New York Islanders: Losing scoring wingers Ryan Smyth and Jason Blake early in free agency was a huge blow but young GM Garth Snow got to work instead of sulking - signing forwards Mike Comrie, Bill Guerin, Jon Sim, Ruslan Fedotenko, Josef Vasicek and defenceman Andy Sutton. Defenceman Bryan Berard was also invited to camp on a tryout. Major, major changes on the Island. Most importantly, overpaid captain Alexei Yashin was bought out after last season - a move welcomed inside the dressing room and by head coach Ted Nolan. So what do the Isles have here? A lot of it depends on how all the new faces come together. The Isles should be among big group of playoff bubble teams fighting for the last two spots.
CP's team-by-team look as training camps open |
Canadian Press checks in here with a thirty team preview that did a solid job in it's paragraph on the Islanders.