PTO Contracts For AHL Players & Eric Boulton

#Isles announce professional tryout contracts for defenseman Matt Carkner, forward Tyler Barnes and goaltender Parker Milner.

— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) August 24, 2015

#Isles announce professional tryout contract with Eric Boulton. Boulton has played 48 games over the last three seasons with the Isles.

— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) August 24, 2015

READ: The #BST have announced their 2015-16 preseason schedule http://t.co/8LH528hFFe

— The Sound Tigers (@TheSoundTigers) August 24, 2015

NYIFC Comments:
 All paperwork transactions which let's the team dress the minimum veterans during some preseason games who are on AHL contracts before they are released from the PTO.

Boulton for a little reference falls into the 2010 plan with Dean McAmmond, Manny Legace, Anders Eriksson, Krys Kolanos and Joel Martin needed to fill out a lineup card. At best Boulton lands an AHL contract for his efforts like the players above. The Islanders getting into the practice of playing two games a day in different locations makes this necessary.

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Matt Carkner Signs Two Year AHL Contract

TRANSACTION: The #BST have signed Matt Carkner to a two-year #AHL contract http://t.co/eydtGldFYo

— The Sound Tigers (@TheSoundTigers) August 11, 2015

NYIFC Comments: Very unusual unless this involves a coaching role which I had some speculation on when he was at Ice Works during prospects camp.

7/15 Qualifying Offers Deadline/Notables

Updated: That's close to a record for writing something here and management responding.

#Isles Transactions: @mhalmz & @GoToCzucz have accepted their qualifying offers. pic.twitter.com/80lqymu45x

— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) July 14, 2015

#isles #bst Deadline is 7/15, not 7/14 for Nelson/Poulin to accept or not accept their qualifying offers. A little paperwork patience

— NYI Fan Central (@nyifancentral) July 14, 2015

The qualifying offers deadline is 7/15 for those players the Islanders tendered an offer on 6/29 which retains their NHL rights (Johan Sundstrom signing in Europe) regardless of whether it's accepted by the player or not.

Long story short if Brock Nelson, Kevin Poulin, Kevin Czuczman, Mike Halmo accept the offer they have a signed contract for 2015-16.

If not, it becomes a negotiation, the players are only free to sign in Europe/KHL or stay home.

For the Bridgeport players 7/14 is more like 8/14 in the European leagues because they start sooner, all of them could have signed with another team since the end of last season.

My guess is all of them accept their qualifying offer by 7/15 with the exception of Brock Nelson who could be looking for a bigger raise. Poulin received a raise from the standard AHL contract when he was sent back to Bridgeport last summer.  
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Not much to write about Cantiague Park vs Iceworks vs Twin Rinks beyond Charles Wang rightly wanted his Lighthouse money in some manner, only his minority owners know where they stand with such an agreement.

Interesting the club had the full camp at Twin Rinks but even in a bankruptcy sale that is a far more expensive facility costing fifty million dollars or more than half of what Bruce Ratner will be spending to renovate the Nassau Coliseum.

Ratner can walk from this agreement any time he wants before a ground breaking, but once he begins construction, he is obligated. His agreement says he must secure an AHL team for that facility as an anchor tenant before construction begins, and his spokesman said they would.

We'll see how that plays out, but with facility closed until Dec 2016, it's clear no AHL team will be playing there for 2015-16, 2016-17 which means the county may give him a grace period to see how things play out in Bridgeport or to find another team.

Charles Wang did some talking about Andong Song, and how Project Hope will continue to be held on Long Island even without the Coliseum,  he had no comment or was not asked about anything else.
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Matt Carkner/Bridgeport assistant Matt Bertani  were at Iceworks on 7/11 for a kids camp, it would not shock me to see Carkner join Bridgeport in some capacity.

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What's Next For New York? More Very Tough Games

Bottom Line:
To make the playoffs in a sixteen team conference with only three top seeds guaranteed a spot, it's going to take at least ninety five points.

This means the three games under five hundred New York Islanders from this entry forward must play about eighteen games over.  

The team matched my projected wins for the month, they have played some very competitive hockey although a free falling Nashville Predators team is not the best barometer.

The Kings held a hot Devils team to zero goals on 11/15. They came here 11-6 good for only 9th place in a fourteen team conference.

Aaron Ness had the best finish by a defender this season, tying him for the team lead in five on five goals at one.

I like what I'm seeing from Nelson, Donovan, Ness. Outside of the first Kings goal in the third period, Kevin Poulin's been excellent.

The goaltender overall has not been the problem for this organization in 2013-14. 

Matt Carkner had his usual redirection/screen leading to the tying goal. To constantly put him out in key situations much less shorthanded just gives talented fast scoring forwards on other teams an advantage.

No doubt Carkner's doing his absolute best.  

Still despite the competitive play reality does not lie. Three games under, few regulation wins, so many weaknesses from penalty kill to faceoffs.

This is with three players in the top ten in NHL scoring. One (Okposo) who had four goals in forty eight games in 2013. Another (Nielsen) having a career year.  

It only get's much tougher from here. One look at the rest of this month with the December schedule likely spells the end.

The criticism will be brutal, some of it will be justified, others well over the top. A lot of it from the professional ranks will come from a place of ignorance from afar, but you know that.

No one wants this franchise to prove me wrong more than myself. 

Expecting Nothing Special From New York

I kind of laugh when some are complaining about the Islanders power-play going 0-30/something.  

This is not the 1980's. 

A power play at thirty percent levels off, which was never a good mix of distributed scoring that was sustainable to begin with. Even successful teams don't operate at that number any longer for a season with the equipment goaltenders/players wear. 


Entering Matt Moulson's final game against Philadelphia the unit had ten goals (one 5-3 perimeter goal against Phoenix from Tavares) but was operating at 30.3 percent, while getting virtually nothing from it's defenders.  


Overall the numbers were more anomaly then fact, nothing built to last. Expecting Nielsen or Okposo to keep up their offensive pace was/is not realistic based on their career trends.

Bottom line until this team leans how to win low scoring games, and play some defense, it has no chance. 

Twenty nine other teams are always looking for quality defenders. That kind of player is only available as a pending UFA rental if they waive a NTC/NVC because all of them have this clause.  

Garth Snow's experienced enough by now, and has seen this movie here with Steve Staios, Mike Mottau, Mark Eaton & Milan Jurcina. The team played better without them  because the defense was faster.

Even Bigger Cracks Appearing In New York's Weaknesses

No one wants to write about it, however it cannot be hidden any more than the thousands of empty seats when this franchise is listed at the official home team.

This is simply not a good hockey team overall who's goals allowed is at the bottom of whatever this division is called, and struggle badly at five on five.

It's beyond Jack Capuano/or any head coaches ability, although he's doing Nelson/Donovan no favors. 

It's likely to only get much worse as the special teams start to even out.

Expecting New York To Go Into Free Fall Losing Streak

10.20.13: Updated 6:15pm. Brock Nelson was recalled to New York after playing one game for Bridgeport.

There are simply too many holes. Visnovsky's likely extended loss to injury just created another big one. Nabokov has been very solid.

What I see is a team doing it's absolutely best, not a question of effort. 

Addition By Subtraction Defensively On Paper Improvement For New York

Only time will tell if the 2012-13 New York Islanders are an improved team, however on paper there is no doubt despite losing Parenteau's offense there has been addition by subtraction even if Brad Boyes does not produce, Matt Carkner is injured again or simply cannot keep up.

Of course there are some big question marks already.

That does not even address Visnovsky at home considering his KHL offer/retiring vs reporting for camp.  

So what's addition by subtraction?
For that matter what's subtraction by addition?

There has been a little of both on paper.

Does it matter? Only thing that matters is winning.