New York Notables: Are New York Islanders For Sale Again?

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/31/2021 03:56:00 PM |
For those following on twitter, I can only present my views as a non-insider, who knows nothing.
1. Lamoriello does not do buiness this way, he released his qualifying offers/preseason/signings in 2018-19-20 without an issue, and in many prior years. He said one thing about playing locally before schedule came out, then acted like he had no hand in negotiating games which are almost all on the west coast, so he took a long walk. Maybe he has good reason to walk beyond schedule?
2. To not release preseason schedule where even other teams do not know where NYI will play is very disconcerting.
2a. Lamoriello said unless something unexpected happens preseason will be in Bridgeport. Ledecky before that said he's not involved in day to day at Bridgeport, but despite Bridgeport being announced as staying, we have zero idea of it's new lease agreement, whether Dolan's guy Leiweke made a deal with Bridgeport to continue to operate it, and then team made it's deal with Leiweke to be their tenant?
3. This team takes a massive beating financially. Forbes has no teams books, but even guess of losing 38 million is troubling, and they have no business operting above cap floor in Nassau, but here are payrolls (less escrow/pandemic over 70-80-88 million now for years, when before they had to live at the cap floor to lose twenty million before 2015-16.
4. Malkin became majority owner 7/1/16 from Wang (who's stake had to be paid back recently) he's never seen, no one mentions him (many don't even know who he is or he's teams owner beyond 2014 cameo) but Lamoriello, who Malkin hired, did not even go to Belmont for ground-breaking. Ledecky kept his minority status, and plays mascot, so my thinking (unpopular as it is) is the silence is about unknown majority owner Scott D. Malkin throwing the keys back to the NHL and selling this team because he can't sustain these losses any more. NYI are a Belmont tenant, that's it. Dolan wanted Belmont, and Coliseum gone because he lost in 2013 and he owns Cuomo. Wilpon/Sterling are constructing arena, so they own it, Dolan's guys Leiweke/Azoff operate it (like Smg) while NYI are a rent paying tenant with a cheap out clause (Yashin's contract total) or simple Cuomo approval (for free) to move entirely. Things could be quiet until new majority owner is announced who could keep team local or move it, maybe Wilpon's who have Mets sale money, are waiting on SNY sale money. Joe Tsai, Steve Cohen? Outside NY?
Could be wrong, but Ledecky said in 2016 this is not a long-term ownership, no one will remember them in 25 years, and if Belmont Retail was Malkin's only thing, and it's way behind with pandemic, why would someone wish to be the majority owner of a money-pit hockey team which is what it always was after 1989 beyond Barclay's money?
Wake me when Belmont announces partial plans, individual tickets when those so-called 12,000 people (who paid for 43 games but getting only 41) maybe less if it does not open by thanksgiving, find 5,000 more customers grabbing $10.00 seats. Seattle was renovated and far ahead of Belmont, and got 30,000 seats sold in a day.
Again sorry, hope I'm wrong. This is my personal speculation, you don't go this dark to annouce seven goal scorers, and Kyle Palmieri or Casey Cizikas, they put two big contracts on market in Eberle, Bailey while protecting Clutterbuck/Martin, unloaded Leddy with no replacement, cashed out Ladd, have Boychuck on LTIR, things don't look good financially.
Most fans never heard of Scott D. Malkin, you never see him. Prokhorov has over 10 billion and walked away from everything, Malkin reportedly in 2014 had 1.4 billion, he's lost most of that on hockey since then so selling the team quietly to league when media does not know him would fly well under the radar, and Bettman-Lamoriello (who has two years on his contract) would of course keep it quiet.

NYIFC Notables

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/27/2021 12:35:00 PM |
Some twitter issues on primary account (resolved) from creating a secondary twitter account (@NYIFANCENTRALPROSPECTS) only for faster loading of the prospect profiles on the prospect site, that will not be an active account, just a set of tweets with prospect profiles.
Not expecting a big day on Wednesday because there are few prime players unrestricted, trades are a chess game, that don't need to be resolved on the first day of free agency.
Getting struggling players, who's production was worse then Brian Rolston at 37 (Parise who's turning 37) seems far worse then keeping Eberle, Leddy because they are going to make the same money or more, and be much older.
Think there is an outside shot Dal Colle comes back on an AHL only deal which is why he would not be qualified, but likely wants to test the waters. I'm good with moving on from Cizikas, but expect he will be signed.
You can't spin NYI were a goal from playing for the cup in this summer's playoffs, but the notion they had a top record over 56 games as a 4th place team that beat only one team for a month (same as March 2020) cannot be spun into this was a dominating team as they won zero of 12 regulation games at Caps, Pens, Bruins. Nor can we act like winning playoff games being outshot 45-19, is the right way forward, and it happened a lot before the opposition wore down.

New York Qualifying Offers Deadline: Dal Colle/Carpenter/Timashov UFA

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/26/2021 11:06:00 AM | |
Dal Colle, Carpenter, Timashov were not given qualifying offers, they are now UFA. All others were qualified.
Bellows, Golyshev, Carpenter, Koivula are the AHL players who require such an offer with the obvious ones such as Pelech, Sorokin, Dal Colle, Beauvilier, who play in New York.
The prospect site renovation continues, but many profiles are updated. (slower loading)
The draft will be removed on Tuesday from the pages section here, it's just a recap of the entire draft.

New York Notables/Lamoriello Press Conference

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/24/2021 06:21:00 PM |
Updated/re-design the prospect site for more information with less link clicks.

New York On the Clock Rd 6: Aleksi Malinen /Rd 7: Tomas Machu

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/24/2021 04:34:00 PM | |
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New York On the Clock 4th Rd Pk: Cameron Berg/5th Rd Pk: Eetu Liukas

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/24/2021 03:35:00 PM | |
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New York On The Clock: Picks 2nd round-Aatu Raty/3rd G Tristan Lenox

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/24/2021 11:44:00 AM | |
Did what I had to do, missed one pick-all updated.
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New York at Virtual 2021 NHL Draft/Schedule

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/22/2021 04:03:00 PM |
Prospect site will have player profiles after they are done here, but things are setup already.
I'm likely going to add 1-2 posts here on Saturday with new players unless they somehow trade into Friday night, which is highly unlikely.

Seattle selects: Jordan Eberle

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/21/2021 08:36:00 PM |
Seattle has selected Jordan Eberle from New York. Not much to write, Seattle took best scorer available from New York, now Lamoriello has to replace that with the cap space he gained or fill the spot from within. Eberle was excellent here at times, it was a good deal bringing him here, and he had some dominating stretches, thanks/best of luck to Mr Eberle.
Thursday will bring the full schedule release, and the September, October November? preseason games people paid for. Flyers put out their preseason which includes NY.

New York Notables:

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/21/2021 11:41:00 AM |
NYIFC Comments:
Not a lot to write about expansion draft beyond they will lost someone unless a creative deal happens, but hopefully Lamoriello is where I was since late January when I wrote it was time to back up the truck. Top teams/favorites to win a cup every year, or in the top mix don't struggle to score like this one, they don't go 0-12 in regulation on road vs Caps, Bruins, Pens in 56 games (many of those games the other team had their top players out), and lose games to Devils-Buffalo which saw a team go from 1st to 4th, and almost all the way to 5th. Top teams don't get outshot 45-19 in playoff games, with over eighty shot attempts against, even if they won, it's not something to fluff build on. This team has to get a lot better offensively, they have to be able to keep up with the speed/skill/travel they crumbled against in March 2020, and the last month of the 56 games. No, Lamoriello should not be happy where he is. Next season will be the real thing with a arena that looks well behind schedule, they have to go play all the teams/travel, and they will have a ton more injuries beyond Lee. Tampa won two tournaments, they finished four points ahead of New York for home ice, they are not/were not 77 Habs.

New York Notables: Protected List

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/18/2021 10:18:00 AM |
Not a misprint, Clutterbuck & Martin were protected over Eberle/Bailey.
NEW YORK ISLANDERS Available Josh Bailey (F) Cole Bardreau (F) Kieffer Bellows (F) Casey Cizikas (F) Austin Czarnik (F) Michael Dal Colle (F) Jordan Eberle (F) Tanner Fritz (F) Joshua Ho-Sang (F) Ross Johnston (F) Otto Koivula (F) Leo Komarov (F) Kyle Palmieri (F) Richard Panik (F) Dmytro Timashov (F) Travis Zajac (F) Sebastian Aho (D) Braydon Coburn (D) Andy Greene (D) Thomas Hickey (D) Mitchell Vande Sompel (D) Parker Wotherspoon (D) Ken Appleby (G) Cory Schneider (G)

Andrew Greene re-signed

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/17/2021 05:55:00 PM |
NYIFC Comments:
Sorry folks, not sure how it works how Greene had to be signed to protect Mayfield. Anyway 5pm has passed, expect Eberle to be available to Seattle, this list will be released on Sunday.

Andrew Ladd traded to Arizona

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/17/2021 04:36:00 PM |
NYIFC Comments:
We'll see, clears more cap, but two one second, a potential other one next year/plus.

Nick Leddy Traded to Wings

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/16/2021 08:18:00 PM | |
NYIFC Comments:
Sad to lose Nick Leddy, his acquisition did begin this teams turnaround in 2014-15 with Boychuk, they drop some cap space with trade deadline freeze on Saturday, and gain a second rounder with Panik, who is a forward journeyman. Panik is signed at 2.75 million for the next two years, Wings are going to pay half his salary. Perhaps Seattle is interested in Panik or Wings want Leddy to put on their expansion list.

Comments On Expansion Draft

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/14/2021 03:23:00 PM |
Without picks Lamoriello likely can't pull off what Snow did with Vegas, I'm not a capologist so anything is possible, but this is how I see things playing out. Does Seattle really want Leddy when they can lose him in a year?

Lamoriello's 2017 Strategy:

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/12/2021 04:40:00 PM |

New York Notables: What's next?

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/08/2021 09:21:00 PM | |
Friday-First Buyout Period Begins 17 – Deadline for Protection Lists for Expansion Draft 21 – Expansion Draft for Seattle Kraken 23 – Round 1 of NHL Draft 24 – Rounds 2-7 of NHL Draft 28 – Free Agent signing begins
Unless Lamoriello gets very creative, Eberle, Leddy, Bellows seem most likely players Seattle could claim, but Leddy entering final year of his contract may be a poor choice because he can go elsewhere. Sorokin is exempt, but if they wanted to chance leaving Varlamov unprotected at his age it could work in what's likely to be an oversaturated market.
26-Written previously, qualifying offers due.
Josh Ho-Sang is an unrestricted free agent.
I thought it was time to see if tags still worked. The expectation is to update during draft here.

New York Prospect Notables:

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/03/2021 11:05:00 AM |
Logan Cockerill, Ben Mirageas have both decided to attend college for a 5th season so New York retains their NHL rights. I'm not exactly sure how that works but Andong Song remains a NYI prospect until 2024.
William Dufour, was traded to Saint John, his NHL rights with NYI expire next summer.
New York has Colorado's second round selection, and their own in rounds 3-7.
Prospect page has been updated. U/R & year reflect Unrestricted/Restricted free agent, & next year they need a new contract.
Qualifying offers are due 7/26 are posted/with Salary Cap above.
Finally despite the re-branding, noise/enthusiam from Brett Rossi, talk of renovations for Bridgeport Islanders space in the facility, and all the Lamoriello-Ledecky commitments to Bridgeport, their 20 year operating arena lease did expire on 6/30/21. Whether Centerplate/Boe/Wang/Harbor Yard/Oakview operated the building, a new agreement of some kind is required. The hockey team itself since 2002 never had an actual lease to play there. Wang's agreement was to take over the lease he was required to supply an AHL team or better. There have been several past updates here on this subject.

New York Notables:

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/01/2021 11:41:00 PM |
Business will happen fast. To update what's above with draft/UFA start dates, Seattle must have it's list of protected players by 7/17 from each team, they will draft on 7/21. Qualifying offer deadline is 7/26/21 or two days after draft.
All prospect updates are on the prospect site. New York will have Colorado's pick in the second round, with their 29th selection in rounds 3-7.
Obviously I'm pulling no punches on Belmont as people already lost two games they paid for, my twitter account will be relentless, and it's disappointing to see the Liberty construction at Barclay's on NYI campus.