Brooks: Isles interested in Del Zotto?

Larry Brooks is tweeting this morning about the Isles potentially being interested in acquiring Michael Del Zotto from Nashville. 

(Update: a few minutes after I sent this, Arthur Staple tweeted that he heard a rather definitive "no" from a couple of "Isles people")

Del Zotto will be a restricted free agent tomorrow, but it appears that the Preds will non-qualify him, which would make him an unrestricted free agent if he is not dealt.

Del Zotto is completing the 2nd year of a back-ended two-year deal he signed with the Rangers that paid him 2.2M in 2012-13 and 2.9M in 2013-14.    Per capgeek, his qualifying offer is based only on his latest year's salary, so he would need to be offered a QO of at least 2.9M for the Isles to retain his rights.  (If a player accepts the QO he is considered signed, if he rejects it he remains a restricted free agent)

If the Isles are truly interested, they have two players who certainly know him well as he played with both John Tavares and Calvin deHaan in juniors at Oshawa.

In fact, Del Zotto was traded, with Tavares, to London, in one of those deals you only hear about in

a) Jr Hockey

b) Late nights on WFAN

halfway through their final season of juniors (Oshawa was way out of the playoff race at the time)

"Tavares, Del Zotto and goaltender Daryl Borden were also dealt to London in exchange for forward Christian Thomas, defenceman Scott Valentine, goaltender Michael Zador, along with the six draft picks - London's four second-round picks for the next four years, and the Knights third round picks in both 2010 and 2011."

Neither Borden or Zador played beyond Junior, Valentine (who just turned 23) has played the last three seasons with Milwaukee (AHL) while Thomas (Steve's son) has played in 3 NHL games over the past two years -- 1 with the Rangers and 2 with the Canadiens.

Oshawa btw missed the playoffs the following year but has made the OHL playoffs in each of the following 4 years.  London, coached by Islander antagonist Dale Hunter has since won 2 championships in the OHL.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Toronto Sun on Isles Pick Josh Ho-Sang

The money quote:

<<Three years ago, on a gifted Marlies GTHL team, the only difference between Ho-Sang and Connor McDavid was — Ho-Sang was the more electric player. You couldn't take your eyes off him.

Now McDavid is considered a certainty to go first in the draft next year, as a generational player. And the hockey world is confounded by who Ho-Sang is and what he is all about.>>

 The curious case of controversial NHL prospect Joshua Ho-Sang

			The curious case of controversial NHL prospect Joshua Ho... The mystery of Joshua Ho-Sang, singular hockey player of immense talent, caught on an island of discourse, will begin to untangle sometime this weekend.
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Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

ESPN on #isles draft pick Josh Ho-Sang

Custance: Ho-Sang talented, well-rounded, frustrating

			Custance: Ho-Sang talented, well-rounded, frustrating Top prospect Josh Ho-Sang is ultra-talented, but his unique background has produced a personality that rubs some in the NHL the wrong way, writes Craig...
			View on espn.go.com	Preview by Yahoo

 

Check out the quotes by Warren Rychel as well as Ho-Sang's made for NY ethnic mix.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Awful news on ex-#isles Gino Odjick

Gino Odjick is best known as a Canuck, but he also played 82 games for the Isles between 1999 and 2000, scoring 9 goals, adding 13 assists and amassing 254 of his career total 2,567 penalty minutes (17th all-time).

A story broke out West today that Odjick is battling a rare terminal disease called AL amyloidosis.

Letter from Gino Odjick

			Letter from Gino Odjick Dear friends, teammates and fans, We have shared many great moments together over the years but today I need to share the most difficult news of my life.
			View on canucks.nhl.com	Preview by Yahoo

Thoughts and prayers to Gino!

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

The Skinny on the 2014-15 Schedule

"The Skinny" …On the 2014-15 Schedule

 By Eric Hornick

 

On the second day of summer, the National Hockey League released the 2014-15 schedule.  You can find the Isles schedule here http://islanders.nhl.com/club/schedule.htm

 

…but you can find some Skinny on the schedule below….

 

Open and Close

 

The Isles open the season with a home-and-home series with division rival Carolina.  The Isles will be in Raleigh on Friday, October 10 and will host the Canes on Saturday, October 11.

 

It's the second time in club history that they have opened the season with a home-and-home (2007 vs. Buffalo) and the second time that they have played Carolina in the home opener (2005, the first home game following the lockout).

 

It's the 27^th consecutive season that the Isles will have a weekend home opener; all but 1999 were on a Saturday.

 

The home opener will be played on the 31^st anniversary of the 1983-84 Opener; the night the Isles raised their fourth (and most recent) Stanley Cup banner that night.

 

This is the final season on the Coliseum lease so the 1,673^rd (and final) regular season game will be played at the Coliseum on Saturday, April 11, 2015 against Columbus. 

 

The Isles have ended the season against Columbus once before, in 2012.

 

By the Calendar

 

Isles games by month:

·         October 10

·         November 14

·         December 13

·         January 12

·         February 15

·         March 13

·         April 5 

 

Saturday is Hockey Night. The Isles will play 25 Saturday games, playing every Saturday except January 3 and January 24 (All-Star Weekend). The Isles have 13 Saturday home games this season.

                                             

For the second straight season, the Isles will play exactly 20 Tuesday games, 3 Wednesday games and 13 Thursday games.

 

The Isles play 11 Friday games, including 3 at the Coliseum; they will play four Sunday games (2 at home) and six Monday games (5 at the Coliseum)

 

Traditional Dates

 

The Isles will once again host a game on Thanksgiving Eve, but they will be in Washington for a late-afternoon game on Black Friday.

 

The Isles will host an MLK Day matinee and will be home for a President's Day night game against the Rangers.

 

Traditional Rivals

 

The Isles will play two arguably their two biggest rivals five times each this season: the Rangers and the Penguins.

 

The Rangers will be the only team to visit the Coliseum three times (1/27, 2/16 and 3/10) while the Isles will make three trips to Pittsburgh this season.

 

Rest of the Schedule

 

·         4 games vs. the remaining Metropolitan Division opponents (Columbus, Carolina, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Washington) (30 games, including Penguins and Rangers)

·         3 games vs. the eight Atlantic Division opponents (24 games)

·         2 games vs. the seven Central Division and seven Pacific opponents (28 games)

A New Opponent

 

Well, sort of.  The Isles will face the renamed Arizona Coyotes on 11/8 in Glendale and 2/24 on Long Island.

 

Streaks

 

After alternating road and home for the first eight games, the Isles then head west for five games to end October and start November. Three of the first four games of that trip are against the two division champs; there's also a meeting with the Stanley Cup champion Kings.

 

The Isles have only two other long trips – seven straight games starting on New Year's Eve afternoon (5 pm NY time) in Winnipeg and four games in late March. 

 

The Isles will have three four-game homestands: one in February and two in March.

 

Starting February 10th, the Isles will play 18 of their final 29 games at home.

 

Besides the All-Star break, when they will have seven consecutive days off, the Isles never go four days between games.  They have three consecutive days off four times.

 

Matinee Isles

The Isles will play 11 games starting at 5pm or earlier.  Five of those games are at home (12/6, 1/19 and 3/28 are at 1pm, while 2/28 and 3/29 are at 5 pm).  The Isles will also play one 6:00 game at the Coliseum, on February 22^nd vs Vancouver.

Home and Home

 

The opening pair with Carolina is one of five times the Isles will meet the same opponent in consecutive games; the other four sets all occur in a 10-game stretch between November 15 and December 4.

Back to Back

 

The Isles will play 16 sets of back-to-backs, including sets that begin and end the season (The Isles had 18 such sets last season).

 

Three of those sets are at home (2/27-28, 3/13-3/14, 3/28-29) while four others are on the road.  The remaining nine are split, with one game at the Coliseum and the other on the road.

A Different Pace

 

After playing an entire 48-game season in 98 days in 2013, and playing 48 games in 99 days early last season, the Isles do not have a stretch in which they play 48 games in less than 104 games.

 

And Finally…

 

There are 41 regular season home games left in the Coliseum era. The first one is less than 16 weeks away.

 

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since 1982. Information contained in "The Skinny" has been gathered from various sources.  Follow Eric @ehornick on Twitter. 

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

NHL Entry Draft

The NHL published the order for next weekend's entry draft.

The Isles, barring future trades, will pick:

5th
35th
57th (as part of the Vanek trade)
65th
78th (as part of the AMac trade)
95th
108th (as part of the Streit trade)
155th
185th

The 125th, which would have been the Isles' pick, went to Montreal in the Vanek trade.
The Isles also held what would have been Chicago's 118th overall pick (from the Regin/Bouchard trade) but sent that to Washington in the Halak deal.

The first round of the draft will take place in Philadelphia on Friday night June 26th27th, beginning at 7pm.  The rest of the draft will be on Saturday, June 27th28th beginning at 10am.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Elliotte Friedman on the #isles

In this week's 30 Thoughts, two Isles mentions:

<<

13. The Islanders made a sharp move getting Jaroslav Halak and signing him. Dan Boyle hoped for a two-year deal in San Jose, and it wouldn't be a surprise if New York was willing to do that. However, the question is what else Boyle would like. He won a Stanley Cup in 2004, but wants another shot. Can he be convinced the Islanders have a shot in that span? Boyle is another guy -- like Thomas Vanek -- who hasn't been through this process before and may want to see how it goes.

....

18. Another draft idea to wonder about: Will the Islanders try to unite the Reinharts? Griffin was drafted fourth overall in 2012, Sam will be a high pick this year. Will have to try to move up to get him. GM Garth Snow is not afraid to try something big, offering all of his selections for Ryan Murray two years ago.

>>

 
Read the whole column (every week) here:
30 Thoughts: Free agency doesn't offer strong field | Hockey | CBC Sports

			30 Thoughts: Free agency doesn't offer strong field | Ho... Teams needing change don't like what's available in free agency, with one exec calling it,
			View on www.cbc.ca	Preview by Yahoo

 

He also has a good (and timely) piece in advance of today's Competition Committee meeting.

NHL has decisions to make on replay, goalie interference | Hockey | CBC Sports

			NHL has decisions to make on replay, goalie interference... Goaltender interference is on the agenda, as is video replay, with the NHL general managers and Competition Committee meeting this week.
			View on www.cbc.ca	Preview by Yahoo

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Movin' on up: Jack Capuano now 6th most-tenured coach in NHL

Jim Rutherford was named GM of the Penguins on Friday, and promptly fired Dan Bylsma.  Bylsma's firing leaves only 5 coaches with more experience in their current tenure with their current team than Jack Capuano:

Detroit Red Wings Mike Babcock 2005 

Boston Bruins Claude Julien 2007 
Chicago Blackhawks Joel Quenneville 2008 
San Jose Sharks Todd McLellan 2008 
Phoenix Coyotes Dave Tippett 2009 
New York Islanders Jack Capuano 2010

Capuano is also the 4th most-tenured coach/manager of the 9 major NY teams.   Only Tom Coughlin, Rex Ryan and Joe Girardi were appointed before Capuano, who assumed his role with the Islanders eight days before Terry Collins became the manager of the Mets.

Garth Snow is the 8th most tenured GM in the NHL; over one-third of the teams (11/30) have changed GMs since the beginning of 2013, including six teams since the end of last season.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

 

Union College Hockey: Without Equal

An Isles bumper sticker of the early 80's said it best: "Winning is Fun".

Winning a national championship, as my alma mater did this past April, proved it.  It has been 28 years since one of the pro teams I follow closely won it all -- watching the Dutchmen do so was really a thrill!

Isles acquire rights to Dan Boyle

It worked for Jaroslav Halak, so the Isles are trying again -- acquiring impending free agent Dan Boyle from San Jose for a conditional 2015 draft pick (5th round if he doesn't sign, and 4th round if he does).

Boyle turns 38 in July; his 6 year/40M contract has expired and the Sharks announced that earlier that he would not be back. 

After starting his career with the Panthers, Boyle was traded to Tampa Bay and was part of their 2004 championship team. The Bolts signed him to that 6 year extension but then traded him to San Jose on July 4, 2008 -- San Jose got their money's worth as he played in 431 of a possible 458 regular season games.  The two-time All-Star also won gold for Canada at the 2010 Olympics.

The trade that sent him to San Jose from Tampa Bay had an Isles connection, or three:
<<July 4, 2008: Traded to San Jose by Tampa Bay with Brad Lukowich for Matt Carle, Ty Wishart, San Jose's 1st round choice (later traded to Ottawa, later traded to NY Islanders, later traded to Columbus, later traded to Anaheim - Anaheim selected Kyle Palmieri) in 2009 Entry Draft and San Jose's 4th round choice (James Mullin) in 2010 Entry Draft, July 4, 2008.>>

Lukowich had played for the Islanders, and Ty Wishart later did.  Trying to explain what happened to those draft picks would take too much time...and space .... but subsequent deals allowed the Isles to select Calvin deHaan.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick