Adam Proteau of the Hockey News has Isles last.

New York Islander Fan Central | 8/15/2007 02:15:00 PM | | |
Let's see, it's overtly negative about the Islanders, does not mention DiPietro at all and has the Islanders dead last in the Atlantic next season? It's either Adam Proteau of the Hockey News or Scott Burnside of Espn.

Behind door number two here is Proteau's Atlantic Division preview.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
It is a fair comment that the forward unit is comprised of other teams' castoffs and mid-tier veterans. That said players like Fedotenko and Vasicek are Stanley Cup winners at a point where we could see the best from them while Guerin and Comrie at legitimate top six players. This is also a far more balanced club in terms of speed and skill from a year ago. How Proteau does not mention DiPietro at all is beyond comical and reflects someone writing a paragraph per team which means sloppy overview at best.

As for pulling a rabbit out of the hat again, last year this team was in sixth with injuries before the Smyth trade with Yashin injured for a large part of the second half and people like Proteau picked us 30th so he has not learned his lesson.