Roster/Rumors/Speculation/Trade Talk - 2023-24: Hotel California

[Osakahaus]

Funny thing is that aside from Nelson, most of the core isn't old. The sad thing is that aside from Horvat, the core has let us down and is why we are where we are. Dobson, Sorokin, Barzal, Nelson have all fallen off a cliff the last two weeks.

Because they legit cannot keep doing all the dirty work, and surprise, they are absolutely dog tired. they've played so many OT games this year that I cannot blame them.

 

[Richie Daggers Crime]

He was available for FREE last year and initially signed a league minimum deal. Not a world beater by any means but perhaps a bit better than signing Engvall for 7 years at a $3M AAV.

Hindsight.

 

[The Real JT]

Congrats to the local boy, Sonny Milano, with the hatty last night.

He’s at 0.5 PPG and is a +7 on the season playing on a line with Dylan Strome and Ivan Miroshonichenko while his team has a -30 goal differential.

He was available for FREE last year and initially signed a league minimum deal. Not a world beater by any means but perhaps a bit better than signing Engvall for 7 years at a $3M AAV.

Hindsight.

Last year’s team was starved for secondary scoring and yes, I advocated signing Milano when he became available .

I’ve been wrong before (though I’ll need proof) but the issue is not whether I thought it was a good idea at the time or whether I’m lamenting our missed opportunity in hindsight.

This is a team that gave chances to Timashov and Gauthier among others. The local kid who filled a need on our squad was available for absolutely nothing.

 

[MJF]

Hindsight.

Sometimes throwing shit at the wall is an improvement.

 

[periferal]

Call up Iskhakov, what do you have to lose at this point?

Ruining his development? (Unless you think he’s a bust no matter what)

Personally most of the current islanders should be forced to play as much as possible given how lazy/sloppy some of them have been this season.

 

[Richie Daggers Crime]

Last year’s team was starved for secondary scoring and yes, I advocated signing Milano when he became available .

That's good, but it ignores a ton of other factors.

 

[periferal]

Don’t forget Nino who turned into Clutter. Not a complete fail in that one, but expectations should be higher for a #5OA pick.

I remember snow/some fans lamenting Nino's "attitude" and asking for a trade (when the Isles didn't help by jerking him back and forth from the AHL)...When it is a GM's responsibility (along with imput from scouts) to determine if a player has an attitude problem.

The fact that Clutterbuck was the best deal snow could get for a 20 year old Nino should tell you how the league felt about him.

Again...Whatever you think of Clutterbuck, to essentially use a prime asset of the 5th overall pick on a 4th liner is a failure by any GM.

 

[SI]

A great win today - the boys came out and really brought it.

Tomorrow's game with the Devils is an opportunity for this team to put a team away -
Devils lost to the Sens tonight and tomorrow Isles should stomp on their necks and put them to rest.

A win tomorrow puts the Isles 1 pt away from the Wings and 4 behind the Flyers with 11 games left.
The Capitals have 2 games in hand, however, they have the hardest schedule in the league to end the season.

The team has to string a few wins together here... a win tomorrow - a split in Florida and the stage is set for the biggest game of the year in Philly.

 

[SI]

Call up Iskhakov, what do you have to lose at this point?

I agree 1000%.

They have a roster spot available and enough room in the cap to add one more body.
It's clear that Wahlstrom has played his last game as an Islander.
It doesn't hurt to bring up the kid and have him practice with the team, watch some games at this level, and maybe even help push the players in the room.

BPT has 10 games left and they are dead last in the league and there is no shot for them to make the playoffs.
They have 3 warm bodies in BPT and bring the kid up.

 

[gordie43]

I remember snow/some fans lamenting Nino's "attitude" and asking for a trade (when the Isles didn't help by jerking him back and forth from the AHL)...When it is a GM's responsibility (along with imput from scouts) to determine if a player has an attitude problem.

The fact that Clutterbuck was the best deal snow could get for a 20 year old Nino should tell you how the league felt about him.

Again...Whatever you think of Clutterbuck, to essentially use a prime asset of the 5th overall pick on a 4th liner is a failure by any GM.

Totally, always look at what yzerman did with Drouin in Tampa. Too bad Snow could not have mirrored the Nino situation with that. Clutterbuck has been a perfect fit but that deal was always gonna be an overpayment due to Nino being a top 5 pick. It’s a shame Snow couldn’t have found his sergachev, but i digress.

 

[leeroggy]

Hip Hip Hooray!

BACK-TO-Back: Hobart wins 2nd straight national championship - Hobart and William Smith Colleges Athletics

HARTFORD, Conn.—The top-ranked Hobart hockey team defeated third-ranked Trinity 2-0 on the Bantam's home ice to win the NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Championship

hwsathletics.com

Barry Who? Mark Taylor Knows Defense!

Season Stats:

31 Games - 28-2-1 Record

THIRTY GOALS GIVEN UP ALL SEASON, GAA UNDER 1.0! 6 of the 30 were in 2 games. 13 shutouts in the 31 games.

PK? 96.8%! 3 for 95!

PP? 32 for 114 . . . 28.1%

Lead the nation in Goals For at 5.2 per game!

Faceoffs at 60.6%

Name a more dominanating season at any level of NCAA hockey. Also, won the final 2-0 at the other team's rink.

 

[beach]

better idea

we could've had both engvall and Milano instead of keeping Mayfield and Varly. I really hate how good Dylan Strome has become also. Really annoying how the Caps also have a system thats benefitted their goalies and defenders. They actually are giving their youngsters a chance as well. compare that to us, well its opposite day. it used to be us who let the youth play. now we just watch old men fight it out rather than let the kids do their work.

Keeping Varly wasn't a mistake, but not playing him more frequently this season when Ilya was clearly struggling makes zero sense.

 

[Osakahaus]

Keeping Varly wasn't a mistake, but not playing him more frequently this season when Ilya was clearly struggling makes zero sense.

as much as I agree on Ilya's struggles, i never understood why they dont do a 1A 1B system with the goalies. at least bevy some of the poor play if one is struggling.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Trying something weird...

 

[Strickland]

Again, this team is doomed to slowly erode into a bottom feeder. Except it's gonna take YEARS for the roster to degrade that far. An entirely avoidable fate, but for the 1000 NTC Lou has given out that ensure that's what's gonna happen. Then, once rock bottom is hit, you're looking at a total rebuild.

A decade of irrelevance. What he did to the Devils. He did to the Islanders.

 

[DerekKingSnipes]

Again, this team is doomed to slowly erode into a bottom feeder. Except it's gonna take YEARS for the roster to degrade that far. An entirely avoidable fate, but for the 1000 NTC Lou has given out that ensure that's what's gonna happen. Then, once rock bottom is hit, you're looking at a total rebuild.

A decade of irrelevance. What he did to the Devils. He did to the Islanders.

This can be avoided with some tough decisions and sacrifices of picks to clear some of these contracts out of here.

 

[IslesNorway]

Again, this team is doomed to slowly erode into a bottom feeder. Except it's gonna take YEARS for the roster to degrade that far. An entirely avoidable fate, but for the 1000 NTC Lou has given out that ensure that's what's gonna happen. Then, once rock bottom is hit, you're looking at a total rebuild.

A decade of irrelevance. What he did to the Devils. He did to the Islanders.

Indeed and if the owners fail to see this and gets rid of him ASAP, it will be a painful watch for years to come. Some really tough decisions needs to be made in the offseason and the players who are obviously in a state of regression and steady decline must be offloaded if possible. Buy out Lee and Engvall, trade Mayfield and Pulock for shorter term, and get rid of Pageau and Palmieri for whatever they can get.

 

[crashthenet]

Whatever the thought is around Engvall, getting shutout three times in two weeks and not going back to Nelson Palms Engvall is a bit of a mystery.

 

[Strickland]

This can be avoided with some tough decisions and sacrifices of picks to clear some of these contracts out of here.

All these guys (Lee, Pageau, Palms) have NTCs. You’re gonna have to find someone to take them who they’d agree to go to (unlikely) or is t on their list (also unlikely).

And let’s say you do it. Let’s say you free up like $17 million in cap space and it costs you your 2024 first and a bunch of seconds to do so and they all agree to trades. Then what? You have no assets to trade to get good players in! You’re stuck dealing with UFAs. Which is just more of the same. Just perpetuating the cycle over and over again, hoping that it’ll work.

It won’t.

 

[Strickland]

Indeed and if the owners fail to see this and gets rid of him ASAP, it will be a painful watch for years to come. Some really tough decisions needs to be made in the offseason and the players who are obviously in a state of regression and steady decline must be offloaded if possible. Buy out Lee and Engvall, trade Mayfield and Pulock for shorter term, and get rid of Pageau and Palmieri for whatever they can get.

They can’t even do that. Theyre stuck. And the worst thing they can do is to fight against it. Just accept they’re gonna be bad to mediocre for the next two seasons. Don’t trade or buyout anyone with a bad deal. Make your picks. Trade anyone with positive value (Nelson and Pelech and Pulock if you can, Romanov for sure) for picks and kids. Load up so that in the summer of 2026 you can try to improve things.

Re-tool and see if it’s possible to get out of this in two years.

 

[Top Corner]

Again, this team is doomed to slowly erode into a bottom feeder. Except it's gonna take YEARS for the roster to degrade that far. An entirely avoidable fate, but for the 1000 NTC Lou has given out that ensure that's what's gonna happen. Then, once rock bottom is hit, you're looking at a total rebuild.

A decade of irrelevance. What he did to the Devils. He did to the Islanders.

It’s was incredible , how much backlash came from some of the posters whenever some of us expressed a dislike or negative opinion of Lou. At the time there was really nothing you could say that would prove or disprove the opinion made but as time has rolled on the damage is starting to show.

I for one , liked Lou in a president’s roll but never as a GM even though he did win the GM of the year twice. It will always be my opinion that if we had Lou as President and a different GM and they were able to bring Trotz on, that unknown GM would have won the Jim Gregory awards instead.

 

[PK Cronin]

It’s was incredible , how much backlash came from some of the posters whenever some of us expressed a dislike or negative opinion of Lou. At the time there was really nothing you could say that would prove or disprove the opinion made but as time has rolled on the damage is starting to show.

I for one , liked Lou in a president’s roll but never as a GM even though he did win the GM of the year twice. It will always be my opinion that if we had Lou as President and a different GM and they were able to bring Trotz on, that unknown GM would have won the Jim Gregory awards instead.

If you're shitting on a GM when he has a team getting closer to a cup year after year then you're going to get push back. His issues today don't negate what he did then and doesn't make the criticism from then any better.

He's made poor decisions lately and now he's being rightfully criticized.

Saying, "I told you so" like this is just like picking a team to not with the cup, you'll be right more often than not. I don't think anyone thought the ride would last forever but trying to win a cup is the goal so you deal with the consequences later.

 

[Torrey Redux]

If you're shitting on a GM when he has a team getting closer to a cup year after year then you're going to get push back. His issues today don't negate what he did then and doesn't make the criticism from then any better.

He's made poor decisions lately and now he's being rightfully criticized.

Saying, "I told you so" like this is just like picking a team to not with the cup, you'll be right more often than not. I don't think anyone thought the ride would last forever but trying to win a cup is the goal so you deal with the consequences later.

Yes. They do.

The ride? What ride, a two or three year flash in the pan during unusual times? Detroit had a ride, LA had a ride, Chicago had a ride, Pittsburgh had a ride, TB had a ride and is still on it ten years in. Colorado has a Cup and has been on a ride for 5+ years. Vegas too. What the Islanders achieved was not "a ride".

The consequences of decisions do not just count in the immediate period in which you make them. If you sign an agreement to pay for a car over time that looked shiny and new and ran great when you bought it but failed to look under the hood for oil leaks and sawdust in the transmission does it only matter that it ran great for the first few months that you had it and then when it falls apart after those few months that is irrelevant? The Islanders did not achieve enough or sustain it for long enough to give Lou a pass on the decisions he made then that are so negatively affecting the organization now. He misread what he had and made unwise commitments to it, just as so many of the fans here misread what they were seeing. For the fans it is forgivable and understandable, for the GM it is not.

 

[Osakahaus]

I really feel more nervous knowing that this team will suddenly BS its way to win like 8 of the last 10 games, screw themselves out of prime drafting range, and make sure that their pick is traded for some really mediocre player. I do not trust Lou at all. I want him gone, I want Houda gone, I want a lot of what he's done to leave before even more damage can happen.

Indeed and if the owners fail to see this and gets rid of him ASAP, it will be a painful watch for years to come. Some really tough decisions needs to be made in the offseason and the players who are obviously in a state of regression and steady decline must be offloaded if possible. Buy out Lee and Engvall, trade Mayfield and Pulock for shorter term, and get rid of Pageau and Palmieri for whatever they can get.

Engvall when he's good is a solid player. I just hate how soft he is around the boards. He really needs a ZP type around him at all times so he can just score points. The other issue I got at hand is just how pathetic this roster is with the salary cap. If you wanna hear delusions, get ready for a bunch of Sorokin trade rumors, because thats where we are heading.

 

[Strickland]

In the middle of this run, Lou made one of the worst trades in recent NHL history. The team succeeded despite its GM, not because of him. He was bad at the end in Jersey, neutered in Toronto and bad here on the Island.

The team is in the worst position, organizationally, it has ever been in. It just doesn’t need to be rebuilt, it CAN NOT be rebuilt. It’s gonna take years to strip this thing down, even if they wanted to.

And all of it, ALL OF IT, was foreseeable. It’s what Lou did to Jersey. Of course it was gonna happen here, it’s all the old fool knows.