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

[leeroggy]

I kind of wish something would happen if only so folks would then have something meaningful to talk about. Watch a pro baseball game - it's bound to be more exciting (everything is relative) than anything NYI related anyone could talk about until something happens. And it may even lower your blood pressure.

Only a fool thinks watching baseball is more exciting than watching lacrosse

 

[The Lighthouse]

Quake 2

Many good memories. Wonder how good the guys are that still play online now. Just went through the single player campaign recently.

 

[saintunspecified]

Been playing Mobile Legends Bang Bang to pass the time. It reminds me of my younger days when we used to play Quake 2 with the grappling hook mod in our office after hours. 5v5 battle, it's quite satisfying to wreck people. Of course, my BP goes sky high when I'm getting wrecked or you get a random crap team.

Since there is no Isles news and there won't be before the eve of training camp, it does the trick.

I have no idea what you're talking about, but I need something. I'm recovering from COVID, and I can't even run (I'm a middle distance runner) because I'm getting asthma attacks after I finish which makes me feel like crap for the next day. Can't even enjoy... err. herbal refreshment (I don't really like edibles). I swear, it's going to drive to do yoga. I know people like yoga, but ****, I never have. But, honestly, baseball is almost as sleep inducing as indica.

 

[WangMustGo]

Welcome to the never understanding context and never gonna be happy fan here.


How good can he be? He averages a 150 shots per season. He has 1PPG in over 125 games plus PP1 time. At some point, it’s a little less about those around you…

Did he step up vs PIT? If they relied on Barzal, they were out in the first round. However, Lou’s trade deadline acquisitions sure did.

And you conveniently leave off his 19 PP assists. I guess you still havent realized that Barzal is a pass first player.

Lou has done nothing but set Barzal up for failure by surrounding him with mediocre wingers.

Your shitting on Barzal is old. Almost as ridiculous as Canucks fans insisting they will get Dobson for Miller.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

Admitting Sakic was the better GM of the two when the move was made, isn’t some newfound or outlandish logic. It’s real, Lou got absolutely worked on that deal.

As PK mentioned, this has been beaten to death. Including responses to this kind of take.

And in addition to the expansion draft details provided above by @danteipp, Lou only had cap space to keep two of Barzal, Pulock, and Toews in the fold. Only two.

Sure, we all liked Toews. Sure, we all wished something could have been done to keep him.

But his lower price tag and still uncertain upside made him the most marketable of all the guys Lou could have pawned off. Heck, he prolly did a goodin' for Toews sending him to exactly the type of contender where his skillset would thrive.

In fact, knowing that Lou's back was up against a wall at the time, him pulling off two seconds was a friggin' coup. That was a win-win situation for all involved.

And the numbers Toews has been putting up with Colorado... You think he'd have been doing that here? Or at about any other address in the NHL?

Hell, even our Sebastian Aho would be putting up 35-40 points for that Avalanche team.

One has simply got to keep a sense of proportion when analyzing these things.

Cap concerns make EVERY TEAM IN THE LEAGUE sacrifice guys they'd rather keep. That's part of the GMing game and it requires constant juggling. It's what creates the parity the league so desperately wanted to see after years and years of powerhouses winning a whole lot of cups in a short periods of time.

Summary:
Lou got a maximum return for a guy the cap and expansion draft were no longer allowing us to keep - and everybody knew it.

 

[Throttle]

And you conveniently leave off his 19 PP assists. I guess you still havent realized that Barzal is a pass first player.

Lou has done nothing but set Barzal up for failure by surrounding him with mediocre wingers.

Your shitting on Barzal is old. Almost as ridiculous as Canucks fans insisting they will get Dobson for Miller.

I guess we'll just skip over his disappearance vs. PIT and absent other players stepping up, the Isles do not advance. The commentators for those games and leading into the next series all mentioned he was MIA vs. PIT.

Isles fans seems satisfied with a 60 point player making $7M because he has talent. Barzal can be an 80 point player, if he changes his game w/o any additions to his wing. But, we know, Trotz suffocated him, Lou hasn't given him any talent to work with, and he always had to wait for another player to meet him in the opposing zone. The level of excuses on him is really hilarious. All of his prior anchors (Eberle, Komarov, etc.) were all gone last year, yet, w/o an anchor, wouldn't one improve?

 

[SayItAintSoJohnny]

It is the same broken record each and every offseason. We fail repeatedly to get a real difference maker on that top line with him and then the same tiring posters end up talking about moving Barzal. Rinse and repeat.

I will repeat that until the Islanders commit to an actual goal scorer on that top line with him then I reserve judgment on his lack of production, He needs a 30 goal scorer, someone with a shot that can help him excel- a true top line winger.

Anders Lee makes his living around the net and has no shot, which is fine as the "other wingman" but is not a true top line winger who is going to elevate Barzal's game.

Jordan Eberle was never a top line winger and he too has no shot.

The ONLY three other guys on our roster who could excel with him are Anthony Beauvillier (because of his speed) and Kyle Palmieri and Oliver Wahlstrom; the later two capable of putting up 30 goals and the only two wings with anything remotely close to a slapshot.

AB has hardly played at all with Matty the last 3 seasons and Kyle (181 minutes) and Ollie (186 minutes) have hardly either.

I GUARANTEE you if Lambert commits to one of the shooters +Lee/Beau (assuming the later is still here), Barzal will have his most productive offensive season....

 

[SayItAintSoJohnny]

I guess we'll just skip over his disappearance vs. PIT and absent other players stepping up, the Isles do not advance. The commentators for those games and leading into the next series all mentioned he was MIA vs. PIT.

Isles fans seems satisfied with a 60 point player making $7M because he has talent. Barzal can be an 80 point player, if he changes his game w/o any additions to his wing. But, we know, Trotz suffocated him, Lou hasn't given him any talent to work with, and he always had to wait for another player to meet him in the opposing zone. The level of excuses on him is really hilarious. All of his prior anchors (Eberle, Komarov, etc.) were all gone last year, yet, w/o an anchor, wouldn't one improve?

No.

I like Zach Parise and what he can still bring to the table this late in his career, but he is still 38 years old and doesn't belong on a line with Barzal...

NO ONE should confuse Josh Bailey as a scorer either. He is a facilitator, who has never sniffed 20 goals in his entire 14 year career.

We all know what Anders Lee is (see above)...someone who is going to hang out by the net to get his goals in bunches...he is not an anchor, but he is not elevating Barzal's offensive production too much as he doesn't have the skates to keep up nor much of a shot from outside the inner circle.

According to Frozen Tools, and even strength minutes last season:

259:23 had Lee and Bailey on the line with Barzal, more than any other combination

38-year old Parise had more minutes on the line than anyone with him, over 370 minutes of ice time.

Wahlstrom (with Parise mainly) only had 165:08 with Barzal; and Palmieri (also with Parise a majority of the time) had a smidgen more at 181:16

AB had ZERO time with Barzal last season....

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

NO ONE should confuse Josh Bailey as a scorer either. He is a facilitator, who has never sniffed 20 goals in his entire 14 year career.

This assessment is correct.

But I'd say Bailey did "sniff" 20 goals one season:

AB had ZERO time with Barzal last season....

I think Trotz had the old "been there, done that" take on having Beau and Barzal together.

When I look at who played with Barzal last season, I can't help but think about how, when the team finally had a stretch of games where they looked like they could still make a run at the playoffs, the lines of Lee-Nelson-Beau and Bailey-Pageua-Palmieri were really klicking. Then of course, we had the fourth line, which eventually lost Clutterbuck at the trade deadline (injury).

So Parise got to play with Barzal by default. And they did a few good things together. Zach ended up "complimenting" Barzal in a manner I don't think we saw from anyone else. No other winger tried with them could get much done, but there was no reason to break up the other lines just to accomodate Barzal. Once the team clearly looked out of it, Wally got his 10 game audition and began ok, but fizzled off terribly. Then Bellows got his shot and at least showed himself to understand what it means to take on a grinding role.

Theoretically, you've currently got three lines to go with (even if the top two cooled off) and then some combination of Parise, Bellows, Wally or an outsider to play with Barzal.

That's where we're at.

Dunno if Lambert is going to throw things around again to kick things off?

 

[danteipp]

No thought? Do I need to spell out the ways he got taken on that deal and his Mia evaluation of the roster.


The expansion draft wasn’t until a year after the deal was made, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, not give up a homegrown, up and coming player who was absolutely worth more than two seconds


Solid contribution, could have just ignored the post all together, but the emoji was a far better route to take.

Trading Toews had a negligible impact on the Isles that season. They still got to the ECF again.

The Isles came up short primarily because Lee got hurt in a fluke injury and they needed more firepower up front.

They opted to retain Leddy instead, who played better than Toews the prior year, especially in the playoffs and against Tampa, and was solid all year and in the playoffs.

You can argue that Trotz valued Mayfield and Leddy more, given the responsibilities they were given with bigger minutes.

Had the Isles opted to wait a year, then they would have likely had less leverage, with every other team flooding the market with players they couldn't protect, especially defensemen.

In a perfect world, the return for Toews might have been a late first and a third. The Isles got two seconds, which is inline.

Toews at the time was not as established as he is now. Partly due to the system, but you have to value the trade return based on Toews at the time, not based on what he did in Colorado's system and alongside a player like Makar the last two years.

 

[danteipp]

I kind of wish something would happen if only so folks would then have something meaningful to talk about. Watch a pro baseball game - it's bound to be more exciting (everything is relative) than anything NYI related anyone could talk about until something happens. And it may even lower your blood pressure.

I would add it is Summer and the weather is beautiful right now. Go out and enjoy the day.

I was briefly on Twitter last night and the amount of angst is utterly amazing - and not in a good way.

 

[danteipp]

I have no idea what you're talking about, but I need something. I'm recovering from COVID, and I can't even run (I'm a middle distance runner) because I'm getting asthma attacks after I finish which makes me feel like crap for the next day. Can't even enjoy... err. herbal refreshment (I don't really like edibles). I swear, it's going to drive to do yoga. I know people like yoga, but ****, I never have. But, honestly, baseball is almost as sleep inducing as indica.

Maybe mix up some yoga with a stretching routine and some body-weight exercises.

That is what I do to try and retain the limited flexibility I have left and get in some work.

 

[saintunspecified]

I would add it is Summer and the weather is beautiful right now. Go out and enjoy the day.

I was briefly on Twitter last night and the amount of angst is utterly amazing - and not in a good way.

I'm off twitter, and I feel much better for it. (Was never into Isles twitter, though, much too toxic.)

The whole shark thing / Rockaway & Jacob Riis closings/restrictions has been a pretty big bummer. Feel pretty lucky that I live right near Greenwood Cemetary, which is imo is the place to be to enjoy early summer evenings. It's never crowded, and with how gorgeous it is you'd think people would be dying to go there.

 

[Islanders4Cups]

I would like to correct you a bit - there are TWO posters here who would shoot Barzal to the moon - and the majority are still believers.

one was a believer in Lafontaine who was better than Barzal comparatively to and he became a Hall of Famer and yet the move was still worth it.

 

[eoin92]

I only come here periodically so I must've popped in at the wrong time

I know the Islanders only have so much cash to play with, especially if they end up signing Kadri. But one guy that I think could be a sneaky (and cheap) pickup is Sonny Milano. Talented Long Island native who had a bit of a breakout season, he'd be an interesting experiment next to Barzal.

It’s always the wrong time around here.

 

[PWJunior]

Many good memories. Wonder how good the guys are that still play online now. Just went through the single player campaign recently.

Do they still play? This was like 20+ years ago when Quake 2 was popular. Duke Nukem style graphics, haha. I was awesome with the Railgun, I could pull a head shot while swinging through the air with the grappling hook. Those were the days. We eventually moved on to Unreal Tournament, but it just wasn't the same. We were DI Clan, we meant business. We would host other companies on our server and wrecked them. I think we were a top-100 global clan at one point. I didn't even crack our team top-10, we had 20+ people in the office play... headsets, Mountain Dew, and a lot of fun.

Ah, the memories. Mobile Legends is fun, you should try it. It has that frenetic Quake 2 pace with strategy. I've gotten pretty good.

My username is PWJunior, like here. I'll mentor you. Haha.

 

[saintunspecified]

I'm not interested in Sonny Milano. If NYI aren't going to play Wahlstrom with Barzal, they're not going to tolerate Milano either. I'll be shocked if NYI have anything to do with a winger who looks totally lost without the puck. I'd much rather NYI sign Sam Gagner for a year than Milano if the goal is a cheap winger who can chip in secondary scoring.

 

[YearlyLottery]

The man said him self, he showed up late in the process for that draft and allowed the scouts to handle it, not sure what you are arguing here. It’s his own quote.

Again palms isn’t good and hasn’t lived up to what we needed him to be. Not a good example.

What does Filppula have to do with anything? One season here with 31 points, thanks Lou nailed it.

Lehner, you mean the guy he didn’t even allow time to think about the contract offer before moving onto Varly? One of the best stories in the league and one of the best reclamations in the league and Lou literally kicked his ass to the curb, again what kind of examples are these?

The team, as constructed is almost 90% Snow, sprinkled in with Lou unable to sign absolutely anyone of note and without being able to bring in anyone of legit note via trade.

So much so, people are willing to bring in an aging second line center for an absurd contract, and SHIFT NATURAL CENTERS out of position to try and fill the void Lou hasn’t been able to fill since arriving.

Can we also talk about the absolute miserable assessment of Toews? Or the moving out of Leddy with zero replacement ideas outside of Chara/Andy Greene?

Literally the best thing that man did was hire Trotz and subsequently fired him and hired a first time coach.

But sure go on and on about one year deals or mid performing acquisitions.


Almost doesn’t count

Meh. Agree to disagree. I have disagreed with Lou moves but your refusal to admit SOMETHING changed between Lou and Snow is borderline criminal.

 

[seafoam]

And this is why Islanders will likely begin the season with Sorokin/Varlamov.



With an improved defense, the Islanders are capable of winning on any given night based on their goaltending alone.

 

[danteipp]

I'm not interested in Sonny Milano. If NYI aren't going to play Wahlstrom with Barzal, they're not going to tolerate Milano either. I'll be shocked if NYI have anything to do with a winger who looks totally lost without the puck. I'd much rather NYI sign Sam Gagner for a year than Milano if the goal is a cheap winger who can chip in secondary scoring.

Agreed, little interest in Milano unless he wants to come in on a PTO. Zero risk with that and competition is always good.

But if the Isles are going to take a chance on someone, I wouldn't mind Evan Rodrigues.

He took a dumb penalty against the Rags, but the refs clearly had an agenda, ignoring the prior Rags penalty (among several others) and just called the retaliation.

But he is solid player otherwise, although I doubt the Isles have room for him without making other moves.

 

[Throttle]

And this is why Islanders will likely begin the season with Sorokin/Varlamov.



With an improved defense, the Islanders are capable of winning on any given night based on their goaltending alone.

Why would you want the best goaltending, when you can have a 1st round pick and shoddy 2B backup instead?

I'm a big Freddie guy, but going into a season with Freddie and Raanta you need a 3rd and 4th goalie. CAR needed to get a dependable backup for Freddie, not another injury prone version of him.

 

[Mike C]

Agreed, little interest in Milano unless he wants to come in on a PTO. Zero risk with that and competition is always good.

But if the Isles are going to take a chance on someone, I wouldn't mind Evan Rodrigues.

He took a dumb penalty against the Rags, but the refs clearly had an agenda, ignoring the prior Rags penalty (among several others) and just called the retaliation.

But he is solid player otherwise, although I doubt the Isles have room for him without making other moves.

I like Rodrigues too. He's solid and has scored some big goals for them

Read something something, somewhere that Nazzer back to Colo is still in play

 

[danteipp]

Why would you want the best goaltending, when you can have a 1st round pick and shoddy 2B backup instead?

I'm a big Freddie guy, but going into a season with Freddie and Raanta you need a 3rd and 4th goalie. CAR needed to get a dependable backup for Freddie, not another injury prone version of him.

45-year old EBUG David Ayres has entered the chat.

 

[Foppberg]

I like Rodrigues too. He's solid and has scored some big goals for them

Read something something, somewhere that Nazzer back to Colo is still in play

I really have a hard time believing that. Not unless he's willing to sign for like 4x6M, and even then... Love ya Naz but how about ya head to my #2 now instead

 

[SI]

And you conveniently leave off his 19 PP assists. I guess you still havent realized that Barzal is a pass first player.

Lou has done nothing but set Barzal up for failure by surrounding him with mediocre wingers.

Your shitting on Barzal is old. Almost as ridiculous as Canucks fans insisting they will get Dobson for Miller.

@WangMustGo just pay it no more attention.
This Barzal stuff is crazy and is sucking the life out of the board.