NYIFC Comments:
The information on Donovan was posted ten hours earlier.
Sadly, even the amateur fan websites produce team information faster than Newsday's Arthur Staple, who should interview fewer bloggers, and provide our fans more news about the team like twenty nine professional beat-writers.
Just as quietly the team announced it's blue-white scrimmage game will be played on 6/28 for prospects the team never formally announced are having a mini-camp despite player tweets here.
That game will be played at Iceworks, there are only 250 tickets available for the scrimmage due to seating capacity. The Nassau Coliseum is booked June 26th-30th.
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One thing I have been a bit regretful for over the last few days in somewhat of a rush to put out entries, is not thanking our players who have signed with other organizations.
Whether they are qualified, or not by 6/25, Mark Katic, Rhett Rakhshani, Justin DiBenedetto, and Trevor Gillies were here for a long time, and gave everything they had to offer.
Katic/Rakhshani were all stars for Bridgeport, all of them were part of the Sound Tigers only first place team since their inaugural year. DiBenedetto had twenty goals/forty one points in fifty five games last season.
"I just think it's a good opportunity for my development as a player.
I'm looking forward to it," DiBenedetto said. "I just explored all my
options at the end of the year, and this opportunity came. I'm just
looking forward to getting over there. The main thing's to become a better player every day, every year. That's the main thing, and go from there."
Folks can argue the suspensions of Gillies, which could not be defended based on his actions, but he was a very popular team player here, and will be missed at the Coliseum on Friday.
Zenon Konopka's comments did register with me last year here.
" You look at Trevor Gillies,” Konopka said, according to the Ottawa
newspaper. “He’s a first-time offender. He hits a guy, throws a few
punches, he gets a nine-game suspension. The guy’s got a wife, two kids
and plays in the East Coast Hockey League and AHL most of his career and
now he’s going to lose $35,000. And it’s not right. Obviously, the
league has their job and not mine, but in here, we feel for him. It
hurts not to have Trevor in lineup for nine games. It hurts me,
personally, my buddy, out $35,000.”
Their new teams will be even better with them, the enormous reaction from Berlin over Katic signing makes me nothing but thrilled for their fans.
Want to thank all of my teammates, staff, & fans from #BST & #Isles for all of the memories and love over the past 2 yrs. I'll miss u all!
— Rhett Rakhshani (@itsrhett) June 21, 2012
I wish them nothing but the best of luck moving forward, which of course extends to any future departures.
Just to be clear check our Sulia channel or twitter feeds for these kids of stories moving forward.
NYIFC will not post an entry anywhere until we have official confirmation from the team itself or a professional media outlet.
NYIFC Comments:
Nothing I can add that was not already written about the loss of Rakhshani on Tuesday.
It all comes down to who the Isles qualify out of their restricted free agents by 6/25. DiBenedetto knows the Isles depth chart, and despite a very good year for Bridgeport has to make the best possible decision for his career moving forward as do all players.
********************************* Bridgeport Sound Tigers released a partial list of their 2012-13 schedule
New York Islander Fan Central | 4/09/2009 06:00:00 PM |
Justin DiBenedetto
Point Blank/Mr Botta: Reported Islander prospect Justin DiBenedetto has signed a three year entry level contract with the Islanders while Mr Fornabaio in the Ct Post Sound Tigers blog reported earlier he is finally going to come in on an amateur tryout here for the remainder of this season with no additional news on prospect Matt Martin.
Mr Fornabaio did not report on his three year entry level contract.
Sarnia Sting/OHL: Announced Thursday that forward Justin DiBenedetto of the Sarnia Sting is the winner of the Leo Lalonde Memorial Trophy as the OHL's Overage Player of the Year for the 2008-09 season The Leo Lalonde Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the top overage player, DiBenedetto received 86 points in the voting process and will be receive the Trophy at the 2008-09 OHL Awards Ceremony scheduled for Wednesday June 3 at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
"I am extremely grateful to have been selected for this award" said DiBenedetto. "There are so many deserving players who were nominated for this award and I would like to congratulate them on a tremendous overage season."
"I would like to thank the Ontario Hockey League, the St. Michael's Majors and the Sarnia Sting for all the opportunities I have been given over the past five seasons" added DiBenedetto. "I will always remember my time in the OHL fondly.
OHL.com & Sarnia Observer: Report Islander prospects Justin DiBenedetto and Mark Katic are among the forty Ontario Hockey League players that will take part in the 2009 Subway OHL All-Star Classic slated February 4th in Windsor.
DiBenedetto is third in the OHL with 61 points, including 30 goals. Katic is 11th among defense in scoring and is on pace this season to set career highs in every offensive category.
Newsday: Greg Logan in the Islanders Newsday blog gives his perspective on the early success of Luke Schenn and some of the players the club did not select in June. He noted it will take years before a final judgement can be made but it would be a lot easier to take if the Isles had Schenn to mold as a future cornerstone on defense if the growth process is going to be as painful as it has been through the first six games.
NYI Fan Central Comments: Am I missing something here because I have to ask has the growth process been that painful after only six games where it time to question taking Luke Schenn or anyone over what the club did?
When Bailey gets healthy I expect he will get a chance to play, Garth Snow and Ryan Jankowski apparently targeted scoring over defense and Schenn is advertised as a defensive defender.
Was that absolutely necessary today by Mr Logan or just time to take a kick at the team when it's down to stir up the fans a little more?
This beatwriter sure does not help put fans in the seats.
CHL.com:Aaron Bell has an article on Islander prospect Justin DiBendetto along with comments from fellow prospect Mark Katic on his great start for Sarnia.
Something that does deserve some very fair criticism is Blake Comeau playing all four games in his return to Bridgeport as a right wing when last year he was most effective in the NHL as a left wing.
Ted Nolan shifted him to the right for a while and for about three weeks he immediately stopped creating chances or looked visible until he was moved back to the left wing.
Jason Pitton, Sean Bentivoglio and Jesse Joensuu were the three left wings along with Mitch Fritz.
Not looking good for a return to New York as a right wing as long as Guerin is on the roster with Okposo and Hunter locked into spots.
Newsday: Greg Logan has the latest on Chris Campoli who could return against Dallas with the defenders comments on his injury and adapting to head coach Scott Gordon's system as the coach talked about his play in training camp.
NYI Fan Central Comments: Does Gordon go to Campoli over Weight on his powerplay? The speculation game begins on whether Jack Hillen goes to Bridgeport or does Tomas Pock takes a seat in the stands because he does have to clear waivers.
Islanders never seem to have this problem linger very long for the wrong reasons.
Does this slightly bring into play Mark Streit seeing a shift or two at forward or at least a reduction in his minutes if the club continues to struggle in games with it's offense?
What would you do if it were up to you?
NY Post: Dan Martin is permitted a postage stamp sized preview with Chris Campoli's comments while Larry Brooks was allowed space to do a second article on the Devils game.
Dallas Morning News: Mike Heika previews tonight's game and has the Stars injuries.
The Star:Sunaya Sapurji has a feature article on Islander prospect Justin DiBenedetto with comments from Sarnia coach Dave MacQueen.
London Free Press: Steve Buffery reports former Islander Jason Blake could be taking a few shifts on the fourth line or even a seat on the stands for Ryan Hollweg as the former forty goal scorer comments.
Tampa Tribune: Reports Brian Lawton who was hired as vice president of hockey operations since June 25th for the Lightning has finally been named as the clubs general manager.
NYI Fan Central Comments: Can you imagine if Charles Wang did this? Maybe Tampa should just keep signing players so no one notices here as Damian Cristodero in the St Petersberg Times reports.
Newsday: Greg Logan has Brendan Witt's comments after his very serious fall backwards head-first against Buffalo on Monday who also spoke about the loss and how his club played.
Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio had comments from Jesse Joensuu as the beatwriter wrote about the line changes at practice and repeats most of the quotes from what was reported in Newsday about Blake Comeau as he heads to the AHL.
NYI Fan Central Comments: No reports about a recall at this time on defense or goaltender.
Canadian Press/OHL.com: Report Islander prospect Justin DiBenedetto has been named OHL player of the week.
NYI Fan Central Note: Both sidebar feed sections have been expanded to it's maximum capacity of showing the latest twenty updates from the media on the left side and the Islanders blog box members on the right. All the feeds for the new blogs have been added with the exception of Islesnation because I'm not sure who's specific blog was added from their site. I did update Tony Stabile's feed already on the sidebar to bring it current.
I also deleted the individual links on the sidebar for everyone who was added to the blog box today because we now have your latest post that also is a link to your site.
My congratulations to all the new members and best of luck to everyone.
