desire to work hard and win. I think this kid is really gonna have something to prove in the NHL, and I think helping a team like the Isles turn around could really motivate him.
As much as Hedman sounds good. I think JT is the better choice. But after that a lead defensman of size (and more skill than Sutton) is a huge need.
I think Snow and Wang are doing well and I think they have the New York Islanders best intrest in mind with all this. Now I just hope all this talent we’re cultivating starts to grow.
-
Steve says:
Thanks for keeping things in perspective, Chris. However nothing that has happened or can happen now should remove JT as #1 on the consensus list. It should be in the bank.
-
Diamond says:
Yea 6 points is real quiet.
-
hathead68 says:
Let’s lay off DiPietro… his injuries are not his fault. The guy keeps himself in phenomenal shape and has proven himself an All-Star caliber goalie. Brodeur himself said 2yrs ago that he thought the sky is the limit for him. If he can put his injuries behind him, he’ll be a huge reason for our climb up the ladder. The guy cares. That being said, here’s hoping that JT will be pulling an Islanders jersey over his head on June 26th.
-
Shoe says:
CB – how did dibenedetto look? I know it is tough to tell with a 1 game sample, but, from your experience, did you see anything you liked?
-
db says:
im convinced if danis/mcdonald were in net for the rangers this year they would be picking tavares with the #1 pick and not the islanders.
-
JM7722 says:
I want Hall next year… but I don’t want to lose again to get the #1.
-
MT says:
Exactly what Snow said
-
bergie20 says:
glad to see we me with JT. i’d be surprised if we didn’t take him at this point. i will be mad if we take ellis. we already have 923 d-men like him in our pipeline. we need d-men with some size. matt clark is certainly a 2nd round possibility for this reason. chris – can you do an article on possible picks for us with the sj first rounder, the 3 2nd’s, and 2 3rd rounders. thanks.
-
Heineken says:
agree with #20 lets see what you think isles do with sj first rounder, the 3 2nd’s, and 2 3rd rounders. thanks.
-
Craig says:
There is no guarentee Ness will pan out and if the opportunity is there, I feel the Islanders should consider going after Ellis. If not ellis, they should try and trade up for one of the top defensive prospects in the game. They have plenty of prospects but lack top end talent prospects. Rebuilding is nice and good but if you have no star quality players waiting in the wings, rebuilding won’t work. We need more than just Ness and Trivino to be successful. draft tavares and trade up for one of the better defensive prospects after hedman or draft someone like Rajala who had an amazing U18 tournament. The kid could be real special.
-
chris, any chance this team can compete for the playoffs next year?
-
Any goalie worth mentioning in the 2nd round? Maybe its worth taking a goalie just in case with DP, ya DP is the franchise but who knows with DP and all the injuries. As much as i love DP and how much when he’s healthy he can change a game we have to worry and perhaps draft someone incase! Cant rely on Danis/Mcdonald/Mannino/lawson.
-
Heineken – imo, the isles HAVE TO take a goalie in the 2nd round. isles have neglected this position for too long. it’s one of our biggest needs. mike lee, scott stacjcer, robin lehner, edward pasquale, matthew hackett, oliver roy are all possibilities. would love to see an article on how scouts rank them. there’s no real clear cut #1 goalie in this draft. it’s possible that none go in the first round.
-
#21- He was playing right after suffering from back to back concussions. The only reason we were in playoff position at all 2 seasons ago was because of him! The Rangers wouldn’t even sniff the playoffs without Lundquist. They got lucky with him, Get over it. If KO or JT became had injuries would you be hating them too? Kenny Jonsson was a terrific defenseman but also had injury problems..but I guess he sucked and didn’t give a rat’s a** either!
-
I did some research 2nite and found some interesting trends in prior NHL drafts. I looked at a 10 year span from 1997 to 2006 (can’t judge the ’07 and ’08 drafts yet) and found out that there is about an 87% chance if you draft a forward in the top 3 picks you will have an all star player or better. In that span, 23 of the 30 picks were forwards. I only can identify three busts, namely Stefan, Cam Barker and Svitov of TB. The names of the other 20 are all over the all star rosters or soon to be rosters. They are Crosby, Ovechkin, Nash, Kovalchuk, Lacavalier, Thorton, J. Staal, Bobby Ryan, Malkin, E. Staal, Speeza, Heatley, Legwand, D. Sedin, Marleau, Toews, Horton, Gaborik, H. Sedin and Jokinen.
-
#14 I watched a lot of those games and Taveras did get points, but he was not dominant. They lost 3 straight games in OT. I am not saying he was awful, just that he was not a dominant force in the series. He clearly has talent and maybe he is bored with the OHL.
-
# 28 cam barker is a defenseman and is definitely not a bust so now we have only 2 busts of the top 3 forwards picked. as far as 2007 draft top 3 forwards were kane (all star) van reimsdyk (probably as good or better than okposo) and kyle turris who will not be a bust and the funny thing is the 2007 draft was supposed to be weak. 2008 draft stamkos future allstar filatov ( i guess ? but very possibly an all star) and wilson who looks really good. so your theory sounds solid go with tavares and never look back.
-
JT’s junior career ended tonight and regardless of where he plays or if he turns out to be a bust…the kid will go down in history as one of the greatest major junior players in history which is really saying something.
-
# 30…..good catch on Barker….this makes my point even stronger…% climbs to nearly 91% non-busts.
-
BC says:
I really don’t understand how people have started to say that Tavares underachieved in the playoffs. I haven’t personally been watching the games, so I can’t say 100%. But with the playoffs over for London, he was the second leading scorer on the team in the playoffs and 7th in the league.
In response to the article in Newsday that had people quoted saying Duchene is a better all around player. While that may be true, I feel it would be better to get the player with a much greater offensive upside, obviously Tavares, and work with him to become a better defensive player, rather than taking Duchene who is not as offensively gifted because he is a more polished defensive forward now.
-
Yashin for President says:
right on BC..
-
TC says:
I hope we trade down for Duchene. Much better skater than JT. Wicked fast two-way player, and PLUS 32 this season! Use your extra picks for a big stud D-man, and move this team from the cellar to the playoffs1
-
Neil says:
I could do without JT plaing 98 playoff games this spring. He has nothing to prove. The nitpicking is over.
-
Andre says:
To me Duchene is a speedier version of Bailey. I don’t think it makes sense for the Isles to draft him. Tavares is a game changer and he will get to play diiferent situations in due to time as he gets more NHL experience. You have to take Tavares.
-
iss scouting services came out with new rankings
#1 tavares #2 duchene #3 hedman
so duchene is really making a move but tavares isnt falling. as far as redline he had petrov 8th and filatov 2nd last year so i take what he says witha grain of salt. in the end nothing changes draft tavares and never look back.
-
Bruce says:
I still think that Hedman is the best player. The Islanders need help everywhere, and I think a player that will play 20-25 minutes a game for 15 years and be a perennial all star is a more effective pick than Tavares who will be a very good player but hes not the next Ovechkin.
Very rarely is there a Defenseman that is as highly touted as Hedman is, I think that the Islanders need to capitalize on this opportunity and take the defenseman who can only get bigger and better. Imagine having a player like Zdeno Chara again, and this time not trading him for Yashin?
-
tavares quotes Tavares said after the game that he had been suffering from a nagging shoulder injury from a hit during a game in London in February, but added the injury wasn’t severe enough to keep him out of the Knights’ lineup, and certainly not in the playoffs.
“I think I need to take some time off and rest up and get stronger,” said Tavares. “Then I’m going to get back training.”
draft him and never look back.
-
Right lets trade down for someone whose point total is no where near John Tavares’s. Just another Islander fan who thinks that he is “slick” and hhe knows more than all the scouts.
-
Isle be Damned says:
Wang asked him how he felt about signing a 20 year contract. and wanted to know if he knew any sumo wrestlers who can play goal.
-
Hud says:
As usual, regardless of all the talk, JT will be an Islander.
-
doc says:
Ahh… another Sumo wrestler playing goal joke…
Brilliant!!!
Never heard that one before.
DOC
-
Okposo to Tavares, HE SCORES!!! says:
Freakin awesome!!!
-
That is great to hear!
I wish they gave a little inkling to how the meeting went, wonder what kind of impression he gave Garth and Wanger…
-
I think we might need to skip on JT and take a goalie with the 1st overall pick…Look at what Lundquist has been doing single handedly…All kidding aside, we need a #1 goalie, with all his skill we just can’t depend on DP.
-
Dave says:
tl;dr draft tavares and don’t look back
-
ESPN has an Insider article about how Tavares’ stock is dropping big-time. I call bull sh*t. It is no coincidence that once Burke stated he wanted Tavares, all of a sudden the kid forgot how to play hockey. There is something fishy about all this. It’s like all of a sudden he has all these weaknesses and every other top player in the draft is Superman.
-
What other NHL owner scouts prospects with his GM? Answer-NONE. Reason-Because Wang calls all the shots and Snow and the rest of the entire organization are nothing but puppets for Wang.
-
Sumo- the ESPN article is based on the Redline report that was released. Nothing more. He was playing hurt the last 2 1/2 months.
Dear Snow, do get too smart like last year.
-
Eye on the island says:
Mike wasn’t aware you follow all 29 other teams that closely to know how they scout. Keep up the due diligence.
-
Before we all start flaming each other over whether other owners go on scouting trips…I’d like CBs take. CB, I know you say that Wang’s presence indicates he cares about more than just real estate. But you could just as easily conclude that he’s there because he’s a micromanager who won’t let his GM and scouting staff make decisions on their own. So, from your experience, how common is it for an owner to be involved at all in the scouting process? Unless you think JT is their consensus choice and he was more there to demonstrate their commitment to him? You’ve been quiet in comments too long CB (not that you haven’t been delivering the goods in your posts)…what say you?
-
I’m not buying the conspiracy theories, especially since there is no record of Wang scouting prospects before this (CB, if I’m wrong, please correct me). As other people have speculated, I think he was there because this is a monumental pick in Islander history and he wanted to see what all the fuss was about. If I owned the team I would have gone to his games, I’d be on a plane to Sweden to see Hedman, and I might even look at a few others.
Being there doesn’t mean he’s involved, and I really think some of you guys look for things to complain about.
-
Clarification: being there doesn’t mean he’s involved IN THE DECISIONMAKING. Thank you.
-
Melvin says:
#53 – Sumo
I thought this too about how, since the lottery and Burke’s comments, all of a sudden all the Toronto media(and some national US media) have suddenly started going negative on Tavares and hyping Duchene. I don’t think Burke has much pull outside of the Toronto media, but never put anything past the Toronto press to get the ball rolling in a certain direction.
-
19 ISLE in NJ 22 says:
It was already known that JT had shoulder issues since the OHL All-Star game … he re-injured it I think in Feb … took I think 1 game off … and after returning still showed no ill effects in his play … I think us forgetting he played hurt is a huge endorsement for his game … he didn’t wuss out and still was a solid over a point per game player.
-
Dank516 says:
#29 We have Ridderwall in the system! He is better that Joey Mac and Danis. I hear Lawson is the real deal too.
-
thepolishprince says:
#62 – I’m no scout but I don’t know if either of those goalies are blue chip prospects. If we can get a truly solid goaltending prospect at the draft with a second rounder (which we have plenty of) I think it’s a good idea. I wish DP all the best but realisticaly there is no way he’s playing out his contract.
-
art says:
I hope DP is back in his best form. But stop talking abou drafting another goalie prospect and expect he or Danis or Joey to be able to step up to #1. if DP can’t start at least 60 games. There will be no playoff possibilities without solid G Look to Snow to pick up a ufa this summer.If Snow doesn’t recognize this huge potential void in his own former position than he doesn’t deserve his present GM status!
-
Rick says:
Just because Wang was there, does that mean he was scouting Tavares for his hockey ability. He has already been on the record saying his hockey knowledge was nil before he bought the team. Does anyone seriously think he feels he’s now qualified to make calls on prospect’s PLAYING abilities. Maybe he was just there to get a chance to meet him and talk to him to get a feel for him as a person and gauge his interest for playing for the Islanders. Let’s not jump to the ridiculous conclusion that Charles suddenly thinks he’s Bill Torrey as a talent evaluator.
-
I don’t think anyone on here is expecting a goalie picked in this summer’s draft to step in and play with the big club this season or the next for that matter. Those of us who feel that a goalie should be taken somewhere in the earlier rounds this summer are simply acknowledging an area in the pipeline where the team is relatively weak.
-
I hate to go to my alma mater’s well again, but we could get BU’s freshman goalie, Kieran Millan, with one of our extra 2nd rounders, or even our 3rd. He won’t be leaving school for a bit so there’s no pressure to develop.
-
Erik says:
Nick, I agree. But will Millan go that high? I was thinking he might be there possibly in the 5th round. He is definitely a guy we should look at.
Also, I wonder if Jankowski will look at Windsor’s Jesse Blacker who’s projected as a 2nd or 3rd round pick.
-
Hal says:
Sumo, anyway you can post that article?
-
IslesHostage says:
On the Floppinator not returning to form:
Last night I witnessed an eery repeat of history. When Patrick Roy played his last game as a Canadien, he made a routine save from far out and the crowd was all over it with a Bronx cheer so he obnoxiously curtsied and never played for them again after that game.
Carey Price (who is more talented than 39 and in an off year) was struggling and the crowd got all over him the same way, and with a late game routine save, PRICE DID THE EXACT SAME CURTSY!!!
This summer, if the heavens do favor the Isles being decent to good again (or better!), we HAVE TO get Price and have a 1/1A with DP and Price, a la Chico/Battlin’ Billy.
If anyone wants wine with their comments, I’ll remind you DP needs far fewer games, has doubt written all over him with four bad leg joints and concussions and I believe still can return to almost as good as before. The game doesn’t require loyalty and fan emotion, though, and keeping DP and an underwhelming backup (the Isles plan for years now) is not wise.
It requires winning. Price and DP and we take a chance on our best defensive prospects knowing we’ll give them a legit shot to win every night. Just watch the GA sink and GF rise!
-
o-town isles fan says:
Tavares. Bad shoulder. Still produced big time. Every game decided in overtime. Nuff said.
-
My hope is that DP retires and we can be rid of that STUPID, ASININE contract and then move on.
-
West Coast Fan says:
I think DP’s 15 year contract was excessive and, in any event, premature – but I like the idea of locking up cornerstone players to long-term contracts, in an attempt to counter the effects of free agency. The Isles had 16 or so players who played on all four cup teams – and while God knows that will never happen again, it’s pretty clear that stability with respect to personnel goes a long way towards being a perennial contender…
-
This is my 3rd comment in this section and I don’t want to anger the blog god but I will say I wouldn’t mind having Price either. I understand the fans were all over him this season in general and especially in the playoffs. maybe a change of scenery does him good. That said I assume he’s not a UFA and would require some decent pieces going the other way. If he’s a RFA I wouldn’t go the offer sheet route.
-
JZimm says:
I haven’t read every post here, but John Tavares has played A TON of hockey in the last two years. More than most of the other draft eligible players. So his “lack of output” may be due to a bit of a fatigue. I think they should draft him, but I won’t complain about Hedman or Duchene, either.
Thank God….