Happy July 4th/Quick Hits/Boyle to SJ

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/04/2008 10:10:00 AM | | |

















Tsn.ca reports Dan Boyle was traded to San Jose and it included former Islander defenseman Brad Lukowich from the Lightning in exchange for Matt Carle, a first-round draft pick, an unnamed prospect and an additional pick.

Thank You Garth Snow if Boyle did waive his NTC to come here, no first round picks go anywhere.

Point Blank: Mr Botta had some Islander centric speculation on the trade for Dan Boyle to San Jose.

Updated 5:45pm:
Newsday: Mr Logan in the Islanders Newsday blog had a few words on the Dan Boyle trade regarding New York with speculation general manager Garth Snow could still look to make some trades as other clubs look to clear cap space.
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New York signs Doug Weight and all the club could do was get us highlights of him miked up for a game in St Louis? I'm not blaming the club here but how about Doug Weight give the fans a few words about him signing or at least get a few words from his agent about coming here? Even Bill Guerin should have had a few words.

Mark Streit is in another country and gave the Islander website comments the night he signed as well as a long interview in Newsday. We have players all over the world coming or going and virtually all of them have a few words when they sign or depart so where is Doug Weight?

Updated:
Islanders website: Jason Lockhart as I wrote this blog has a few words from Bill Guerin who spoke with Doug Weight.
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Hopefully Sean Bergenheim files for arbitration, it guarantees he will have a contract for next season when all is said and done, that has to happen by Saturday because it's the deadline.

If he does not file that negotiation could go right up to training camp, I do not see Garth Snow risking another signing in Russia this time if Mark Gandler or Garth Snow is that unreasonable in negotiations.
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So the other goalie drafted first overall who just took his team to a Stanley Cup Final got a contract for seven years at only 500k more a season than Rick DiPietro?

I guess Fleury or Pittsburgh left their options open but it does raise a good debate about DiPietro's contract and if the right call was made?

Of course when you see what Jose Theodore is getting with some of these other goaltenders DiPietro's contract looks fantastic even if someone will be paying off the later years or it will be bought out.
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I found the XM radio show on NHL network disappointing the few days I listened, too much Rangers on a New York located show and not nearly enough NHL but that's the deal when WFAN employees are part of it. E.J Hradek did not impress me at all and came off more like a shock jock with his commentary.

At least Don LeGreca correctly pointed out no one in New York is following the hockey outside the studio in this town.
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Winners/Losers so far by my count?
Most of the clubs that stayed out of the mix seem winners.

Detroit is the biggest winner of all getting Hossa for a year where he is under the gun to prove himself and with everything to lose long-term. I admire what he did but it's a huge long-term risk if he is injured.

Edmonton is a winner for now with Cole and Brule but if they do not resign Cole it's a poor move.

I like Atlanta signing Hainsey to go with Enstrom.

Washington to me completely botched the goaltending situation as did Chicago and Colorado, it could work out but Washington made that run with Huet and as good as it looked at the deadline that's how poor it looks now.

I think Pittsburgh lost huge when they went all-in on Hossa and he not only did his Ryan Smyth impersonation but did it for only a one year deal after going to a final.
Imagine if Smyth helped the Isles get to the finals and he left for a one year deal with the club that beat them?

I guess Rob Rossi or Dave Molinary forgot to blame the arena in Pittsburgh.

Do the Pens really think Fedotenko and Satan's struggles were more about the Islanders. They will be more productive with Malkin and Crosby but so was Andy Hilbert. A year ago Fedotenko was dumped by a highly skilled Tampa club with only thirteen goals, Satan may have been injured but the season before that struggled.

Speaking of Tampa did they solve anything yet or just spun their wheels with some very risky contracts on some very average players? Olaf Kolzig does not impress me as a starter, Ryan Malone is hardly a superstar, Prospal? They drafted Stamkos but aside from that I did not like their free agency decisions.

I wonder what Chicago's gm plans to do with all those expensive goaltenders?

The Devils are having a reunion tour up front, did they help their defense in front of Brodeur?

Camp Cablevision's Glen Sather I guess felt was not as close to a cup as the spin doctors felt, the exodus was early and often and in the end it did come down to the money because no one took a discount to return or sign. I think Naslund is going to be in for a shock when he discovers how much the Rangers trap and that his former/current coach would perfer to keep a strategy that allowed the least shots per game in the Eastern Conference last season.

You can bet Mr Dellapina and Mr Brooks will do some serious selling for Shanahan to return so they have more quotable players.

Carolina to me had a terrible start to free agency, have they seen Pitkanen struggle the last couple of years for two other clubs and then they sign two players out of the NHL to contracts who were marginal before they left?

I think Carolina is the biggest loser so far with Toronto and Vancouver but did improve a bit with Steve Bernier. Either Scott Howson in Columbus is very smart or very foolish but Huseluis numbers will replace the player who left.

I guess having Roberto Luongo did not convince Mats Sundin to take twenty million to come play with him so far. I guess that would not have worked if Roberto was still here either but of course Chara, McCabe, Bertuzzi, Jokinen, Spezza/Weiss, and Heatley all would have multiple cups here by now and never would have accepted big money to leave so they could all stay together?

Okey-Dokey.

Don't worry folks. Forsberg, Sakic and Smyth will all be on the telephone to Sundin.

The rest of the moves for now equate to a degeee so we'll see what happens. I guess for some clubs getting older players in decline is improving. That has to include the Isles signing Weight but we'll see with Demitra, Shanahan and a lot of similar forwards still needing to be signed.

For now I will speculate and tell you I think our division on paper is a lot weaker and that's good for our club.

Espn.com: Scott Burnside continued to work on his Ranger resume with an article on what Jagr meant to the Rangers and the league.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I wonder if Alexei Yashin had 90m dollars with of talent important for him, he could not play with them and he refused to take penalty shots and admittedly did not play his hardest at times last season after being essentially dumped from Pittsburgh and Washington if Mr Burnside would be telling us it was not about ego or problems?

Once again, it seems all about the laundry for Mr Burnside.