Progress in last calander year? Not much

The last month or so I have been watching these games and I simply do not like what I'm seeing in terms of direction with most of these kids.

What's really changed in the last calender year?

I see lateral moves or steps backwards for prospects so fringe players beyond what Frans Nielsen has given this team seem to be on the ice?

Only reasoning I can see behind it is this an effort to make sure the club is in a lottery position where they pick no lower than second.

I tend to doubt this.

What's changed in the last year when you think about it beyond Nielsen's progression and Bailey placed in a spot at center under this coach?

Mike Comrie is the only veteran who has taken a hit and he has been placed on a line with Guerin and Weight off wing.

Sure these players are creating some chances in games but what's changed since Feb 2008?

* Blake Comeau if anything is less visible in games now than he was a year ago after being demoted. Can anyone write this been a season of tangible progress for him?

* Sean Bergenheim was getting a better chance before the lockout here than he is now on the fourth line so Nate Thompson, Richard Park or Andy Hilbert can play left wing/center?

* Jeff Tambellini went from a player who was improving (or at least more visible in games) to someone who dropped out of the mix entirely for Andy Hilbert's return? Even a year ago Ted Nolan was ready to give Tambellini more time and moved Comeau to right wing so he could play.

* Kyle Okposo despite his production cannot be the first line right wing on the powerplay and is on his off-wing so Guerin, Hunter, Park can play right wing up front with the man advantage? His setups with Bailey for goals have been excellent so why not keep them together on the powerplay and let this kid become an NHL right wing after the coach tried to force a full-time left wing slot on him earlier which Scott Gordon admitted was a mistake?

* Why is an AHL veteran who cannot score like Tim Jackman even on this roster for the occasional fight? He works very hard and even has shown progress but this is not giving a prospect a spot or developing anything. I know Kurtis McLean is about the same age and hardly a prospect but what is the point of this?

* Someone's going to have to explain to me why is Nate Thompson here to produce virtually nothing over Jeremy Colliton or Ben Walter. Thompson can win a few faceoffs but the Islanders have invested years in Colliton and traded Nokelainen (a first round selection) to bring Walter in trade.

Do not take this as a knock on some of these players, but career trends do not lie.

I would love Nate Thompson to become a twenty goal scorer who will knock players around and become a good middle-weight, same for Jackman.

No one is rooting harder for Richard Park to do what Jason Blake did here combined with his tireless effort in all three zones. Park wins a lot of games for this team whether he scores or not (remember that dive to save an open net goal) but should he play at the expense of Tambellini's development when your team is 30th in the NHL?

Should decisions like this come at the expense of many prospects taking steps backwards in the last year or nothing changing?

If this were a team with any chance at a playoff spot like last season at time time I could see it.

Not now.

Progress?

Not much.

Prospects at the crossroads?

It's still a little early but there are signs from many of the Islanders prospects that they are simply not improving to a point where they are forcing management to give them a look and recall them and that's not good considering all the time and resouces that have been invested in them over several seasons. Steve Regier is making the best statistical impression outside of Tambellini who's play making skills seem to be improved but who will likely make the NHL for good based on his defense.

Fair or not I'm going by the numbers more than anything. If those who recall Trent Hunter finally was just called up and kept up, he seemed to do worse in the NHL when he was scoring in Bridgeport and better in the NHL when he was called up after struggling in Bridgeport.

In other words sometimes there is no logic.

Last year Ted Nolan did callup Jeremy Colliton, Blake Comeau, Frans Nielsen and Jeff Tambellini on several occasions. A year ago Ted Nolan felt Comeau would absoutely be an NHL player, now he's a negative rating player and he's not producing.

This year with the injury to Jon Sim, Bill Guerin, Bergenheim and Shawn Bates situtation we have seen one callup with any offensive ability and that's Ben Walter who briefly played on the fourth line outside of one quick cameo from Jeff Tambellini. Tim Jackman and Darryl Bootland have been given the opportunities over the prsopects the club has invested years in.

Meanwhile in terms of the numbers, Colliton, Comeau, Nielsen are not producing much in terms of goals. Tambellini has been in somewhat of a slump recently and the Islanders second round pick on defense in Dustin Kohn has been scratched on a few occasions.

When you include the slump Kyle Okposo has been in since he lost a winger on his line (he scored in a loss over the weekend) it's fair to ask the question is the club's youth movement at the crossroads?

Next season with so many pending free agents again for the Islanders these players have to step up and give management reason to think they are part of the long-term answer.

Garth Snow is going to need his first round pick next summer too.

NHL.com Feature on Islander Prospects.

NHL.com writer John McGourty had a good feature on the Islander prospects Tuesday that discusses the clubs depth at right wing starting with Kyle Okposo. All top the top prospects were featured with comments from Islander management including Frans Nielsen, Nokelainen, Dustin Kohn ect.

And for those needed a little laugh does NHL.com writer John McGourty look like Jason Blake or what.

NYI PROSPECTS CONCLUDE EXCELLENT CAMPS

Isles website checks in with a final review of the clubs prospects challenging for spots on the 2008 U.S. National Junior Team that will compete at the 2008 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship Dec. 26, 2007-Jan. 5, 2008 in Pardubice and Liberec, Czech Republic here

Okposo and Rakhshani lead tournament in scoring; Rogers and Day excel at first camps

To say Islanders prospects Kyle Okposo, Rhett Rakhshani, Doug Rogers and Brian Day performed well at last week’s US National Team Evaluation Camp would be an understatement. Okposo and Rakhshani led the tournament with eight points apiece playing against Junior Finnish and Swedish teams. Rogers finished the tournament with a goal and three assists in four games, while Day chipped in with a goal and an assist, including a dramatic penalty shot goal on the final day.

“All four of our prospects had excellent camps,” said Assistant GM/Director of Amateur Scouting, Ryan Jankowski. “This experience should give them all confidence heading into the 2007-08 season.”

Final selections will be made in early December.

NY Islander Fan Centreal-Prospect Center Open !!

A lot of work to set up but all New York Islander Prospect Profiles are now available on this page.

I have decided to set my own paramaters as to what is a prospect:

The days of Hockey's Future and the Buffaloed-Holly Gunning disasterous guidelines that were served to control writers were a joke that was bad for the folks wanting to learn about prospects. Also their ever-changing comical rating system read more like a game of bingo or battleship with the letters and numbers. Players and their families read these things and take them very seriously. I was contacted by Frans Nielsen's family on a few occasions with information.

Just another reason in a long list of reasons why both of them should be immediately dumped by Hockey's Future, but that's for another day.

My system is a lot more common-sense:
1. All propspects listed by last name: You decide where you think they belong for yourselves.

In my opinion it's silly to read articles and rate a prospects progress based on that and I had seen far too many uninformed writers attempt to rate prospects on the basis of stats or a singular article because teams and leagues are different. There are also a lot of folks like Larry Brooks in Europe writing these articles that we use as paramaters for rankings who would not know some of these kids if they appeared on their front door but still threw out their names.

2. Anyone who's over age 25 or had been around the block in the NHL, AHL or ECHL for years is not a prospect. Sorry gang, but a Matt Spiller is not a prospect, nor is a Tim Jackman, nor is Drew Fata and for that matter neither is Dubie or Joey McDonald and neither is the Islanders recent signing Aaron Johnson, who played sixty games with Columbus last season. The Isles website may have their profiles in the prospects sections but to me they are no longer prospects.

3. Players below the age of 24 who stayed in juniors-Europe for years and are just working their way into the AHL/ECHL I consider a prospect. See-Blake Comeau, Frans Nielsen, Jeremy Colliton.

4. With the new CBA all drafted players must be signed within two years with the exception of college players. Older European prospects before the new cba must be signed within a select amount of years or they are considered UFA and that works on a yearly scale that was grandfathered in year by year. In the past when a club drafted a European Prospect that club owned the NHL rights forever which is why you see NHL.com technically list Dimitri Upper as an UFA now.

5. The days of Per Braxenholm, Juha Pekka-Ketola and Arto Tukio being considered Islander prospects are over as they have clearly fallen off the club's radar nor do they likely have signing rights to them, nor have they appeared in the club's website or have attended summer workouts.

Each person make up your own prospect parameter, these will be mine.