The goaltending depth chart for those trying to keep up.
New York:
Rick DiPietro
Dwayne Roloson
Martin Biron-Never knew he was the brother of former Islander Mathieu
Bridgeport/Utah:
Mikko Koskinen-Will play in the Isles minor league system this year.
Scott Munroe
Nate Lawson
Parker Van Buskirk-Signed Monday 8/24 by Utah
Dov Grumet Morris-Signed 8/31 by Utah
Odessa:
Joel Martin signed with Odessa on 7/14/2009
Prospects:
Anders Nilsson
Jase Weslosky-See link posted here on his recent status change which makes his signing unlikely according to asst gm Ryan Jankowski's comments.
Stefan Ridderwall
Kevin Poulin-Was in Bridgeport last last season and prospect camp in July.
Joel Martin signed with Odessa on 7/14/2009
Prospects:
Anders Nilsson
Jase Weslosky-See link posted here on his recent status change which makes his signing unlikely according to asst gm Ryan Jankowski's comments.
Stefan Ridderwall
Kevin Poulin-Was in Bridgeport last last season and prospect camp in July.
It should also be noted Peter Mannino's first year out of college was his last with the Islanders organization after taking Dubielewicz path to the pro ranks and is now a Thrasher.
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What do I think of DiPietro's recovery and the recent announcements?
I think it was un-necessary (with good intentions) and exactly the distraction DiPietro wanted to avoid considering in a week or two the team will report and we will get our answers anyway about what he can or cannot do by how/if he practices.
This comes down to the doctors timetable with his recovery, not the player so DiPietro and the Islanders are caught in the middle also because they are not doctors and it's beyond their control.
His time table could be day by day so releasing any schedule as to when he could play may be getting way ahead of ourselves.
The doctor spoke last January and said another surgery was remote after six weeks of doing nothing was first announced but it appears remote did happen which means he's back where he was a year ago give or take a month as frustrating as that is for everyone.
Did he rush back? Who knows what he told the doctors or what they told him he could do on a daily basis. I cannot fault him for trying if he was told he could play, many other players in this league perform with injury and have to play through pain as part of recovery.
How many players with knee injuries who miss a year (usually ACL-MCL surgery) have we been told hit a wall and need two years? We saw this with Martinek, Peca, Nokelainen and who knows if it was a factor for Jon Sim in 2008-09?
Obviously with two veteran goaltenders here there is no rush but the idea now has to be make sure he has the best chance to return healthy because it's fair to write by the Isles actions they have made plans if this surgery is not successful to move on without him.
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And now for the usual rehashing I did several times last season on the injury policy.
The New York Islanders last year were the only team that tried to follow a league mandated policy decided during the finals (by all the clubs) that were bullied out of it daily with relentless assaults from our limited media like they were not allowed to follow the league adapted policy I saw followed in Pittsburgh, Detroit and several other NHL markets.
I guess when you lead the league in injuries it goes with the territory.
Mr Logan/Newsday staff, Mr Botta did not let up on the team for following league policy and much of it centered around DiPietro. Mike Sillinger did not get this kind of scrutiny and in a lot of ways has had a similar kind of last two seasons with a different kind of injury as we saw with Bates.
I'm not a big fan of the public must know everything mantra about someone's health, our players stories are rarely told when they are healthy in this very limited hockey media market, if more coverage is needed that's where it should start from the professional print media.
When someone is ready to play and we see them skating that's when we'll know they are ready and all the updates in the world does not change that.
Bottom line when you lose 582 man games to injury which I believe was a league record and have 402 man games lost the previous year which also led the league it's not going to be an easy process with injury information.
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