Just finished up Hockey Night on LI here where Steve did an excellent job with the discussion and a lot of great calls while Ken Rosenblatt of Islanders Outsider was outstanding with his Islander knowledge and insights.
I had a great time and croaked my way through the program with a cold and a voice that was shutting down quickly, but one of the final points I raised as we spoke about sitting back for the summer and seeing what happens was about the Islanders perhaps looking at a trade for Dan Boyle who has a NTC in Tampa Bay and speculated that Bruno Gervais and Sean Bergenheim (if he did not file for arbitration by 7/5)could be a player they could look to move considering his previous holdout and Mr Wang's policy vs Mr Gandler.
Apparently while I was on the program Mr Logan over at the Islanders Newsday blog
here got a tip with comments from Mr Boyle's agent, George Bazos who told the St Pete Times his client plans to think things over tonight and make a decision on Friday about whether or not to waive his no-trade clause. Garth Snow did not have comment while Mr Logan did some speculation what it would take from the Islander roster to make such a trade feasible, several teams are in that mix.
Mr Logan also had a few words about the departure of Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko.
NYI Fan Central Comments:
As Mr Logan correctly points out Ottawa is Dan Boyle's hometown, and San Jose are viewed as the likely frontrunners. Both clubs lost defenders with big contracts and may decide to use that cap space here to sign someone with a long term deal.
Garth Snow would be correctly kicking the tires if he does in fact have interest.
Here are Thursday's confirmed signings per Tsn:
7:20PM Phoenix Coyotes sign RFA defenceman Matt Jones to a two-year contract.
6:59PM St. Louis Blues re-sign forward Yan Stastny to a two-year contract.
6:47PM Minnesota Wild sign UFA forward Antti Miettinen to a three-year contract.
5:57PM San Jose Sharks sign UFA defenceman Rob Blake to a one-year, $5 million contract.
4:29PM New York Rangers sign UFA forward Markus Naslund to a two-year, $8 million contract and UFA defenceman Dmitri Kalinin to a one-year contract.
3:52PM Colorado Avalanche sign UFA defenceman Daniel Tjarnqvist to a one-year contract.
3:37PM Montreal Canadiens sign UFA forward Georges Laraque to a three-year, $4.5 million contract.
2:28PM Phoenix Coyotes sign UFA defencemen David Hale (2-year, $1.4-million).
1:57PM Pittsburgh Penguins sign UFA forward Ruslan Fedotenko (1-year, $2.5 million).
1:57PM Pittsburgh Penguins sign UFA forward Miroslav Satan (1-year, $3.5 million).
11:00AM Washington Capitals sign UFA forward Keith Aucoin to a two-year contract