Monthly Archives: May 2009
Catching up to the Comments after a day primarily away from the laptop, a persistent question from readers was why I wrote what I did. Why, yesterday, did I decide to write that the Lighthouse Project will not be approved by the Town of Hempstead by Charles Wang’s deadline of October 3? My reasons, most of it a summary of the story:
- Wang met with Kate Murray in late January and urged the Town Supervisor to join meetings about process and work together to get a shovel in the ground and people to work. Murray has not spoken with Wang since.
- Murray has skipped at least seven meetings, including some in her own Town Hall, and has not participated in a single meeting related to the development of the Coliseum property.
- Murray started a website and direct mail campaign smearing the Lighthouse Project, then took it down three days later when she was advised that her call for federal stimulus money would be viewed as a clueless hoax.
- The Town’s planning consultants, past an agreed-upon deadline, continues to send tweaks to the Lighthouse developers to address.
If nothing positive has happened in the last year, why in the world would anyone expect the Town of Hempstead to move on the Lighthouse Project in the next four months? With an election coming up in November? On Long Island, where politicians rarely seem to accomplish much between Memorial Day and Labor Day?
What would possibly suggest that anything will magically get done between now and October 3?
Nothing will. The next major story in this saga is what does Wang do on October 4.
That’s why I wrote the story. And yes, I also wanted to get it out of the way this month because I’d prefer June to be about the draft. Call it living in denial, but it would be nice to spend the next five weeks talking hockey.
To the readers who, after all this time and coverage here and elsewhere, still say Wang should just renovate the Coliseum…if you don’t know, don’t want to know, reject the premise or still don’t understand how we got to this point, there’s simply nothing else I can tell you.
Kate Murray launches her re-election campaign on Friday at 1:00 pm at Levittown Veterans Memorial Park. Her opponent faces a daunting challenge to un-seat her.
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Barring a dramatic turn of events, Charles Wang‘s October 3 deadline for approvals on the Lighthouse Project is almost certain to come and go with little action from the Town of Hempstead. And when it does, the Islanders owner will have no other choice but to open conversations with other municipalities interested in Long Island’s National Hockey League franchise.
Community leaders in Queens, start preparing your pitches. Bruce Ratner and the people of Brooklyn, if you want an NHL team to join the Nets, the Islanders are mostly-unrestricted free agents in just over four months. If you have a plan and land in Suffolk, County Executive Steve Levy, here’s a chance to maintain the heritage of the Island’s only major professional franchise.
Kansas City, Mr. Balsillie – opportunity knocks.
And if you have a few hundred million to spare and want to commit to keeping the Islanders in Nassau County under this lease and without a development deal, here’s a chance to get yourself on the front page of Newsday. Declare that you have real money and a sincere desire to want to save the Islanders.
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On January 23, Charles Wang visited the offices of Kate Murray, the Town of Hempstead Supervisor. The rhetoric was starting to get a little nasty behind the scenes, in the media and on the blogs. Wang sat down with Murray and called for a spirit of bi-partisan cooperation. The Islanders owner urged Murray to make time for meetings “so we can talk about process.” The developers of the Lighthouse Project came away more encouraged than they had in a long time.
That was four months ago. Wang has not heard from Murray since.
(Murray did not even make it to her own Town Hall)
The Town Supervisor has skipped all meetings related to the development of the Coliseum property, including a recent summit with union leaders she had committed to. Seven planned meetings, no Murray. No discussion of process. Aren’t elected officials supposed to lead?
In mid-April, the project developers were confident they had addressed all issues in the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS). Their feelings were confirmed in a positive letter from Town attorney Joseph Ra. Suddenly on April 24, after a 45-day deadline for revisions had passed, the Lighthouse Development Corporation was contacted by the Town’s planning consultant. A whole new list of issues to address was presented by F.P. Clark & Associates. The letter arrived late on a Friday night.
When one business wants to send another business a chilling message that there will be no spirit of cooperation, they send over work post-deadline on a Friday night.
On May 8, Clark & Associates wrote another letter detailing additional issues with the DGEIS and warning that more letters were coming. There has been no correspondence since.
“The Town wants nothing to do with this,” one major player told Point Blank. “They wish it would all go away so they can go back to whatever it is they do over there. It’s sad.”
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(Note year on jersey: 02)
And so it goes with the Town of Hempstead and the Lighthouse Project, the development of Tom Suozzi’s HUB that Nassau County has tried for decades to get off the ground. So it goes for the revitalization of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, as set forth by a Request For Proposals by Nassau County and approved by a 16-2 margain.
Wang, who is said to be completely satisfied by the stewardship of the proposal by Suozzi and the County, has set a October 3 deadline for Town approvals for obvious reasons. The Islanders lease expires in 2015. A “transformed” Coliseum would take four off-seasons to complete. The math is simple. Wang has to decide if he’s finally done losing at least $20 million a year with no development deal in sight.
There’s an election in November for the Town of Hempstead Supervisor, with Murray’s opponent expected to be named very soon. Even if Murray is defeated – in reality, she enters a heavy favorite – there is no guarantee Lighthouse approvals will be fast-tracked. Like all of us, Wang has been promised plenty by politicians before. As a businessman, he is left with no other options but to explore another site for his team.
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What should Islanders fans do? Continue to let your community leaders know how important this is to you. Call Kate Murray. Call Hempstead attorney Joe Ra, an Islanders season ticketholder. When election season arrives, let the politicans know how you feel with your vote.
Revel in the drafting of future star goal scorer John Tavares (you deserve the No. 1 pick after enduring last season). Support the franchise in any way you can. If the Islanders are a big part of your life and/or you’re one of the fortunate in New York to have some disposable income, buy a ticket package for the 2009-10 season and even the one after that. The Islanders will play those seasons at the Coliseum, at the very least.
Hope for the best. Hope that the Town of Hempstead wakes up. Hope that Wang, after 9 years of waiting in Nassau, first looks locally for an alternative. It would be consistent with his actions so far.
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Yes, there are a few other stories besides the draft in the Country…
The Islanders could name a captain before the opening of training camp, or hold off until the team returns from their retreat to Saskatoon. There’s also the slight possibility the Islanders decline to appoint a full-time captain out of the gate and go with a rotation of As instead.
As of May 20, the leaders in the clubhouse, if you will…
Mark Streit (3-1): Surprised the Islanders almost as much with his leadership as his all-star play. Emotional and out-spoken in the locker room. Bruno Gervais told me in February that Streit improved his game not by playing alongside him but by the veteran pushing him at every practice and even between shifts in-game.
Downright angelic when the media is in the room. Said to be fiery at times behind closed doors. Signed for four more years, so the Islanders could have rare stability with the captaincy. The favorite.
Doug Weight (8-1): Talks a really good game, and we don’t mean that as an insult. A go-to guy with the press, as David Cone was with the dynastic Yankees, and that counts for a lot. Has the ability to do a 15-minute interview with NHL.com and for a brief while make everyone in Islanders Country feel like the team will make the playoffs, the Lighthouse Project will be built and world peace is right around the corner.
Highly-regarded by teammates, head coach and management. Biggest drawback: 38 years old and only signed for one season. Do the Islanders want to hand the captaincy to someone who could be around less than a season? Almost definitely will be an A, could get the C for a year as a bridge to someone else.
Brendan Witt (10-1): After the misstep of publicly questioning his coach in November, by January Witt was a coach’s favorite and a major voice in the room when the team started to stabilize for a solid second half.
Not your classic captain material because he’s an original thinker, says whatever’s on his mind and has so many other interests outside of hockey. Then again, so did Denis Potvin. Under contract for two more seasons. A good bleeder. Likely an Alternate, will be under consideration for the C.
Trent Hunter (30-1): Impeccable character, the opposite of clubhouse lawyer, dedicated to the game and his team, waved off unrestricted free agency and signed for four more years. Not a serious candidate for the C because he is low-key, more of a leader by example, and the Islanders at this stage need more than that.
Richard Park (40-1): As a leader, the complete package in his work habits, integrity and stand-up nature with his teammates and with the press. A strong possibility for an A, or at least part of an A rotation. In his final year of contract and will not be captain.
Kyle Okposo (50-1): A potential captain, just as he is a potential all-star forward. Could get an A to represent the young guard, but it would be a monumental mistake to rush Okposo into the captaincy. Coming off an eye-opening season, but not a breakthrough one. Let the kid grow as a player first.
Mystery Man (70-1): Could be an unrestricted free agent, or maybe a major acquisition when Garth Snow’s trade partner needs to give up a cherished veteran for salary cap relief. Can’t rule out an A.
Rick DiPietro (100-1): When healthy, DiPietro is hands-down the emotional leader of the team. Vancouver’s crowning of Roberto Luongo opened the door for goaltenders. Until DiPietro regains his health and gets back on his game for two straight seasons, he’ll have to stay a leader without an official title.
The First Overall Pick (1,000-1): No matter who it is, not gonna happen – not even an A. Here’s hoping the Islanders don’t rush him, either. He can be captain at age 25, after the Islanders sign him to a long-term deal.
Comments on this topic here. Conversation on you-know-what continues below.
Good story today by Ryan Pyette in the London (Ontario) Free Press, with fun quotes by Chicago assistant GM Rick Dudley on decisions facing the Islanders with the first overall pick. Dudley discusses the Blackhawks’ turns in the draft spotlight and says if he was Garth Snow, “I would send out mixed signals. Let everyone wonder about it.” Thank you to reader John S. from London for the heads-up.
Point Blank on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nyipointblank
Matt Duchene, considered anywhere between the No. 1 and No. 3 prospect available in the 2009 NHL Draft, visited with Islanders management on Monday in New York.
John Tavares was at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum last week. Victor Hedman currently is scheduled to come to town the first week in June. The Islanders have plans to meet with as many as ten first-round prospects.
Since the Coliseum is not exactly the Air Canada Centre or any of the palaces around the NHL, the visits are not so much tours as an opportunity to meet face-to-face and discuss the plans of the franchise and goals of the young player.
The meetings are also markedly different than the kind of free agent visits you see in the NFL and NBA. With potential draft picks – even the first overall – there is little recruiting necessary. The Islanders want to make their prospective draft selections feel at home, should the club select them. They no doubt did that with Matt Duchene yesterday.
Discussion on the top pick here, picks 26-37 in next thread.
They are in position to move up, or they could be very happy selecting at 26, 31 and 37.
In presenting the young defensemen the Islanders may have under consideration, we’ll take a look at them one at a time. We could make up a really good excuse for this process, but the fact is it’s the middle of May and there’s not a lot going on every day to write about. Really now, what’s the rush?
We will show our cards, however. For the record, we believe the following first-round defenseboys are out of reach even if the Islanders move up from 26:
Jared Cowen
Oliver-Ekman-Larsson
Dmitri Kulikov
Simon Despres
and the rising-with-a-bullet John Moore
(On a side note, the International Scouting Service has Despres at 30, one of those things that makes you wonder sometimes about the ISS. Despres will go between 10-18).
We also are fairly confident the Islanders will not make a move for studly undersized puck-moving Windsor defenseman Ryan Ellis because they feel they already have a studly undersized puck-moving D prospect in Aaron Ness of the University of Minnesota. (Ness was taken early in the second round last summer).
Yesterday, we shared our preference for the Islanders to look to hit home runs with more forwards of size and skill. But we understand reality is, after they take Tavares at 1, if they make a big move it will probably be for a defenseman.
Here’s our list of the defensemen the Islanders could zero in on with a trade-up in the first round or by using their picks at 26, 31 and 37:
Matthew Clark, Brampton (OHL)
Calvin de Haan, Oshawa (OHL), right
Stefan Elliott, Saskatoon (WHL)
Tim Erixon, Skelleftea (Sweden; born in New York, son of former Ranger Jan)
Dylan Olsen, Camrose (AJHL), left
David Rundblad, Skelleftea (Sweden)
Of the six, only Rundblad seems more-than-likely to go before pick 26. More to come on these young defensemen over the next few weeks. For now, we welcome your views on these players and anything related to this topic.
Comments.
Last week, we wrote about six skilled and big forwards the Islanders could have their eyes on with picks 26-37 or with a move up closer to the middle of the first round:
Zach Kassian Carter Ashton
Chris Kreider Jordan Caron
Ethan Werek Joonas Nattinen
This week we’ll be writing about the half-dozen defensemen the Islanders may have under consideration. But before I do, I wanted to make my opinion clear. (This is a blog. We try not to get into second-guessing. When we’re wrong – which is often – we want to be wrong before anyone else).
Take another kid defenseman out of high school with an Aaron Ness-like pedigree such as Nick Leddy (ranked 24th in North America by Central Scouting) and it will be at least four years before he’s playing reliable D in prime time for you anyway. If the Islanders want to keep up with Detroit and Chicago and Pittsburgh, Carolina, Philly and the rest, they need more forwards with world-class skill and tenacity. Actually, they need more than just the one they have: Kyle Okposo.
Besides, the Islanders already have a pair of talented draft pick blue-liners in Ness and Travis Hamonic in the fold.
Don’t for a second think I take defensemen for granted. It’s just that there’s other ways to build a strong D, and the Islanders are unlikely to find their Nik Lidstrom in this draft between picks 26-37 or even with a move up to the middle of the round (David Rundblad, you say? Maybe. John Moore? No way they’ll get him).
Neil Smith brought Brendan Witt to the Island with a good deal. Last summer, Garth Snow opened the wallet for Mark Streit at excellent value.
Carolina won a Stanley Cup in 2006 with a hodge-podge blueline and is in the Final Four again with defensemen they mostly signed or traded for. Same with Tampa Bay the year before.
Of course, every team in the league would love a Lidstrom, a Pronger, a Chara. But you have to be able to score. The Islanders moved back to add picks and take Josh Bailey last summer. What a treat if the Islanders made an equally bold move and grabbed a kid with huge upside in the offensive end – a reverse Bailey maneuver, if you will. Or a more moderate move to get Kassian or Kreider or Caron.
In the draft, the Islanders should make a run at future all-stars up front.
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