NOTEBOOK: Hamonic, de Haan on 36-man Team Canada List; Donovan, not Ness in Team USA final 29
more updates from practice later
12:35 pm - As expected, Islanders prospect defensemen Calvin de Haan and Travis Hamonic are among 36 players invited to the final tryout camp for Team Canada at the World Junior Championships.
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12:25 pm - Scott Gordon was asked if having the fathers around on this two-game road trip to Atlanta and Tampa Bay would be a good reminder of discipline for the players. Cracked Gordon, “We’re more concerned about the discipline of the parents.”
Gordon conducted a 75-minute practice today in which he never got loud. I asked if that could have been because the fathers were watching. “They can’t ground me,” he said. Gordon said the work ethic of his players has been strong all season, so he doesn’t have to bark much. “Their work ethic comes from their parents,” he said. “I know mine did.”
Regarding the lineup, Gordon reported that Richard Park wore yellow as an extra because he wanted “the other guys” - namely Rob Schremp and Blake Comeau - “to get the reps.” That may be true, but it’s clear Park is nursing some kind of minor injury.
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10:55 am - Team USA 29-man camp roster announced for World Junior Championships. Islanders late-round pick Matt Donovan (Colorado) is on it. Islanders’ 2008 second round pick Aaron Ness is not. In 14 games this season, Ness has a goal and four assists and does not appear to be developing well as a hockey player at the U. of Minn. Sound familiar? There were rumors Ness might transfer, but those have been unfounded so far. His father, Jay, went to North Dakota.
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10:40 am - Team Canada likely to announce 36-man roster for World Junior Championships camp later today. Islanders prospect defensemen Calvin de Haan and Travis Hamonic are not locks to make the team, but they should be on the camp invite list. The final seven or eight D could come down to who is freed up to play. For example, as reported by Bob McKenzie, St. Louis has made Alex Pietrangelo available.
Frans Nielsen is practicing with the team, wearing a yellow jersey. Joining him in yellow is Richard Park. No word from the team yet if he is ailing.
After two full days of practice, looks like this could be a quick one today. The players’ fathers are here to join them on the flight from Farmingdale for the start of the annual dads’ trip.
Comeau - Thompson - Jackman
Moulson - Tavares - Okposo
Tambellini - Bailey - Sim
Bergenheim - Schremp - Hunter
(yellow) Nielsen, Park
Streit - Gervais
Witt - Hillen
Meyer - MacDonald
Roloson
Biron
DiPietro
The rehabilitation of captain Doug Weight, said by the Islanders on Nov. 10 to be sidelined 4-6 weeks with an upper-body injury, is on or close to schedule. Weight tells good man Steve Marcus of Newsday that he hopes to return “around Christmas or just after.”
Hockey talk here. Lighthouse continues below.
Guess Gordon couldnt decide between Schremp and Comeau for the start so Park had to find something wrong with himself to get the night off?
Chris, Do you think there is any chance the Isles will go after Kovalchuk in the offseason if he fails to sign with Atlanta? Maybe Wang will make the biggest splash in years for the team. Who knows, would be nice though if he did!
Ness and Trivino do not look like sound 2nd round picks after all
I think gordo is starting to get it with the lines but still think they could use some tinkering.
Moulson-JT-KO
Tambellini-Bailey-Hunter
Bergy-Nielsen-Comeau
Park-Thompson-Jackman
That would be the ideal top 6. The bottom 6 is open for debate.
So neither de Haan nor Ness are deveoping properly? That’s just great. Any more good news?
Since Ricky is listed in the practice lines, does that mean he’s practicing regularly with the full squad now?
Not good news to hear about Ness.
I did find it interesting that Snow drafted a kid going to U of M so soon after the backlash from the OkPoso situation. Garth is going to wait until after the season if he wants to sign him…..no way he ruffles feathers again.
Ness did have a strong Freshman year..U of M has been horrible since the 2nd half of last year..Shroeder and Nick Leddy are subpar as well…hopefully its just a bad team….not a bad draft pick.
Trivino is not doing so good either. Can’t wait to read CB assessment on our non-bridgeport prospects.
Does that mean Donovan made the team, or just got an invite to camp?
I think Ness transferring would be a disaster. Wouldn’t he have to sit out of a year? If he didn’t want to be in Minnesota, he should just go play in the WHL. Brandon Wheat Kings traded for his rights last summer. Minnesota is a mess right now. They had a kid leave a couple weeks ago to play in the CHL.
on the downside: Koskinen hurt, Ness slacking, DeHaan slacking (at least that is what his point production suggests)…
on the upside: Hamonic tearing up the WHL, Donovan having a good freshman year for Univ of Denver and possibly making the US junior team, Anders Nilsson (the goalie taken after Koskinen) playing well in Sweden and making their junior team…
Three up and three down.
I am not that concerned about Ness. His entire team is struggling, and there are many quality draft picks on the team. Jordan Schroeder who was drafted in the first round last year, only has 10 points in 14 games. As for Trivino, he has 7 points in 13 games. Last year he had 13 points in 32 games and this year his team is in last place in Hockey East. Him and Ness are in very similar situations, but I am not overly concerned. Not yet anyway.
Way tto early to throw in the towel on Ness and trivino.
Why hasn’t Blake Kessel’s name not mentioned here? Is he not in the mix as well?
Once you get past the few “sure shots’ in each draft, it’s a pure crapshoot. IF Ness is a bust at #2, but Martin (at 5?) and a David Ullstrom (at 7?) emerge as serviceable NHLers is the draft a success?
All that being said, it’s way to early to label any of these guys.
ive been able to watch several of Ness’s games this season (some odd channel in the 400’s up around VS and NHL Network). I like his style. plays very fast. not afraid to throw a big hit. Smallish. Looks pretty poised on the powerplay. Not sure why his #’s are so low. He still has a lot of time to develop.
Kessel is too old for the WJHC, he’s 20 already.
The next two games against Atlanta and Tampa Bay should be fun. These are two teams that the Isles are in competition with for the final playoff spots. They are both a little ahead of the Isles in the development process but two wins would really be nice! Will be interesting to see how the Isles match up against them.
Why is anybody saying De Haan isn’t developing properly? He has 14 points in 22 games and is a +2 on one of the worst teams in the OHL. He’s 18 years old. He won’t be in the NHL for a few years. Relax.
Sounds like we might have a lot of players in the WJC. I think Ness and Trivino will pan out over time. Maybe them strugling will allow us to get then to the AHL a little faster and get them use to Gordo’s system?
Trivino remindes me a lot of Chris Drury.
I was still puzzled why this organization spent 2 of their top 4 picks last season on goalies. Wouldve loved to see what Ryan Oreilly wouldve done here
#16, because based on his output last year as well as his draft selection, you would expect him to be averaging at least a point a game.
I agree, i dont get the DeHaan concerns. Ethan, let me add he leads team in Minutes played and still a plus rating.
We can expect all prospects we have to be superstars in college and junior right away.
We saw DeHaan in preseason. there is nothing to be concerned about. Kid will be a stud.
It’s a little silly to be worried about De Haan after 22 games with good numbers. The kid looked good against NHL players in pre-season. He will be fine
De Haan and Ness are on train wreck teams. Minnesota’s program is screwed up beyond repair. All their quality players– Budish, Schroeder, Ness, etc.– are putting up crap numbers. Okposo bolted. Leddy bolted. There will be more where that came from as well.
Having seen both de Haan and Ness play, I can tell you that there’s nothing wrong with them and that they look just fine. When they physically develop, they’ll be ready to play in the pros, be it the AHL or NHL.
Thanks for the info Lance (17)
I’m pretty sure Ness would need to sit out a year if he transfers per NCAA rules unless he goes to a lower division.
The good news is I’ve read from several places that he’s added 20-30lbs since being drafted. Hope he continues that.
Not worried about DeHaan.
Harmonic and Donovan is good news.
One thing I’d like to say is there is too much jelly (small puck movers) and no JAM (big, mean, tough, skilled d-men) in the Isles prospect pool. I beg Snow to please trade Kohn, Katic, Spurgeon etc in packages for better assets. None of those three appear to ever have a shot at full time NHL duty. Could you imagine the disaster if the future D was DeHaan, Harmonic, Neimi (Good so far)Kohn, Katic, Ness, Spurgeon, other tiny puck movers. Just too small.
DeHaan and Harmonic appear to be the guys worth building around. Neimi and Ness potentially could be part of that. The others it is already apparent there won’t be room for them and they aren’t what the Isles need so move them while you can.
So happy to see Ricky coming back.
why the goalies in the second and third rounds? well the guy in the third round is now the backup on whats considered to be a powerful international tourney team. i dont think thats a bad result for a third round pick, no matter his position.
the guy in the second round had a lot of predraft ink that was positive. maybe he was selected early, no arguement there. but he is physically huge, has talent, and there appears to be solid upside for a guy that played very well in a pretty solid overseas league.
the guy current franchinse goalie is late twenties, numerous knee operations, might be back in mid december, after 1/3 of this season is gone. he also missed all of last season. um, health risk?
our current goalies are either: nearly 40, or on a one year deal for a very reasonable price because other teams
(very foolishly) thought him not worth the money.
i dont know if biron is gonna get traded. if he does, and we get a pick in either the first, second or third rounds, then the gm spent $400-$600k for a chance to draft a top 100 player, pretty good deal actually( think $15 million for the entire second round of a single draft). and if our franchise goalie, whom i hope is healthy, isnt able to return to NHL status, do you really want to drop millions a year on a free agent goalie.
De Haan looked pretty good in those recent Canada-Russia games. He had a point and was a +3 over two games. Also looks like he has put on some size. He’ll be fine.
“That may be true, but it’s clear Park is nursing some kind of minor injury.”
Forgive my asking, but is this an observation, a source’s information, or an assumption?
Look for Ness to go to Brandon of the WHL after this semester is over (after Christmas). They are hosting the Major Junior National Championships (Memorial Cup) this year so they have an automatic berth. Also the major juniors play a 72 game regular season - better prep for the pro game. That’s if the Isles plan on signing him anytime soon.
Good stuff CB.
If Weight expects to be back around Christmas, does that mean he expects his subsequent illness/injury to occur around MLK weekend?
To Steve @ 28 - Thank you. We have a winner folks.
I remember when the Islanders didn’t have enough prospects to cheer/complain about. This is all part of development. Overall, most should turn out to be good picks.
I think we all have to keep in mind that prospects can’t be judged by stats alone (ie schremp), so to evaluate trivino, ness, de Haan by stats is ludicrous. Prospects/kids will have ups and downs…the constant evaluation from afar by fans isn’t productivevor accurate. And other teams scouts have no reason to share honest accurate information about our prospects with any writer or fan. The reality is we have alot of prospects… Some will develop some won’t, and this year we add more. Impatience remains our worst enemy!
Garth should get Ness the hell off that team. Lucia’s day has come and gone. He had first shot at all the Minnesota kids and he still can’t get it right.
Get Ness to Bridgeport.
#28 you are dead on there
Someone asked why we drafted two goalies. Did you see our goaltending last season? Snow used this draft and offseason to develop a very strong column of goalies that could take us through the next 20 years. Biron is likely a 1-year thing, Roloson probably for a 2-year thing. Then you have DP after that IF he can stay healthy. So you suggest we spend oodles of money on another goalie to either backup or replace DP? Not a very smart move for a rebuilding team.
So they went and drafted 2 goalies and added another to Bridgeport along with signing Rollie and Biron. I would say Snow did a fantastic job helping to secure our goal-tending for years to come.
Our goal-tending needed the most work anyway, now that he sees what we have on offense and defense, he will know more how to spend money this season and this summer when needed. Smart moves all around by Snow I would say.
I got an email from the Islanders saying “come see Rick DiPietro play in Bridgeport on Saturday”. I feel like the episode on F Troop when O’Rourke and Agarn try to warn the Hekawis that Harvey Korman wants too destroy them by attacking from a hot air balloon. Chief Wild Eagle dismisses their pleas but later when Korman flies over the Hekawi camp, yells “IT IS BALLOON!!!”
Who knows what is going on with the prospects in the college ranks. How many Hobbey Baker winners do nothing in the pros and there are non draftees who go to the hall. Then there have been many heisman winners (I know a different sport) that have a great college career but are not very successful in the pros. So lets get them in our system and let them develop and see what happens.