New York Notables: Nine AHL Defenders Under Contract

New York Islander Fan Central | 6/04/2013 07:37:00 AM |
Nyislanderfancentralprospects.blogspot.com has the updates as usual on all prospect contact status.

For those scoring at home Bridgeport signing defenders Mike Keenan, Dallas Jackson, and goaltender Ken Reiter on 6/3/13 to AHL contracts brings the total number of defenders signed to nine not counting Griffin Reinhart or the players from the 2012 (prior) drafts.

Calvin Dehaan, Mike Dalhuisen, Scott Mayfield, Andrey Pedan, Aaron Ness, Matt Donovan, Mike Keenan, Marc Cantin, Dallas Jackson.
 
This does not include Jon Landry, Nathan McIver, or Ty Wishart, who are all pending UFA.

Of course in the potential department many of those names do not have resume Brenden Kichton has, who made clear he wanted to play for the 2012-13 Sound Tigers, who were 29th in goals against.

Kichton comes from same CHL team/system where Jared Spurgeon was not retained, and is now an NHL defender with Minnesota, at a time the Islanders needed a player like him.

Ken Reither (who mostly played in the ECHL) signing means Anders Nilsson/Rick DiPietro are in place at AHL/ECHL level.

The next generation of forward prospects unsigned remaining....Kirill Petrov with Mitchell Theoret not signed by 6/1/13 deadline. 
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Not much to write about the NHL level, unless things have changed for a year in new CBA. 6/25 deadline to make qualifying offers to the Islanders RFA which includes Hamonic, Poulin, Thomas Hickey, Josh Bailey, David Ullstrom.

Jesse Joensuu did not play 72 career NHL games so he's unrestricted, and a player who the Islanders should want to take a final look at.

Tomas Marcinko, Justin DiBenedetto, Mark Katic, Rhett Rakhshani, Mikko Koskinen (signed through 2014-15) all require another qualifying offer. Former Captain, Jeremy Colliton, retained for a few years by the Isles in this manner is finally healthy, and signed in Europe for 2013-14.
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Rick DiPietro needs to continue to build on his eighteen games unless the Islanders leaving him home for the playoffs was the final decision.

Anders Nilsson needs to play hockey games now that's he's apparently healthy.
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 We all know the clock is ticking on Mark Streit. There is no one in UFA available close to replacing his offense with John Tavares going to Bern with him during lockout no small footnote with Niederreiter being a top prospect.

The organization/player trends of not signing players at this point suggest it's not going to happen which is a big hit for this franchise entering 2013-14.

The NHL goaltending depth chart at this time suggests Evgeny Nabokov has limited options to start for a team if he wishes to test the UFA market. 
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Charles Wang's Neulion TV (per their twitter account) has signed a multiyear deal with Barclay's Center to provide exclusive digital streaming of live events which is the first facility Neulion has such an agreement with here.

Neulion paid 140m to win Olympic streaming rights which also carries NHL games.
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The fact the Dolan's current president, Hank Ratner, is even giving some interviews suggests their bid for the Coliseum RFP is not the lock it likely is.