(no subject)
Best week of islanders news i've heard in a while.
Mad Mike is gone. Islanders GM for 9 years, you could literally make an all-star team out of the players he has traded away for crap (no hyperbole at all, I have seen lists, all positions covered, there are enough players who are now superstars, league-wide allstars who used to be islanders who are no longer because of him). Last season he "stepped down as GM" but remained pulling strings in the front office. He's gone for good, quit his front office job.
Alexsei Yashin, one of Mad Mike's decisions. Isles got him, gave him the largest contract in the entire NHL. You'd think the guy making the most money out of anyone in the league should be the best? nope. top 5 at least? nope. top 25? Mad Mike Milbury wouldn't do something like that. Since he's been on long island, he's been around 50th league-wide in scoring. I've read articles blaming the lockout on him personally (he got the ridiculous contract as a mediocre player, all of a sudden good players feel they deserve to make more than mediocre players, and teams can't afford that, and there's the lockout). He's notorious for doing NOTHING in the playoffs, this year getting himself, the captain, kicked from 1st line down to 4th line, where he amassed a whopping ten minutes of ice time per game (the Ducks, who are about to win the cup, their captain is averaging around 30). And with the new salary cap, he was gutting the team. he was getting somewhere around 7.5 mil a year, which because of the cap could not be spent acquiring good players (ryan smyth, jason blake both need to be kept around, there are talks of chris drury). Noone would trade for him because nobody wanted to eat his ridiculous contract and deal with the subpar player. The islanders bought out his contract yesterday. Meaning he is off the team, and instead of taking up 7mil of cap space, he takess up 2 (the penalty for buying out a contract or whatever). Meaning he doesn't take up a spot on the roster, he doesn't break a line's chemistry by not pushing 100%. [MIRANDA READ THIS I know you are going to say "how do I know he doens't put 100%, hockey is a hard sport, I just watch, bla bla bla. Ryan Smyth openly criticized yashin after the playoffs, for not putting it all out there. He was scathing. Ryan smyth knows how hard hockey is, he went to the finals last year. He knows what its like, he knows when you can give it your all, and he can tell when someone, especially a captain, especially someone earning nearly 8 million dollars a year, is not pulling his weight].
Now the islanders have a promising GM, still getting used to the business, but showing lots of talent so far, and salary cap space to bring in good players. A good coach in Ted Nolan (holy crap, I don't think I can remember the last time the islanders had one coach for two seasons in a row). All they need is a little more young talent, I think. Tambellini will be an NHL player, and Okposo is a few years away. Campoli and Gervais were the defensive stars of the prospects, but they both earned solid spots on the team, so the islanders (I think) need to acquire some younger talent who can be called on if needed, and who can develop into legitimate assets a few years down the line. I'm now excited for hockey again.
Mad Mike is gone. Islanders GM for 9 years, you could literally make an all-star team out of the players he has traded away for crap (no hyperbole at all, I have seen lists, all positions covered, there are enough players who are now superstars, league-wide allstars who used to be islanders who are no longer because of him). Last season he "stepped down as GM" but remained pulling strings in the front office. He's gone for good, quit his front office job.
Alexsei Yashin, one of Mad Mike's decisions. Isles got him, gave him the largest contract in the entire NHL. You'd think the guy making the most money out of anyone in the league should be the best? nope. top 5 at least? nope. top 25? Mad Mike Milbury wouldn't do something like that. Since he's been on long island, he's been around 50th league-wide in scoring. I've read articles blaming the lockout on him personally (he got the ridiculous contract as a mediocre player, all of a sudden good players feel they deserve to make more than mediocre players, and teams can't afford that, and there's the lockout). He's notorious for doing NOTHING in the playoffs, this year getting himself, the captain, kicked from 1st line down to 4th line, where he amassed a whopping ten minutes of ice time per game (the Ducks, who are about to win the cup, their captain is averaging around 30). And with the new salary cap, he was gutting the team. he was getting somewhere around 7.5 mil a year, which because of the cap could not be spent acquiring good players (ryan smyth, jason blake both need to be kept around, there are talks of chris drury). Noone would trade for him because nobody wanted to eat his ridiculous contract and deal with the subpar player. The islanders bought out his contract yesterday. Meaning he is off the team, and instead of taking up 7mil of cap space, he takess up 2 (the penalty for buying out a contract or whatever). Meaning he doesn't take up a spot on the roster, he doesn't break a line's chemistry by not pushing 100%. [MIRANDA READ THIS I know you are going to say "how do I know he doens't put 100%, hockey is a hard sport, I just watch, bla bla bla. Ryan Smyth openly criticized yashin after the playoffs, for not putting it all out there. He was scathing. Ryan smyth knows how hard hockey is, he went to the finals last year. He knows what its like, he knows when you can give it your all, and he can tell when someone, especially a captain, especially someone earning nearly 8 million dollars a year, is not pulling his weight].
Now the islanders have a promising GM, still getting used to the business, but showing lots of talent so far, and salary cap space to bring in good players. A good coach in Ted Nolan (holy crap, I don't think I can remember the last time the islanders had one coach for two seasons in a row). All they need is a little more young talent, I think. Tambellini will be an NHL player, and Okposo is a few years away. Campoli and Gervais were the defensive stars of the prospects, but they both earned solid spots on the team, so the islanders (I think) need to acquire some younger talent who can be called on if needed, and who can develop into legitimate assets a few years down the line. I'm now excited for hockey again.