Monthly Archives: October 2009
In February, the Islanders traded Chris Campoli and Mike Comrie to Ottawa for the Senators’ first round pick in the 2009 draft and Dean McAmmond. Comrie and McAmmond, minor pieces to the deal, are gone from their respective teams. For this discussion, they are out of the equation.
This left the deal as Campoli for a first round pick – a nice price for Garth Snow and the Islanders, as we stated the day the trade was made. But then the final tally gets interesting.
The first round pick the Islanders acquired from Ottawa was San Jose’s. That pick was the 26th overall. On the night of the first round, the Islanders decided Oshawa defenseman Calvin de Haan was the player they had to draft at any cost. The Islanders moved from pick No. 26 to 16 by trading the following: overall picks 26, 37, 62 and 92. (They brought back pick 77 in the deal).
Not convinced they moved far enough to lock in de Haan, the Islanders traded from pick 16 to 12. They gave Minnesota the just-acquired 77 plus pick 82 to move to 12. (For the record, I was told by a Minnesota scout that the Wild wanted U.S. dman Nick Leddy – who they took at 16 – all along).
In summing up the dealings, let’s throw out picks 16, 26 and 77 since they were acquired and re-packaged. By my math – and anyone who saw my Regents scores will understand that I am very open to discussion on this – the final tally on the Chris Campoli trade looks like this:
Islanders acquire:
Calvin de Haan
Islanders trade:
Chris Campoli
2nd round pick (37th overall)
3rd round pick (62nd overall)
3rd round pick (82nd overall)
4th round pick (92nd overall)
This morning, I checked my deductive reasoning and math with an assistant GM in the league, plus a statistician who’s brilliant at this sort of thing. Much to my surprise, the facts checked out clean. The assistant GM said I should also factor in that de Haan might have been there at least at pick 20. I can’t go for that, because no one can tell you they know for sure. I only know Minnesota was not taking him at 16.
Then he told me I should also weigh the de Haan pick against the many talented prospects the Islanders could have taken if they just stayed at 26. His point, of course, is that the deal could have been just Campoli straight up for Kyle Palmieri or Dylan Olsen or Carter Ashton or Simon Despres or Landon Ferraro or Ryan O’Reilly or Zach Budish. It also could have been Campoli straight up for de Haan. It’s probably not fair to go there because then you’re getting into mind-reading.
The bottom line is the Islanders traded Campoli for a first round pick and then their unique scouting system – with some big hits and big misses since it began in June of 2006 – led them to pay the additional price of 4 top-100 draft selections for de Haan.
Calvin is the odds-on favorite to emerge in five years as the best player in the trade. He certainly has the head and the hands, as Rangers personnel director Gordie Clark told me the other night about Michael Del Zotto. The major question about de Haan is whether he can add some strength and bulk to what is a very thin frame.
All that matters is that Snow, Ryan Jankowski and the big players at their draft table need to be right about Calvin de Haan eventually becoming a top-pair defenseman on a contending NHL team. At the very least, his career better blow away Chris Campoli’s.
Go here on NHL FanHouse to join the conversation…CB
12:45 pm – Not announced, just by observation: the Islanders’ healthy scratches tomorrow will likely be Nate Thompson, Jeff Tambellini and Jack Hillen.
Scott Gordon Quotes
On Doug Weight’s return: “He might be one of our older players, but he treats every game like it’s his first.”
On Tavares in Ontario: “If there’s anyone who’s prepared for it, it’s him. He’s been under a microscope for a long time.”
On Okposo’s performance on Saturday: “Anyone talking about Kyle on Saturday as if it was a surprise didn’t watch him in the second half (last season). Nothing he does surprises me.”
When asked if he liked having four days between the opener on Saturday and Ottawa game on Thursday, Gordon took three reporters through a breakdown of the schedule differences between this time last year and now.
In summation: in ’08, Islanders played three exhibition games late in the preseason after returning from Moncton, then opened the regular season with games Friday, Saturday and Monday afternoon. “There was also the Ricky stuff and all the injuries and all the injury policy stuff,” the coach said. To which I replied, “What stuff”?
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11:45 am: A 70-minute practice in preparation for the game Thursday in Ottawa ends with a concentration on the power play. The two units:
Moulson – Tavares – Okposo
Streit – Weight
Schremp – Bailey – Hunter
Gervais – Martinek
Thanks to a very kind offer of support from my employers at FanHouse, Point Blank will be in business for another year. My deepest gratitude goes to my editors at FanHouse, and especially the PB reader/AOL executive who introduced my work to the sports department.
Thanks also go to Chris Dey of the Islanders for creating this venture, Islanders players and coaches for their accessibility and cooperation and, of course, to the readers who keep on coming back to Point Blank.
Since I have the day/night job as national hockey writer at Fanhouse, needless to say Point Blank could not possibly remain the obsessive source of useful and useless information it was when the Islanders sponsored it. There will be plenty of times when scheduling conflicts will prevent me from covering news and even some home games.
The team also has made a policy of giving all news first to Newsday. This became official when myself and two other writers were at Iceworks for practice ten days ago, and yet we still learned from Katie Strang – on her day off and using Twitter – that Kyle Okposo had been cleared to skate. I don’t want Islanders fans to miss out. If you haven’t signed up by now, let this be my 100th plug for Katie’s blog. Go there if you want the facts first 99.9% of the time. She’s doing a very good job there and on Twitter and will only get better.
So it is what it is, but Point Blank will still feature at least one article on the Islanders almost every day of the season and will still be a community for Islanders fans to learn and talk about their hockey team. I’ll continue to get to practices whenever possible – like tomorrow – and grind in the corners. The opinion pieces will hopefully be as strong as ever. Prospect rankings in Bridgeport and juniors/colleges/Europe will also remain.
Now that I’ve started to get a hang of this CoveritLive thing, we’ll have to try some live chats. Maybe even Thursday night when the Islanders are in Ottawa. Game? If you’ve been okay with the blog since the Islanders returned from Saskatoon, that should give you a fair idea of what Point Blank will be like this season.
As a bonus, the Islanders are covered by NHL FanHouse more than ever. In addition, because of a content-sharing agreement with our Time Warner partners, the Sports Illustrated website (si.com) often picks up my work. For everything AOL has done for this blog, I hope you’ll continue to support my colleagues and I at NHL FanHouse.
Again, my thanks to all the readers out there in the Country of Islanders.
1:30 pm - The tip was when Scott Gordon, again, pointed out how The Wrecker had seen more ice in the NHL than he’d gotten so far in his career in the American League or the Coast. Fairly certain Joel has a lot of people rooting for him.
CB at FanHouse on Tavares ex-teammate Del Zotto
UPDATED at 11:45 am – HEY! I tried. I tried to bring the discussion back to “Rock and Roll Part 2″ versus the failed Islanders’ attempt to re-invent their goal song with “Burn it to the Ground.” The momentum was strong toward a return to “R & R” for the first few hours, but now dozens of people are bringing it back to “You suck” issue, recommending this song or that song or asking for the team to put up a poll on the official site.
In other words, many of you proved the Islanders correct for experimenting with it. Highly doubtful they’ll go back to the traditional goal song now. Oh well, we tried. Like I said, it’s all about giving the people want they want. From the looks of the Comments space, not enough people are on the same page or know what they want.
You can be sure the experimentation will continue. Thanks for all the feedback.
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7:55 pm, The Rock - I’m at Rangers-Devils tonight. When Rob Niedermayer and Travis Zajac scored in the first period, the New Jersey fans stood and erupted in unison with “HEY”! to “Rock n Roll Part 2.” For the last season plus one game, I’ve watched from the press box as Islanders fans look around and don’t know what goal song is being played and what they’re supposed to do.
The Islanders have been dinking around with the thing for a long time. They have re-mixed and re-edited and whiffed big-time. They’ve replaced the classic adopted hockey chant by Gary Glitter – a convicted pedophile – with a lame song by Nickelback called “Burn it to the Ground.” I’d post the lyrics, but I can’t on a PG-13 hockey blog. To sum it up, the song sounds like Nickelback’s attempt to prove they know some dirty words.
The Islanders need to come to grips with the realization that they tried something different – there go those Islanders, reinventing wheels that don’t need re-inventing – and failed. Unlike other mistakes, this one is easily fixed. The organization has so many issues it needs to get right – starting with the winning thing. Go back to the Islanders’ traditional goal song so no one ever has to post about it on a message board or blog, or send an email again.
Lou Lamoriello is okay with “Rock and Roll Part 2.” Far more importantly, it’s what Islanders fans want. If the Islanders can’t get past the Gary Glitter issues, there are cover versions to choose from. I guarantee you no one will ever cover “Burn it to the Ground.” While we wait for the team to rebuild and wait to see where the Islanders will be playing in a few years, it might not be a bad idea to keep the customers satisfied.
HEY!
UPDATED at 1:05 pm - Queens steps up to the plate. Read Jim Baumbach.
Kristen McElroy, the Democratic candidate for Town of Hempstead Supervisor, is pregnant, peeved and pro-Lighthouse Project.
After her introduction in late May as Kate Murray’s opponent, McElroy disappeared for four months. She explained her absence by revealing her pregnancy and doctor-prescribed bed rest. McElroy says everything is okay now and she is medically cleared for campaining. (My choice of words). As for my perception of her sudden, maybe-too-late-in-the-game emergence, McElroy said campaigns at this level are typically a one-month sprint to election day.
When we spoke by phone on Friday afternoon, the Garden City resident was returning from a meeting with the Newsday editorial board in which both McElroy and Murray made their pitch for the newspaper’s endorsement. She came out of the meeting with little respect for her political opponent.
“The Supervisor acted like a disgusting politican,” McElroy said. “She pulled the same stuff on the Lighthouse Project that she’s been doing all year. Kate Murray has been a roadblock. She says her actions on the Lighthouse are not politically-motivated, but everyone knows they are.
“Every agency that has approved their piece of the project, like the Department of Transportation, she does not accept. She continues to say the ball is in Charles Wang’s court, yet everyone knows this is in Kate Murray’s hands. This project is essential to the entire county – the jobs, the tax base – and Kate Murray continues to stall.”
The Labor council gave Murray their endorsement months ago, before the Lighthouse hearings that led to no progress and infuriated union leadership. McElroy said she “screened” with the trades in July but wants another meeting. McElroy also had an informational session with the Lighthouse Development Corp. two months ago and would like to schedule a meeting with Charles Wang and Scott Rechler in the next two weeks.
Time is running out. I believe McElroy is fighting a monumental uphill battle and told her so. When I asked her if she genuinely feels she has a chance to defeat Murray in the election next month, McElroy said, “Absolutely. I have every intention of becoming the next Supervisor of the Town of Hempstead. And when I do, the political games around the Lighthouse will end and the project will be approved.”
Thoughts on this story? In Comments.
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