Islander News Articles 9/12

Toronto Sun: Joe Warmington has an update on Brandon Sudgen with comments from players union spokesman Jonathan Weatherdon and agent Scott Nornton.

Daily Gleaner: Bill Hunt has an interview with Rob Hennigar on how hard he trained this summer for his first NHL camp and what's ahead at prospects camp as he wants to get into an NHL preseason game.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Frans Nielsen has the four year contract but make no mistake this twenty five year old will be one player he has to compete against along with Ben Walter and Jeremy Colliton.

The Star: Cliff Fletcher had some strong statements about how much he thinks his club could struggle this season declaring they do not have one top six forward aside from Nik Antropov but some players were on the fringe of that.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Is that Jason Blake's agent I hear on the telephone for Mr Fletcher? Could be a record for someone hired on an interim basis but I suppose if the expectations are played down there is less long-term blame.

How does a club install an interim gm this long then hire a new coach, what's going to happen when a new gm is finally named and he is stuck with a coach he did not hire?

CamWest News/Several outlets: Has the latest on Alexandre Radlov who now wants to return to play hockey in North America according to NHLPA executive director Paul Kelly but did not elaborate when he would return as he defended the players breach of contract because he did not do it in any kind of dismissive way.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I did not see read about anything dismissive from Alexei Yashin or Keith Tkaczuk when they held out under contract either but they still breached their contract and the court of public opinion did the rest. A player signs an agreement they have to live up to that or do not sign it in the first place.

This is kind of reading like a Marx brothers comedy between Bill Daly, Alexander Medvedev and Rene Fasel.

I can almost see why Garth Snow and a lot of general managers simply do not want the problems that come with this process. Draft results do not lie with the recent trends in terms of where players are selected.

It's ok Mr Medvedev decided to finally decided to hold the line on his agreement not to sign players with NHL contracts but Radulov is still playing in his league, Rene Fasel has not done anything to prevent it and now it seems his claims of the NHL signing Russian players under contract was a lot of non-sense or he's simply letting it pass which is not the right thing or fair to those Russian clubs.

If Radulov has a valid NHL contract he should play for only Nashville, if those players with Russian contracts are the property of those clubs they should not be playing for NHL clubs or their affiliates and Mr Medvedev should stand by his claims.

It's not that tough but of course this is all about money and making up the rules along the way.

Finally I absolutely should have included Tom Gulitti who covers the Devils for the Record and does an outstanding job with the Devil coverage in his Fire and Ice blog here when I blogged on Atlantic division writers the other day.

Friday Notables

One week to prospects camp, two weeks to training camp.

Sarnia Observer: Dave Borody has a few words on Islander prospects Matt Martin and Justin DiBenedetto getting in their final games before reporting to Islander prospect camp next week.

Lewiston website: Reports recently acquired Maxim Gratchev has three goals and five assist in an inter squad scrimmage.

Barrie Examiner/countless sources: Report the Atlanta Thrashers signed first-round pick Zach Bogosian to an entry- level contract, while the St. Louis Blues signed defenceman Alex Pietrangelo, the fourth overall pick in the June draft.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I would guess given Mr Botta's recent speculation on Josh Bailey signing the Islanders are working on a contract for Bailey that will be announced during or before camp for the same reasons many of the top picks are being signed to entry level deals.

Associated Press/several outlets: John Wawrow reports the KHL issued a release accusing the NHL of signing Russian players under contract negating the agreement reached earlier not to sign another leagues signed prospects with deputy commissioner Bill Daly's comments.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
It's not as easy to find out if these players signed by NHL teams were under contract to Russian clubs as easy as it would be to know Alexander Radulov had a signed contract with Nashville. Mr Daly says they were not under contract to Russian clubs while the Russians said they are.

What's clear is the Russians did not or could not stop Radulov for signing despite his Nashville contract so they redrew the line in terms of the agreement and did not want to get involved.

One thing for sure is if they cannot get together on this, a new transfer agreement with Russia involved is not looking good.

Tuesday Notables

Media Blog: Cory Witt in the Islanders media blog had a nice surprise, the numbers most of the prospects will wear in training camp.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
And just like that we can update the prospects blog with the numbers of the Bridgeport players. No point listing Josh Bailey's number because if he plays for New York it could change again.

Mark Wotton and another player have the number four, aside from Kurtis Foster who is more a Utah player all the numbers should be correct. Jesse Joensuu changed numbers from his one game last season, Colliton will again wear John Tonelli's twenty seven.

Islanders website: Jonathan Morvay reports on Islander prospect Kirill Petrov at the four nations tournament with Islanders Chief European Scout Vellu-Pekka Kautonen comments. Former Islander Sergei Nemchinov was coach of the team.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
This article will be linked on the prospect blog in a special section for reference as will all updates like this.

Canadian Press/several outlets: Report Predators forward Alexandre Radulov has been suspended by the club without pay with general manager David Poile's comments.

Mike Van Ryan was traded to Toronto for Bryan McCabe and a fourth round draft pick as the saga finally ends, amazing anyone took that contract for anything.

SI.com: Darren Eliot has a few words on the new coaches with some speculation at how the transition will work for Scott Gordon with last year's assistant coaches.

Updated 10:30pm:
Newsday apparently want to make sure despite the lack of hockey blogs about the club we have the latest regarding old news on team owner Charles Wang here with a link to a news article on a sports blog.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
This is kind of a sad joke Newsday posted this on the Islander blog and just another example of the lack of professionalism at the paper. It belongs in the business section or the news section but apparently because of the lack of hockey information they throw us this to stir up the fans against the club once again?

Funny, I did not see negative articles about the countless lawsuits against the Dolans or the Garden posted on the Rangers blog?

Windsor Star: Jim Parker reports Islanders first round pick Josh Bailey came to camp briefly last week, but didn't scrimmage and returned to New York Thursday at the team's request even though the Islanders don't open camp for another 10 days.

Islander/NHL Notables

The News Pictou County: Has an uncredited article on Saturday's second annual Play the Pros event will take place at the John Brother MacDonald Stadium in New Glasgow which was started last year by Jon Sim and Colin White of the Devils. Jon Sim comments, Joey MacDonald will participate.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
What's fun about an article like this is last year's photo has Jon Sim wearing the Islanders 2006-07 jersey before the Reebok edge designed was released, Sim never wore that jersey playing in New York.

I referenced this information a few weeks ago and Bruno Gervais should also be one of the players participating.

I found it very interesting Ross McKeon of Yahoo Sports did an article about teams contracting here in a feature about things he would change around the NHL. Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis in his blog fired back with a strong response here as to why it's not feasible with a few choice words for the Yahoo sports senior writer who in turn responded to Mr Leonsis here and of course started by writing about page views.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Whatever happened to the good old player feature stories?

Is it really about page views for so many of these sites and revenue from their advertisers so they throw anything against the wall hoping it sticks and stirs up angry/passionate reaction? I was kind of offended Ross McKeon started his response to the Caps owner with that. It's just another reason I'm conservative with what I post here and I try and draw my own line between professional and amateur but I have included Mr McKeon's team ranking and work because clearly he is a professional and will be part of our blogs coverage regardless of content.

As for the article Mr Leonsis points out the almost countless reasons contraction is not feasible and it's impossible to argue his reasoning. I could sit here and make a case for the contraction of all thirty teams in this league at one time or another including all three New York area teams.

The team that won the Stanley Cup last year used to give away cars to get people to attend games when the New York Islanders owned this league, the Wings had problems selling out playoff games the last few years and play in one of the oldest building with the least revenue streams with it's management claiming it needed to make the finals to break even in past seasons with Wings president Jimmy Devellano's comments here about the situation in Detroit here during the lockout era.

Absolutely no club in this league is immune to being included in contraction discussion for folks who wish to start them and for me anyone who wants to start one of those discussions should include his/her favorite team first.

Congratulations to former Islander Gord Dineen who was named head coach of the Iowa Chops with the Desmiones Register doing a feature by Lisa Colonno
here.

Canadian Press here has an updated on the situation with forward Alexander Radulov with comments from Bill Daly from the NHL and KHL President Alexander Medvedev.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Good for the NHL turning down any compensation for Alexander Radulov, he signed a contract to play here, he should honor it and play here. If he signed his contract first in Russia first he should play there and honor that deal.

What Rudulov pulled on the Predators here is flat out bush league, you sign a contract you honor it, you don't decide to sign another one and leave for more money.

KHL president Alexander Medvedev says there no mechanism in the KHL rules to force Radulov's return to the NHL, and said the matter might have to be resolved in court is all well and good but if he was really interested in doing things properly he would be just as quick to blast Radulov and suspend him from playing in his league until he completes his obligation to Nashville as he is to threaten NHL players that they could be suspended from international competition. I know it's fashionable to pile on Gary Bettman and Bill Daly here but in this case it's not fair.

Calgary Herald/Several outlets: Bruce Dowbiggin has more on the Todd Bertuzzi-Marc Crawford-Steve Moore lawsuit from the incident years ago with Crawford now telling his side of what happened in court documents.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I would not want this hanging over my new coach as training camp is about to begin if Crawford was in any serious consideration if I were Garth Snow. Islanders coaching job is hard enough without that to work with as a sidebar. I wonder if it was a factor for Dean Lombardi combined with a losing record as this finally made it's way into the court system the last few months and received more publicity?

Hard to believe this is the same Todd Bertuzzi who was roughed up as an Islander rookie over a decade ago.

Islander/NHL Monday Notables

Espn.com: E.J Hradek does a full article on the Islanders coaching search Monday and feels Scott Gordon should be the pick with his reasoning that he is the better choice for a rebuilding over Hartley or Maurice who he does not feel has won much in his eight years.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Mr Hradek is entitled to his viewpoint but it has to be written this is not a prospect defense and last I looked at the forwards it is not dominated by prospects either. The idea this is a total rebuild is way overblown going into 2008-09 when you look at this roster it has a lot of veterans to start the year that are expecting to compete and win now as Comeau, Bergenheim, Okposo and others work their way into prime roles. It could end up that way among the forwards if they drop out of contention early but this backline is locked up for another two years plus.

The Chronicle Herald of Nova Scotia: Monica Graham reports Jon Sim & Colin White from the Devils will host Hockey Day on Aug. 23 at the John Brother MacDonald Stadium in New Glasgow.

Players joining White and Sim on the pro team will be Pictou native Joey MacDonald along with Bruno Gervais of Antigonish.

This was from 8/8 in the Sporting News but Craig Custance provides some very good insights on Bob Hartley possibily becoming Islander coach not previously reported here that his interview also went very well with Garth Snow and that he would be great in the community when it comes to selling tickets and working with sponsorships but that it comes down to owner Charles Wang who Hartley has no relationship with. Mr Custance gives Garth Snow high marks for his diligence in the process with another un-named NHL coach saying he would be stunned if Hartley was not the pick with many around the league feel the former Thrasher coach is still the favorite.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Great stuff here from Mr Custance, he has ties to the former Thrasher coach covering the club in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and called him when his name surfaced about the Isles job opening but Hartley did not comment. I guess it's fair to ask how come Newsday or another local paper did not report his interview went well?

Nashville Tennessean: John Glennon has more on the Alexander Radulov situtation but even the paper in Nashville had prospect coverage of the Predators prospects in Lake Placid at development camp.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Interesting Nashville that gets a very unfair knock as a poor hockey makret provides coverage of a prospects camp in Lake Placid for their fans but with all those Islander prospects at the camp for Finland, Sweden and the US not one word was written?

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio in the Sound Tigers blog has a few words on the final choices on the Isles coaching search.

Islander Notables

Islanders website: Has an update on ticket sales with comments from said Executive Director of the Islanders Business Club Mike Bossy.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
They need that number to get to 10,000 somehow which seems impossible for all the hits they take in the media pushing them back two steps for every one step they try and take forward.

Islanders website: John Hill has the first update on the clubs prospect camp which will run from July 14th to July 18th with a partial list of the players attending. Bryan Trottier will be at the rink all week helping out the young Islanders, while Ken Morrow will be on-site from Wednesday to Friday with a number of media outlets on hand.

St Pete Times: Damian Cristodero blogs on the resignation of general manager Jay Feaster with his comments how he was left on the sidelines for all the recent moves by the Bolts after Tsn reports on the settlement of his contract terms here.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Can you imagine the shockjocks in the local media and in Canada that would have killed Charles Wang in print if he pulled what Tampa Bay's new ownership just did? I did not see the writers down there trashing the club like we see here and that franchise is coming off a season they finished 30th that let the staff run everything at two of the most critical times of the year while it's gm was on the outside.

THN.com: Ryan Dixon does an article critical of the club in what he feels is an astonishingly sad series of moves with the latest signing 37-year-old Doug Weight over Kristian Huselius that signals an official organizational commitment to acquiring B-level talent, as he goes on to review the late nineties moves and takes numerous shots at the clubs impact in the region.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Fine line for me including a writer and copy editor for THN magazine in with the main news media content but I'm not going to keep something off the blog just because it's negative about the club.

Having written that if Doug Weight was signed last summer statistically it would have been a good signing much less comparing it with Columbus signing Huselius and I did not read these shock jock tactics with regard to the Devils signing Holik. All this other stuff from almost a decade ago is completely worthless today with almost all of those players having moved on to multiple clubs since leaving New York and none of them with a cup ring to date.

Seemed to me like the writer needed the " what if " game just to make up for his current knowledge of the club and half of Yankee Stadium would have been filled with Yankee fans if the Islanders played an out of market team in an outdoor game.

Of course when Adam Proteau of the THN
here produced his worst signings in UFA Doug Weight did not make the list.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
If I recall correctly Fedotenko made this list a year ago from some writer, I do not remember if it was Adam Proteau. Likely Scott Burnside but what else would be new if it were him?

Fedotenko I believe got 2.5m from Pittsburgh.

Orange County Register: Dan Wood reports Brian Burke one day after suggesting that the NHL look into a potential Edmonton Oilers tampering violation regarding right wing Corey Perry, said Friday that the Ducks will file a formal charge with the league.

A day after all sides said they would respect the other leagues contracts Alexander Radulov under contract to the Nashville Predators signed with Ufa of the Russian Superleague here.

Predators Website/other outlets: Have a statement from Nashville gm David Poile and NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly that Radulov is expected to be in Nashville next season and that the RHL is expected to abide by it's agreement made yesterday.

NHL.com: Now lists Islanders defenseman Aaron Johnson with the Chicago BlackHawks.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Aaron Johnson did a good job for the Isles when he was finally healthy, by all reports he was a classy individual and I hope he finds a team that will give him more minutes. Best of luck to Aaron Johnson.