One interesting note from over the weekend is that Hockey Prospectus’ Corey Pronman released his list of the NHL’s top prospect pools for each of the 30 teams. Pronman is an excellent draft mind and will give most questions a response on Twitter, so if you’re into prospect and draft talk he’s a must follow. Pronman ranked the Islanders second, accompanied by the following comment:

2. New York Islanders: The Islanders have one the deepest systems in the NHL. They have great talent as well, of course, with top forward prospects like Ryan Strome, Brock Nelson, and Kirill Kabanov to go along with a very impressive group of defense prospects. They have talent and depth at seemingly every position.

So for as much back and forth as there is in Islander country regarding the rebuild and what the end result will be, it’s interesting to have an outsider weigh in. The Islanders have built quite a pool of young players and it’s hard to think of a position where they are lacking. They’ve got two (three, maybe?) quality goaltending prospects, what now seems like a million defenders after June’s draft and the pool of forwards that are the most developed out of the three groups.

The other teams in the top four were Minnesota, Florida and Detroit. Florida was the top ranked team and Pronman had an interesting comment on them: “I felt the top four systems were somewhat interchangeable, but the fact that Florida has so many good prospects and a few high-end ones put them over the top for me.”

This is of course one person’s opinion and it’s not an end-all on the discussion of Islanders prospects, but it’s certainly one very knowledgeable person’s opinion.

A REQUEST FOR A MOVIE WITH A DIFFERENT ENDING
Every few months, the County has something to say about a new arena development, it gets written up in Newsday (it’s their job to do so, not a knock) and then nothing happens. That scenario played out again over the weekend when news broke that the County would be looking for a Request for Qualifications, the step prior to another Request for Proposal.

I ignored this over the weekend and said as much on Twitter, because I don’t see the point. County executive Ed Mangano is asking for someone to come in and pay to develop the area. Why anyone would want to do that given that the Islanders stance is unclear (although the team asked for opinions on Twitter, for what it’s worth) and the ever-looming dungeon master that is the Town of Hempstead still exists, why would anyone want to develop the land prior to the Islanders leaving? It seems like a lame duck situation to me.

But regardless, Mangano’s twitter account was busy tweeting at Islander bloggers and fans yesterday to rally support.

@Schultz88 It is time for LI to shed the moniker of the ‘Land of No’. Lets save the Islanders and create jobs 1.usa.gov/Nk5JXK

— Ed Mangano (@edmangano) July 9, 2012

If the County Executive really wants Islander Country’s support, he’s more than welcome to come on our podcast and tell us why.