New York Signs D Matt Carkner, RW Brad Boyes, LW Eric Boulton

Islanders website: Reports the club has come to terms with Brad Boyes, Matt Carkner with Garth Snow's comments.

Newark Star Ledger: Reports Left winger Eric Boulton, whose contract was bought out by the Devils, signed a one-year deal with the New York. 

Updated:
Islanders website: Has comments from Brad Boyes, Garth Snow and some very interesting comments from Doug Weight.

“I watched Brad score 43 and 33 goals in consecutive years,” Weight said. “I don’t care if you played in 1920 or 2012, 43 goals in this league is amazing. He was our best player in those two years in St. Louis.”

“He’s a real good kid – prepared, professional and committed,” Weight said. “And you want to have good character people that are going to have the work ethic and the professionalism that we want to start building within here.”

Niagara Gazette: Boyes discusses what went wrong in Buffalo, and why he signed with New York. 

“(They offer) a position more suitable to my style, a top-six forward, a power-play situation,” Boyes said. “Those are two things that I think are something I’ll be able to put in.”

Updated:
Islanders website has comments from Matt Carkner on why he signed with New York, along with how Snow, Doug Weight recruited him.

"I kind of knew of teams that were looking for me and I was excited to hear that they were going to be interested," Carkner said of the Isles. "I think I heard that just after 12 (p.m.) today that they were going to be sending an offer. It was good. I had a lot of different teams talking to me, and it took me a while to kind of decide and figure out what was the best fit for me. It was a little hectic, but it all worked out."   

“That’s a big factor,” Carkner said. “I was seeing my ice time kind of diminish in Ottawa, with a different coach coming in and a different style of play. I was coming off an injury as well. It just took me a while to get back to where I was, and that’s just kind of how it fell into place. I was happy to see what my options were and I think that I will fit in real well in New York with the Islanders. I am pretty excited to get a spot here.”

Islanders Senior Advisor to the General Manager and Assistant Coach Doug Weight believes that Carkner’s signing addresses a need for the organization to add some size and toughness to the blue line.

“Obviously, the first thing you think of is his toughness,” Weight said. “It’s certainly something we had to address as a team. We think there’s a big upside for Matt and not just in the toughness category. He’s hard to play against, has a solid defensive game and can win battles in the corner. He’s a good quality person and I think he can bring a lot to our defensive corps and a lot to our team. He can play the game, be a good PK guy and make us harder to play against.”

NYIFC Comments:
There was some demand for Carkner, obviously the Islanders overpaid for a player who on paper was not going to bring any offense to a club that desperately needs it nor has he been very durable.

Bottom  line for now (which can change within the hour) the strategy seems to be Okposo (Tavares wing before the injury) will go back to the spot he was playing. Boyes will be a gamble to see if he can become a scorer again but his floor will be better than Pandolfo. Parenteau got fair market value, Isles leave themselves open to legitimate second guessing if Okposo, Niederreiter, another prospect or Boyes does not produce to same level as Parenteau. 

Snow I guess is stocking up on some toughness adding, Carkner, Boulton his team needed some.

One thing for sure is the Islanders did not give Doug Weight a ceremonial title as assistant to the general manager. 

D Jon Landry has gone from Bridgeport contract to 2-way NHL contract with Islanders
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PA Parenteau signed a 16m dollar contract with Colorado, four years.

Denver Post has Parenteau's comments on the signing.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed defenseman Dylan Reese to a one-year contract, two-way deal worth $600,000 at the NHL level. 

Penguins Website: Has Dylan Reese's comments.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabio has Jon Landry's comments on his first NHL contract.

Final Words On Islanders Likely Departing UFA

Virtually nothing out there on Islanders soon to be likely departing unrestricted free agents, so why not a few words/thanks, best of luck for them moving forward in the hope their NHL careers continue in some cases.

New York Notables/Reese Injury

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Interesting day for the New York Islanders.

The ITV interviews on Nielsen resigning were very good. Jack Capuano/Nielsen gave a lot of insight on many subjects, including the Coliseum's future.

Islanders website:  Released a summary of the comments.

First time in months/all year ITV had the coach on an off day during practice.


NYIFC Comments: 
Seems a lot of players already here want to stay and seemingly took less money than they could make on the open market. It says everything about the ownership and management. Jack Capuano for his part sounded like a coach who has his own job, and that's not to be the general manager.

Dylan Reese Out:
The Islanders twitter announced Dylan Reese is out 4-6 weeks, his injury looked even worse.

Looking ahead, we know the drill.

Jurcina returns or Mottau returns (no mention of  #10 skating), Donovan, Wishart recalled or Garth Snow brings in a player from another organization.

Moving Forward:
This defense as presently constructed has some major challenges moving forward, they are not going to outright steal many games like they did on Tuesday with goaltending. Aaron Ness for the most part was not noticeable in his debut, which is a good thing. He fell once early, but got some shots.

The Flyers had the ability to out-shoot the Devils 24-1 on Saturday and rally down 6-0 to lose 6-4, so give marks to the struggling Flyers, still it was their third game in four days and as that game played out, the Isles faded, Philadelphia dominated, even when the Isles drew powerplays.

Peter Laviolette had a team meeting Monday, he pushed his team and got a good response. 

Now Jack Capuano has to get the same response from his team, with a defense that looks badly over-matched. Tavares line is getting chances, but has not produced the last three games, his backcheck in the third period, and move to split the Flyer defense late and draw a pp was incredible during one shift.

Josh Bailey was also very good in Philadelphia, his line had early chances. 

Bottom line, NYIFC has been writing about this being an extended pre-season, the standings do not lie on that count, however the team is making things interesting without really closing the gap on the latest 8th seed.

Just getting back to five hundred from five/six under, but only a few points out of fifteenth says a lot about the team/conference.

Trade Deadline:
NYIFC gave our projection of the likely available players the other day. The next set of games/standings will determine which direction Snow goes in ultimately unless a deal comes along now that makes sense.

Nabokov looks like he's having fun being here, out of the break Poulin got the start in Carolina, Montoya got the Buffalo game after Nabokov did not face huge pressure against Ottawa so that's telling.

Nabokov's second half only proves that a goaltender can struggle or be injured for the better part of a year and a half, but when healthy/with the rust off he can return to top forum. Khabibulin did it in Edmonton this year.

Of course every players circumstances are different.

NYIFC Notables:
The archives of past entries since this blog began in 2007 are now easier to find/read on the sidebar with the drop-down menu altered. Regretfully labels were not used in postings after daily/full time entries stopped in April 2009 often. 
 
The good news for our readers has been the Time Warner-Cablevision blackout has forced many to watch games on line. Because of that there have had many twitter updates here (sidebar/twitterpage) during most games.

The tribute header to Kenny Jonsson will be posted on Thursday and be up through Sunday afternoon.

Our twitter name for some reason was New York Islanders long before this blog used twitter here, that's been changed to NYI Fan Central.

The twitter wallpaper was redone to accommodate their recent changes.  At this time there is no need for an App for NYIFC, and do not want folks spending money to read a blog.

The historical sections on the sidebars are always a work in progress, but feel it's one of the best anywhere, the prospect blog header has also been updated.

The twitter box will be back at 2pm Thursday. 

UPDATED: Next Up For New York 6/26 Qualifying Offers/Notables

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New York Islander Fan Central Prospect Blog: Has more updates/articles on 2011 draft class.

Working on newspaper/website comments from all the new players selected, and a perfect image of that great looking 40th Anniversary logo.

The NHL Draft is concluded, but business is ongoing.

The deadline to make qualifying offers to the teams restricted free agents is Monday at 5pm.

If Garth Snow was asked about who he qualified (as many professional beat-writers have asked respective general managers around the NHL), it did not make the local paper that controls New York Islander coverage as of this time. The beat-writer covering our team, keeps writing Ryan Jankowski, was dismissed two months after the Canadians hired him per their website?

In short: Josh Bailey, Blake Comeau, Michael Haley, Jack Hillen, Dylan Reese,
Ty Wishart, Dustin Kohn, Tomas Marcinko must receive qualifying offers Monday for the team to retain their rights.

Updated:
Josh Bailey, Blake Comeau, Micheal Haley, Jesse Joensuu, Dylan Reese and Ty Wishart were qualified. Jack Hillen was not as of this time, but subject to change before deadline.

Michael Fornabaio tweeted: Dustin Kohn not on that list of qualified as of Sunday. Tomas Marcinko only other unsigned RFA, not likely to get qualified, this is also subject to change before deadline.

Ct Post: Mr Fornabaio has a bit more, but nothing new on qualifying offers to the Bridgeport centric-players.

Bruno Gervais, must now be qualified by Tampa on Monday.

Rob Hisey, Robin Figren are restricted, however both signed in Europe. It is possible Snow could qualify them, as he did with Jeremy Colliton.

Some quality players are already salary-cap casualties, who will not be qualified and on the market as unrestricted free agents on Friday.

NYIFC 6/12/11: Entry went into more depth on qualifying offers process and what is next in that process.
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It was quite an interesting few days on the trade market with so many clubs scrambling to add/subtract cap space, or those which made outright huge trades, especially Minnesota-San Jose. Dale Tallon, who signed Brian Campbell to his contract with Chicago, traded for it once again in Florida.

As I wrote the other day, the CBA needs some changes, but it's working.

Hopefully Nikita Filatov becomes a star in Ottawa, same as I hoped he did with Columbus. Only issue here is the Columbus Dispatch beat-writers constant digs at the New York Islanders, but not the team they cover, for what was a player clearly mismanaged by the Bluejackets.

Fliatov also bears responsibility.

A lot of that going around this league in the media, knock other markets, not the one where paper needs local team advertising money.
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All I ever read is the Islanders are scrambling to reach the cap floor. Really?

The Islanders seemed to subtract Wisniewski/Roloson and still were over any cap floor last December? Hamonic's NHL contract was added early last season, Wishart's first-round contract was called up 2/5/11. Koskinen was called up with his contract, same with Poulin?

Don't believe everything you read in newspapers guessing, or fans sites doing cap numbers, that are not official NHL affiliate outlets. I understand in the absence of official league information folks will accept anything, however that does not make it correct.

How do you think Forbes decided to become NHL experts with only estimates?
Our professional media also uses these kinds of sites now also, very sloppy.
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No issue here with Ryan Smyth doing whatever he is allowed to do within the framework of his contract. The Kings can always refuse his request. This is another advantage of front-loading, because Colorado paid the bulk of his money early, Los Angeles paid less, and now if he goes back to Edmonton they will pay the least.

His average cap-hit only helps Edmonton, it's money they will not pay him.

Updated:
Smyth is finally a confirmed trade to Edmonton.

Darcy Regier really needed Ales Kotalik's three million salary that badly? Robyn Regehr is a solid player, but either Regier was watching old game films of Kotalik or he caught Terry Pegula in the honeymoon spending period?

Color me skeptical Ted Nolan, lasts very long now that Rochester is the Buffalo Sabres affiliate. Regier/Ruff go back to Nolan's time or replaced Nolan. Terry Pegula has his work cut out.

The lack of thanks/praise to former owner Tom Golisano, who kept that franchise going is not appropriate.
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The Islanders website coverage was frankly not good this weekend, virtually nothing archived (at least yet) from the scouts, or Snow in articles. Seemed to go video centric, and a lot of that was NHL-related.

A lot was done live with a team centric-ITV feed, it has not been made available as of yet.

Having written that those folks have been working very hard, and have had to go above and beyond for a while. Press conferences with Mangano at Coliseum, coverage in Las Vegas, in Minnesota, from the draft party.

Hopefully Wang meant his employees, when he praised the folks working round the clock, the other day. They sure do deserve it.
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I understand the hype will start soon to add UFA.

Look at the current roster and how many players are signed? Not immune to trades, or signings, but as I have written every year, to add, you must subtract.

No folks, this team does not need Brad Richards front-loaded, likely over 50m dollars/hopefully without concussions. Tavares, Bailey, Nielsen, Strome, Nelson, Cizikas, Ullstrom, and all the other centers under contract are good enough unless Snow is looking ahead to UFA for Nielsen, who is not a five on five scorer.

If Snow trades Nielsen, includes in a defender (Eaton/Mottau/Jurcina) in a deal and them wants to make a run at Richards, that risk makes more sense.

You qualify Josh Bailey, put him at center, and leave him there, unless a team is offering a star player at Bailey's age.
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No idea what will happen with the goaltending. I do not like the idea of three top quality players, who need to be number one goaltenders sharing the work in Bridgeport, who's head-coaching search just got much tougher with all the AHL hiring by their parent teams.

I more than understand two are coming off surgery, same as at this level. No doubt the Islanders do not know how to proceed either.
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As for NYIFC a free agency section will be setup Tuesday/Wednesday.
I like the new sidebar format for information, sorry the old one failed during draft.
Considering a twitter box for Islander centric/former players only here.




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New York Resigns Matt Moulson For Three Years

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Islanders website: Reports Matt Moulson has come to terms on a three year contract extension with New York.

NYIFC Comments:
Have to give Garth Snow credit, who went on television last night and gave away nothing when asked about Moulson pending UFA status. Another quiet, classy negotiation where the same things were being written about Trent Hunter as he approached free agency but in the end amounted to nothing, but a player who wanted to be here and signed long-term.

Obviously Moulson is very happy to remain in New York and be part of this franchise.

For those wondering, Moulson is represented by Nabokov's agent.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio reports goaltender, Mikko Koskinen is being shutdown for the weekend with his nagging injury. Kevin Poulin and Dylan Reese will not just be paper transactions, but will participate in games for Bridgeport.

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