DAY TWO: NEW YORK AT 2010 NHL DRAFT

New York got the wild card at 65 in Kirill Kabanov, with his ITV Interview from Los Angeles.

Tsn.ca: Have comments from Kirill Kabanov and general manager, Garth Snow.

Updated:
NHL.com: Adam Kimelman, ahas comments from Islanders Quebec scout, Mario Saraceno, the Islanders' Quebec scout who advocated for Kabanov at the draft table on the club looking this year for top-six skill level with some size, along with the two first rounders. This article also includes Garth Snow, and Kirill Kabanov's comments.

New York Draft Picks:
65-Kirill Kabanov
82-Jason Clark with his ITV interview at the draft.
95-TRADED TO COLUMBUS (Isles trade #95 pick to Colorado or Columbus for 2011 third round pick)
125-D Tony DeHart.
155-160: TRADED TO ATLANTA (Islanders trade #155 and #160 to Atlanta for a 2011 fifth round pick)
185-Cody Rosen, goaltender, Clarkson ECAC.

The Islander website now has interviews and recap of selections being made from day, so I took down video from Friday night.

NYIFC Comments:
Once again, I will not attempt to play draft expert.

It takes years find out if the right selections were made. Indirectly or inadvertently perhaps, they sent a little message to Kirill Petrov/agent with this pick, even though he is coming to summer camp.

Regardless Kabanov is an excellent gamble in round three, and not tied to another KHL team.

I will add perhaps, Garth Snow/staff had a few words with former assistant, Danny Flynn before making this pick, but from here it's up to Kabanov.

I'm not going to mislead anyone, I did not really follow his story so I don't know, all I can write is he has now been drafted by an NHL organization. If he wants to earn a professional contract, part of his learning process will be to conduct himself with professionalism.

Aside from that some felt the club, needed a top defenseman, they only got one later and moved three other selections, for picks next summer or a possible trade in the coming days/weeks.

You know going in, I felt they needed a draft with some big forwards and I explained why, but what I think means absolutely nothing because again I'm not in Bridgeport watching the prospects develop or what management thinks of the progress of some players.

Tony DeHart is an overage player from OHL, who played two games in Springfield, so he may have to be signed and brought immediately to Bridgeport on a roster with several players locked into spots, including Anton Klementyev, he seems to be out of options in the CHL.

Garth Snow did not have a lot of luck out of Clarkson with his other two selections, and who knows why another goaltender given depth but it is a seventh rounder, who likely on paper replaces Jase Weslosky.

They did draft some taller players on a depth chart that needed them.

Aside from that, ask me in five years for most of these selections, we're still wondering about Bergenheim, Comeau, Nielsen, Tambellini.



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Islander News Articles 6/26

AP: Ira Podell, always one to keep the glass half-filled on the New York Islanders, does the AP report with comments from General Manager Garth Snow, and Nino Niederreiter.

NYIFC Comments:
In the hot air department that is not worthy of a link, Larry Brooks only notes the Islanders passed on Cam Fowler and Brandon Gormley, with some quotes from Garth Snow, but did not ask the same question of Cablevision management at the draft.

University of North Dakota: Issued a release with some additional background information on Brock Nelson.

Montreal Gazette: Pat Hickey questions the omission of Pat Burns from being elected to the Hall of Fame, and feels this slight was compounded by Jim Devellano's candidacy which he writes was pushed by former Islander President/GM Bill Torrey. Mr Hickey goes on to question his role in New York and Detroit's success.

NYIFC Comments:
I'm going to write this as Mr Hickey did, that Pat Burns struggling badly with cancer does not matter, his election should be based on his record.

But on one hand Mr Hickey writes, Pat Burns health should not be a consideration because he belongs in the Hall of Fame, while on the other he writes, it will be too late for Pat Burns if or when he receives the honor he deserves.

Seems like a contradiction, and that it does matter to him.

If he does not believe Jim Devellano belongs in the Hall of Fame that is his viewpoint, however he should not question's anyone role in a teams successes or that others pushed someone into the Hall of Fame, much less Bill Torrey.

Again forgetting Mr Burns failing health, just because he was a popular coach in Montreal and Toronto, does he absolutely merit induction based on his record? He won his Stanley Cup in New Jersey with the Devils, I seriously doubt Mr Hickey would be pushing this hard for his induction if he did not coach in Montreal or Toronto where he was popular.

Philadelphia Daily News: Reported Dan Hamhuis negotiating rights, whom the Flyers acquired last Saturday from Nashville for defenseman Ryan Parent were traded to Pittsburgh for a third-round pick in next year's draft.

NYIFC Comments:
So Ryan Parent for a third, and the Nashville-Philadelphia connection for dumping players looking for big money apparently fails. I guess Comcast decided not to front load this contract or overpay.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio late last night in his blog reported initial word out of Bridgeport is that Sean Bentivoglio, Dustin Kohn, Nate Lawson and Dylan Reese should be given qualifying offers making them RFA.

NYIFC Comments:
Despite a conflicting report out of Chicago, 6/28 is the deadline for qualifying potential restricted free agents, that include Jeff Tambellini.









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New York Trades Both Second Rd Picks To Chicago Blackhawks For Brock Nelson at 30

The Islanders traded 35th/58th overall selections to the Chicago BlackHawks for the 30th selection, where they have drafted center, Brock Nelson.

NHL.com: Has a profile of Nelson, who will attend North Dakota next year.

Updated:
Islanders website: Has comments from the Islanders selection.

NYIFC Comments:
Perhaps a prelude to a future trade for Kris Versteeg, or not. The Islanders no longer have a second round selection, but added a 6'3, 205 lb player.

Video of both selections, and their interviews are posted at top of NYIFC.

USA Today: Kyle Woodlief, who follows prospects year round wrote the following on 6/1.

Nelson plays for tiny, but legendary, Warroad High School, the alma mater of several former NHL stars. He's a legitimate power center with soft hands and scoring touch around the net. He's very dangerous from the circles in and is still very raw — he could get a whole lot better as he figures things out. Lots of teams are lying in the weeds on this kid, and somebody will get an itchy trigger finger late in the first or early in the second round for fear that another club will jump up and grab him.

NYIFC Comments:
This is why folks should follow the work of Mr Woodlief, who reports on prospects year-round.





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New York Selects Nino Niederreiter

NHL.com: Report New York selects, RW Nino Niederreiter with the fifth overall selection.

Islanders website: Has General Manager, Garth Snow's comments on the selection.

NYIFC Comments:
Will not play prospect expert as promised. I felt a scoring winger was needed, and that's what was drafted, with some size who has been playing in North America.

Seems Columbus could not trade back on Ryan Johansen, and perhaps Garth Snow found the same problem if the staff had settled absolutely on Nino Niederreiter, both were rated lower than where they were taken.

Tampa jumped right on Brett Connolly and Cam Fowler was there too, so those and a few others will be the comparative players moving forward.

Rick DiPietro was at the Islander draft table.

ITV: Did post a brief video with comments from owner, Charles Wang, and General Manager, Garth Snow. The ITV/NHL feeds have had problems all night and Snow was very tough to hear.

Additional video with Head Coach, Scott Gordon, who also are interviewed.

Islanders website: Has comments from John Tavares, who contacted Niederreiter, with advise.

Updated:
According to Katie Strang's twitter, Snow wanted to move back a few spots, but was not able to, nor could he do anything to move up when Fowler-Gormley started dropping with his 35th selection.

Updated Comments From Nino Niederreiter:
Islanders website: Has comments from Niederreiter on his selection, with more from, Garth Snow.
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Tons of twitter updates from draft as well by myself, tonight.

The new jersey has an orange circle on the outer logo, so it is different from core of four jersey.

More updates, and blog entries Saturday.




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NYIFC WILL COVER 2010 DRAFT

NYIFC will have full coverage of the 2010 entry draft for the New York Islanders this weekend.

The bulk of the entries will be on Saturday because the club has nine selections at this time, unless a trade/transaction is made on Thursday or Friday.

The crawl has been temporarily added back to the blog during this time w/updated selections, as they are made. The prospect blog will be updated with profiles on new selections at some point next week. Links to major draft sites and live sites to follow draft are added to sidebar.

No point linking to a lot of worthless, professional media speculation who's projections have the club picking among at least four players, unless General Manager Garth Snow or Asst Gm, Ryan Jankowski are quoted, it's of little value.

As I wrote a while back, despite always subscribing to the best player available thinking, this singular year I do feel the club needs to settle on another forward given prospect depth on back-line, combined with a lack of "statistical" progression from Robin Figren, Tomas Marcinko, Jesse Joensuu, Justin DiBenedetto, Matt Martin, along with the other forward prospect depth currently in Bridgeport.

This can change very quickly, and progression can be measured many different ways, by professionals working with these players, not by fans like myself watching game, or reading articles.

The twitter feed for professional media here, has added a lot of coverage. I will try and filter out those feeds less hockey-centric, or writers assigned other sports. Non hockey centric ads or amateur fan updates from Islanders twitter will no longer be included on right sidebar of NYIFC.

As written recently, I will not attempt to become a prospect expert. I will give you links to professional media on the players drafted, with quotes from New York Islander professional scouting staff on each selection, along with some past background articles. The CSB/Tsn/Kyle Woodlief/professional services have been available for a while, with special link to Isles Draft Central page.

As always, the professional media is the only standard for coverage here.

Early next week, I will be unavailable for most of Monday and likely for a good part of Tuesday and this could extend longer. If the Islanders do not release a list of players qualified before the 6/28 deadline, I will have to catch up at a later time, it should be noted one paper now list this deadline as 6/30, however that's not what Tampa Bay website listed.

During the weekend, I will also attempt to put together a free agent section for 7/1 on the sidebar, and will try and add something with live free agent updates.

It should be noted because NYIFC is no longer a full-time, year-round blog, we are not accepting comments beyond e-mails. NYIFC twitter feed is active, usually daily, and folks are always welcome for respectful hockey discussion.

As written previously there will be no announcement with regard to the future of this blog, regardless of what is eventually decided for 2010-11.

Thanks to everyone for their outstanding support of New York Islander Fan Central.




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Kate Murray: "Lighthouse Zoning Blueprint "

LI Herald: Reports within the next two weeks, the TOH plans to unveil a special zoning blueprint that could make way for a “scaled-down” version of the Lighthouse with Supervisor Kate Murray's comments, who confirmed that the Lighthouse group have not seen plans for the new zoning.

“We have been working really diligently since we made our announcement in January that we would be coming up with a smaller-scale version of the developers’ plans.”

“We certainly hope those developers embrace [the new zoning] and we ultimately build it because we want to create jobs,” Murray said. “We want to have an economic shot in the arm in the Coliseum area.”

Kate Murray also confirmed, any plan for the Coliseum property that involved a Shinnecock Nation Casino would go beyond the town’s jurisdiction, and has yet to review any details for such a plan.

“We haven’t seen any documents or proposals, so it would really be premature at this point to comment on any potential siting of a gambling casino,” she said.

NYIFC Comments:
This is just the special zoning blueprint, this is not even the scaled down version yet.

So in short, when the fan/hockey focus will be on the general manager building his team through free agency, with some pressure on Charles Wang to spend money on free agents, the TOH will take the spotlight with some zoning, they designed, however expect Charles Wang and/or Scott Rechler to pay for.

On the Nassau front, Ed Mangano, is doing his own planning.

TOH/Kate Murray have also apparently not seen those concepts, nor do they have any control over what is built, which could contradict any scaled down version of a LH project, regardless if Wang and/or Rechler had any interest.



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New York Islanders 2010-11 Schedule Released

NHL 2010-2011 SCHEDULE (AS OF 6/22/10) (All Times Local)

SCHEDULE FOR N.Y. Islanders

Oct. 9 Dallas, 7:00 p.m.
Oct. 11 Rangers, 1:00 p.m.
Oct. 13 at Washington, 7:00 p.m.
Oct. 15 at Pittsburgh, 7:00 p.m.
Oct. 16 Colorado, 7:00 p.m.
Oct. 18 at Toronto, 7:00 p.m.
Oct. 21 at Tampa Bay, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 23 at Florida, 7:00 p.m.
Oct. 27 at Montreal, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 29 Montreal, 7:00 p.m.
Oct. 30 at Philadelphia, 7:00 p.m.

Nov. 3 at Carolina, 7:00 p.m.
Nov. 4 at Ottawa, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 6 Philadelphia, 7:00 p.m.
Nov. 10 at Anaheim, 7:00 p.m.
Nov. 11 at San Jose, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 13 at Los Angeles, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 17 Tampa Bay, 7:00 p.m.
Nov. 20 Florida, 7:00 p.m.
Nov. 21 at Atlanta, 5:00 p.m.
Nov. 24 Columbus, 7:00 p.m.
Nov. 26 New Jersey, 1:00 p.m.

Dec. 2 Rangers, 7:00 p.m.
Dec. 3 at Rangers, 7:00 p.m.
Dec. 5 Philadelphia, 1:00 p.m.
Dec. 9 at Boston, 7:00 p.m.
Dec. 11 Atlanta, 7:00 p.m.
Dec. 13 at Nashville, 7:00 p.m.
Dec. 16 Anaheim, 7:00 p.m.
Dec. 18 Phoenix, 7:00 p.m.
Dec. 22 Tampa Bay, 7:00 p.m.
Dec. 23 at New Jersey, 7:00 p.m.
Dec. 26 Montreal, 7:00 p.m.
Dec. 27 at Rangers, 7:00 p.m.
Dec. 29 Pittsburgh, 7:00 p.m.
Dec. 31 at Detroit, 7:00 p.m.

Jan. 3 at Calgary, 7:00 p.m.
Jan. 6 at Edmonton, 7:00 p.m.
Jan. 8 at Colorado, 1:00 p.m.
Jan. 9 at Chicago, 6:00 p.m.
Jan. 11 Vancouver, 7:00 p.m.
Jan. 13 Ottawa, 7:00 p.m.
Jan. 15 Buffalo, 7:00 p.m.
Jan. 17 New Jersey, 1:00 p.m.
Jan. 20 Washington, 7:00 p.m.
Jan. 21 at Buffalo, 7:30 p.m.
Jan. 23 Buffalo, 3:00 p.m.
Jan. 25 at Pittsburgh, 7:00 p.m.
Jan. 26 Carolina, 7:00 p.m.

Feb. 1 at Atlanta, 7:00 p.m.
Feb. 2 at Pittsburgh, 7:00 p.m.
Feb. 5 Ottawa, 7:00 p.m.
Feb. 8 Toronto, 7:00 p.m.
Feb. 10 at Montreal, 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 11 Pittsburgh, 7:00 p.m.
Feb. 13 at Buffalo, 3:00 p.m.
Feb. 15 at Ottawa, 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 17 Boston, 7:00 p.m.
Feb. 19 Los Angeles, 7:00 p.m.
Feb. 21 Florida, 1:00 p.m.
Feb. 22 at Toronto, 7:00 p.m.
Feb. 24 at Philadelphia, 7:00 p.m.
Feb. 26 Washington, 7:00 p.m.

Mar. 1 at Washington, 7:00 p.m.
Mar. 2 Minnesota, 7:00 p.m.
Mar. 5 St. Louis, 1:00 p.m.
Mar. 6 New Jersey, 1:00 p.m.
Mar. 8 Toronto, 7:00 p.m.
Mar. 11 Boston, 7:00 p.m.
Mar. 12 at New Jersey, 7:00 p.m.
Mar. 15 at Rangers, 7:00 p.m.
Mar. 18 at Carolina, 7:00 p.m.
Mar. 19 at Florida, 7:00 p.m.
Mar. 22 at Tampa Bay, 7:30 p.m.
Mar. 24 Atlanta, 7:00 p.m.
Mar. 26 Philadelphia, 7:00 p.m.
Mar. 30 at New Jersey, 7:00 p.m.
Mar. 31 Rangers, 7:00 p.m.

Apr. 2 Carolina, 7:00 p.m.
Apr. 6 at Boston, 7:00 p.m.
Apr. 8 Pittsburgh, 7:00 p.m.
Apr. 9 at Philadelphia, 7:00 p.m.



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Season Opener 10/9, Pre-Season Schedule Announced

Updated:
The Islanders are not making my blogging easy, every time I write something they release a new announcement, but that's good news.

Full Preseason Schedule has been released.

Schedule:
9/29-Saskatoon vs Calgary
9/29-Wachovia Center vs Philadelphia
10/1-Prudential Center vs New Jersey
10/2-Nassau Coliseum vs New Jersey
10/2-Pepsi Coliseum, Quebec vs Montreal.

All split-squad games begin at 7pm Est.

The full NHL schedule will be announced on Tuesday 6/22, according to Katie Strang, the home opener will be Saturday 10/9 against Dallas. To the best of my knowledge, this is also the season opener.

The Islander rookies will play the Bruins rookies at Shelton Ct on 9/14 & 9/15, before training camp officially opens for Boston.

Shelton, Ct is the Sound Tigers practice facility, so consider these home games for rookies.

NYIFC Comments:
This is somewhat different for the Isles, who have the prospects practice at Iceworks before the official camp opens, then they depart for somewhere as a full group. Boston will be going overseas and do not play the Isles as part of their preseason.

No point leaving in prior comments on preseason.

Very unusual for the club to have split-squad games to this degree, over such a short time-frame, and distance. I would guess main training camp will be in New York.

Updated:
It should be noted several clubs will have split squad games this pre-season, many teams are only playing six games, and we know the club had to change it's preseason plan and would not have played NHL exhibition games if they had traveled to China.
***********************************
Prospect David Toews is likely expected to leave school and join the Brandon Wheat Kings, the Isles maintain his signing rights until 2012 per Mike Van Ryan changes in new CBA. This was on the menu for quite a while, so do not associate this with his brother in any way.
**************************************
I'm not sure what I'm doing on Friday or Saturday, but if available I will have full blog entries here, as we have in the past.

Prospect Information/Isles website updates included all over NYIFC.
****************************************
Qualifying offers due by 6/28 or one week, some teams have released this information already. If you have been following twitter entries here, you have latest.

No doubt, Isles will do another release now that I wrote about it, bring it on.
*****************************************
Speculation on trades/signings/moves? Hunter, Bergenheim, Martinek, Comeau, Nielsen, Gervais, are the likely players Garth Snow would make available, along with draft picks, but little else.

Not as if Bergenhiem's value is high right now, and other team officials saw a lot of the bad goals allowed Comeau was credited with.

We'll see. A lot more (media) talk than action before drafts, outside New York hockey writers have newspapers to sell, here we have baseball.

In the strange but true department, Msg + is showing New York Islanders vs Washington game six in 1993 Monday 6/21 at 8pm, but is not showing the newly branded FoxWoods Liberty WNBA team on their newtwork, owned by Cablevision according to a recent NY Times article which also features poor Red Bull ratings on primary Msg Network.

NYIFC Comments:
Why did I write this? Because Msg coverage controls team ratings which helps it's marketing, which extends beyond New York Islander hockey.




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