Monthly Archives: June 2009
In the first half of Sidney Crosby’s rookie NHL season of 2005-2006, he was treated like a pinata. On January 18, 2006, the Pittsburgh Penguins traded a draft pick to Florida for an enforcer who would protect Crosby. That deterrent was a 6-6 defenseman named Eric Cairns, the former Islander who is back with the team as a scout and development executive.
Perhaps Cairns can talk about his experience with Crosby as GM Garth Snow and his staff finalize their unrestricted free agent wish list today and tomorrow.
Crosby had Cairns and now has Eric Godard. After a rookie season in which Capitals management tinkered with AHL-caliber heavyweights, Alexander Ovechkin was grateful when Washington GM George McPhee signed Donald Brashear to be his bouncer the last three years. The Islanders have seen first-fist that whenever one of them looks cross-eyed at Ovechkin, they usually end up speaking with Brashear.
When the free agent market opens on Wednesday, the Islanders will look for “this year’s Mark Streit signing.” Good luck with that. If it was that easy, the last-place Islanders wouldn’t have inked one of the very few value deals in the NHL last summer. If it was that easy, the Islanders would have had more than two long-term, beyond-expectations acquisitions between 2000-2006: Jason Blake and Trent Hunter. In his three years on the job, Snow would have more than Streit and – stretching a bit here – sparkplug Richard Park and Doug Weight to boast about.
The Islanders will look for a bonafide top-6 forward, but will more likely end up with a top-6 forward “try.”
They won’t dabble with Mike Komisarek for $4 million (and probably more) a year because it makes no sense to reach that deep for a good stay-at-home defenseman on an uptempo team when you already have Brendan Witt and Andy Sutton under contract and filling two of six spots on D.
And of course, they’ll listen if Scott Gordon has a player he insists is a perfect fit for his system and the Islanders’ rebuild.
Snow says he doesn’t expect to be a major player in UFA. Fine. What he must do is over-pay at two positions so his team has a fighting chance every night.
The Islanders need a No. 1 goalie, or at least a No. 1-B goalie they believe can be an A.
And they need to sign a tough guy who will answer the bell when an opponent tries to ring John Tavares’s.
Comments on this topic only. Stories on draft weekend below.
A highly placed source told Point Blank this morning that while Nathan Lawson has received a Qualifying Offer, fellow Bridgeport netminder Peter Mannino will not.
This opens the door for goaltender Mikko Koskinen, the Islanders’ second round pick (31st overall) on Saturday, to sign with the Islanders this summer and play for the team’s AHL affiliate in Bridgeport. A source close to the Finnish goaltender told us late last night that Koskinen will attend the Islanders’ Prospect Camp in two weeks and hopes an entry level contract can be finalized by the end of July.
A late bloomer passed up in three drafts before yesterday, the 6-7 goalie has an escape clause in his contract with Espoo of the Finnish League and plans on using it. Last season with Espoo, Koskinen – who will be 21 on July 18 – was 17-7-9 with a 1.91 goals against average and .931 save percentage.
Koskinen has true believers and detractors all over the game. One described him to PB as a “Steve Valiquette-type project who could be a nice backup,” while another countered, “_____ no, he has the potential to be a lot more than that. He could possibly develop into a No. 1 in 3-4 years.”
In an interview for the team’s website, chief European scout Vellu Pekka-Kautonen told Steve Mears of personally requesting Sudsie Maharaj to come to Finland to watch Koskinen. The goalie consultant saw him play 4 games in 8 nights and became a major advocate.
(Kautonen also says of Koskinen, “I’d say he’d need a half-season, full season in Bridgeport and then he’d be ready to play in the NHL.” Hey, easy does it with the hype, Vellu).
The Islanders have two goalie coaches in Mike Dunham and Maharaj to put the time in with Koskinen. They also have a head coach in Scott Gordon and GM in Garth Snow who were goaltenders. With the board to themselves when Saturday’s portion of the draft began, the Islanders passed up several top defense and forward prospects to grab Koskinen. To say a lot is riding on the pick is an understatement.
At least they know he’s committed to developing as an Islander in North America, beginning with Prospect Camp on Long Island in two weeks. And with Nathan Lawson currently the only goalie option in Bridgeport, there is a spot open for Koskinen.
Comments on this story only.
Johnny Fever…catch it! Tavares will throw out the first pitch tomorrow night before Yanks-Mets. And a new perk for potential season ticketholders: sign up for seats now and meet Tavares in July. My hunch is that would be around the Prospect Camp.
Just got off the phone with Islanders GM Garth Snow for a quick recap of some of the big issues from draft weekend.
The day after, come clean. Did your hockey operations staff indeed operate independently of the sales and marketing staff? Did you really not tell anyone planning the Draft Party of your intentions with the pick?
They never knew. I said all along it was going to be a hockey operations decision and we kept it between ourselves and Charles Wang. That was it. I was happy to hear about the incredible turnout at the Draft Party and it seems everyone had a memorable night out. I would hope that everyone understands that my staff acted in the best interests of our team.
What can you say about Tavares that you couldn’t say before?
Now that pick is done, I can really talk about how proud we are that he’s going to be part of our franchise for a long, long time. He’s a great hockey player. Our fans are going to get to know him as a person, and they’re not going to be disappointed. When it was finally official, I was so happy to see him when he came up to the podium. That picture your blog and TSN and the other media have of us smiling ear-to-ear…I really like that image.
I thought you paid too big a price to go from 26 to 16 to 12 to take Calvin de Haan.
It’s never too big a price when you get a player your staff thinks more highly of than anyone else in that slot. Calvin can be a top-pair defenseman.
You actually moved from 16 to 12 at a surprisingly painless price. But the whole equation, all those picks given up to take de Haan at 12, it seemed like too much for a kid hardly anyone saw going before 20.
Not for us it wasn’t. There’s a reason why you have this process. We think a lot of Calvin and you’ll see in time why we liked him so much. He’s going to develop into an outstanding player for us.
The only reason to move up again to 12 would seem to be because you had intel that one of the teams ahead of you was going to pick de Haan.
I couldn’t guarantee you 100% that they would, but our staff thought there was a serious chance we could lose Calvin before 16 to one, maybe two teams. That was good enough for me to act. I was not going to take that chance. Like you said, the price to go from 16 to 12 was minimal. And I got a few picks back later in the day.
You had to know that once you took your two gigantic goalies in rounds 2 and 3, we’d all assume that meant you’re preparing for the post-DiPietro era.
Yep, and I even said that to a few of the guys at our draft table. “Here come the questions about Ricky”! Our reports on Rick remain the same. He’ll start skating in August and be at training camp. The two kids we picked today, one of them may be 21 next month (Mikko Koskinen), but they are still young prospects. They were the best players available on our board. This was not about Rick DiPietro.
In your own twisted way you made the story of the No. 1 pick about a choice between Tavares, Victor Hedman and Matt Duchene. Through the media to your fans, where would you like to set the bar for the opening of unrestricted free agency next Wednesday?
Same as I said at the end of our season. I’m committed to staying with our younger players. I expect our team to have many of the same players, and of course now we’ll have John Tavares – which is great news for our franchise and our fans. But I’m not going to hand out contracts to veteran players that will take away icetime from our younger players. It’s not going to happen. We were pretty public in talking about our rebuilding plan last summer. We’re not changing course.
With Tavarestock now over, Comment Guidelines are back on. Give your review of the Islanders’ draft weekend in next thread.
In five years, this draft could be viewed as the one when the Islanders got a star goal scorer, top-pair defenseman (Calvin de Haan) and No. 1 goaltender (Mikko Koskinen or Anders Nilsson).
Or it could be known as the weekend the Islanders got John Tavares.
Yep, the Islanders made some odd-duck moves – taking goalies with the first picks of the second and third rounds? (Does that mean they’re not sure both are really good?) The de Haan move is easily explained: the people at that draft table were clearly infatuated with him, and he must have kicked butt on his psych test. But for a franchise that stockpiled picks and puffed out their chests about it in 2006 and 2008, the Islanders paid big for de Haan.
Then there’s the issue of a continuing lack of size and toughness on the roster.
I don’t do draft grades, but you are welcome to review the Islanders’ complete draft. To some, it seems Garth Snow and Ryan Jankowski were playing with house money after making the easy choice of Tavares. But the rest of this draft was crucial to the franchise. It cannot be written off.
Thank you for hanging in there the last two months, and for a fun weekend.
One post per reader in this thread. Going forward, all other Comment Guidelines are back on.
12:35 pm – With the first pick in the sixth round, the Islanders select 6-2 center Anders Lee from Edina HIgh in Minnesota. He is also considered a strong football prospect who could be recruited to play quarterback in Division I.
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11:58 am – With the first pick of the 5th round, the Islanders draft 6-1 defenseman Anton Klementyev of Russia.
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11:23 am – Islanders trade the 91 to Phoenix for a third round pick in 2010. Considering the Coyotes are hurtin’ a bit these days, that pick will be earlier – probably a lot earlier – than 91 next year. With pick 92, the Islanders select 5-10 center Casey Cizikas, who was 16-20-36 in 55 games last season with St. Mike’s of the OHL.
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10:40 am – Islanders trade the 56 to get the 62 and 92. Greg Logan calls Garth Snow’s move “slick.” With the 62 the Islanders draft a 6-5 Swedish goaltender named Anders Nilsson. As I alluded to Thursday night, this is where the analysis ends because I don’t know much about the guy and won’t pretend to. The Islanders taking two goaltenders this early, though, is a story.
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10:27 am - Mikko Koskinen would appear to be another reach – after going with the obvious choice in Tavares, the NYI are certainly back to, uh, doing the unexpected. But it’s a fascinating pick when you consider the subplots. Koskinen is 21 in a month. There’s the Rick DiPietro health issue. There’s the old story about Charles Wang suggesting a sumo wrestler would make a good goalie. There’s the realization that the Islanders have two goalie coaches, plus a GM and head coach who were former goalies. Sudsie Maharaj is the team’s goalie consultant who does a lot of scouting, so this pick must have been made on his recommendation.
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10:13 am – I’m not down on Calvin de Haan. He has skill and I’m sure he knocked his psych testing out of the park. But two things: when the kid himself tells you he didn’t even think he’d go in the teens based on his agent’s counsel, that tells you something. And for the draftniks who loooove the move for de Haan, have you done the math on the picks the Islanders gave up to get him? Just asking.
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10:06 am – With the first pick of the day, the 31st overall, the Islanders select 6-7 Finnish goaltender Mikko Koskinen. We all agreed they needed size! “They were interested in me,” he tells NHL Network. “Size is my biggest weapon.”
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9:45 am - Good morning. Hope everyone enjoyed their Friday night. After paying too hefty a price to move all the way down from 26 to 12 and take smart and talented but not large or tough dman Calvin de Haan, today is essentially down to the two picks in the second round and maybe the 91st. I was consistent for the last month in saying they wouldn’t draft Landon Ferraro with the 26 or earlier. Despite dozen of readers Comments going against my prediction, the Islanders will not be drafting Landon at 31. He’s another 6-foot, 170-pounder. He has skill at forward, but it’s really about time the Islanders added some size.
One post per reader. Let it all hang out. Thanks. See some of you at RC Dugans at 10:00.
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