Matt Mangene, Marc Cantin, and Joey Diamond were not qualified, and are now UFA.
If the player accepts the offer, he is signed, if not accepted, a contract has to be worked out.
Anders Nilsson needed an offer for the team to keep his NHL rights.
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UFA:
I understand that many of our fans just want never ending Milbury plans or rotisserie hockey, that should not be the approach here.
Perhaps Garth Snow is desperate, and needs a Milbury trade (or three) to get
I liked the team that finished with 55 points in their final 48 games (same as 2013 playoffs) & the 17-5-2 road record in the final 24 games
That is not something to completely disregard.
I'm not a fan of making moves simply for the sake of making them, a lot of mediocrity out there, not worth signing someone to take a potential roster spot from a young player.
Even if they signed here please don't tell me Matt Niskanen, Dan Boyle, Christian Ehrhoff, Ed Jovanowski are the answer at over payments to fixing the Islanders defense, along with many of the other retreads.
As with the forwards many are too old, most are too inconsistent or limited. Some would help here, but not worth a massive overpayment which is what it usually takes.
Trades?
I would have been very happy to see Snow do a sign/trade with Boyle.
No first round pick to trade in a deal, would like to get one back instead. No interest in moving the core young players Lee, Strome, Nelson, or Okposo, Bailey, Grabner, Nielsen unless the return brings a star talent, in his prime, signed long term. (not for two years)
If moving Clutterbuck, Matt Martin, Casey Cizikas, McDonald improves the club, you do it in a second, same with Brian Strait, Carkner. (return price for all of them would be very low)
No idea what will happen with goaltending, Nabokov's best chance at starting for an extended period may still be here, but not at his former price. A lot of names on market, many younger with middling stats but perhaps better suited to be a backup?
I prefer they stick with Kevin Poulin, who a lot of years/time/money have been invested in, his six game road winning streak was the highest in twenty years last season for this franchise.
