NHL teams have two years to sign junior hockey players after drafting them, and this year for the Islanders that means Mitchell Theoret and Brenden Kichton. Both players were drafted in 2011, and if left un-signed by June 1st, they can both re-enter the draft.
The rest of the Islanders 2011 draft class is signed with the exception Robbie Russo who still has time left at Notre Dame (college players don’t need to be signed until they leave school). The other five players from ’11 all spent time in Bridgeport this year: Ryan Strome, Scott Mayfield, Johan Sundstrom, Andrey Pedan and John Persson.
For Kichton, the road to this point has been an odd one. When he was originally drafted by the Islanders in 2011, it was because he had re-entered the draft after being passed on by everyone in 2010. Kichton was the captain for the Spokane Chiefs of the WHL, totaling a career-high 85 points and 22 goals in 71 games this past season.
Throughout the next month plus, we’ll be reviewing the season that was and over-analyzing the various players that contributed to it. That’s what the offseason is for, after all. This is the fourth in the series. Read them all here.
Radek Martinek — D — #4
3-0-3 in 13 games
Most often seen: as a seventh defenseman
Contract status: UFA this summer, $600k salary in 2012-13 ($750k cap hit)
Obligatory YouTube video of: scoring the eventual game winner against Montreal on March 5th
Thoughts on 2012-13: Before the Islanders claimed Thomas Hickey, Brian Strait and Joe Finley off waivers — clearly concerned about the team’s defensive depth — they signed ex-Isle Radek Martinek to a one-year deal during training camp. It was a shrewd move from a GM full of them, and Martinek chipped in three goals in 13 games. But it was clear that other, younger players out-played Martinek for his spot on the depth chart from the get go.
Throughout the next month plus, we’ll be reviewing the season that was and over-analyzing the various players that contributed to it. That’s what the offseason is for, after all. This is the third in the series. Read them all here.
Keith Aucoin — C – #10
6-6-12 in 41 games
Most often seen: centering the third line
Contract status: UFA this summer, $650k salary and cap hit in 2012-13
Obligatory YouTube video of: scoring two goals in his home state in January
Thoughts on 2012-13: The Islanders gave Keith Aucoin a chance at the beginning of the season, grabbing him off waivers from the Maple Leafs. Aucoin paid almost instant dividends with four goals in January (seven games) including two in his home state of Massachusetts in a game against the Bruins (video above). For a brief moment, it seemed as though Aucoin could turn into another diamond in the rough that GM Garth Snow pulled off the waiver wive.
Throughout the next month plus, we’ll be reviewing the season that was and over-analyzing the various players that contributed to it. That’s what the offseason is for, after all. This is the second in the series. Read them all here.
Casey Cizikas — LW/C – #53
6-9-15 in 45 games
Most often seen: on the Isles’ energy line
Contract status: ELC through 2013-14, $900k in 2012-13 (900k cap hit)
Obligatory YouTube video of: sealing Game Four with a late goal
Thoughts on 2012-13: After getting a late call up for the 2011-12 season, Cizikas spent his first full season on Long Island in 2013. He tallied 15 points in 45 games, spending the majority of his time on the team’s energy line with Matt Martin, splitting time between left wing and center, depending on how the lineup shook out.
Throughout the next month plus, we’ll be reviewing the season that was and over-analyzing the various players that contributed to it. That’s what the offseason is for, after all. This is the first in the series.
Josh Bailey — LW/C — #12
11-8-19 in 38 games
Most often seen at: Frans Nielsen’s left wing
Contract status: Restricted Free Agent, $1.3 million in 2012-13 (1.05M cap hit)
Obligatory YouTube video of: His shootout winner in Philadelphia on March 28th
Thoughts on 2012-13: Bailey returned a bit late to the lockout shortened season after being injured while playing overseas, missing the first ten games. Once he was back in the lineup, Bailey returned to the left wing spot that he had success with at the end of 2011-12 and never went back to his traditional center position.
The NHL announced today that the winners for five major awards will be announced prior to Game Two of the Stanley Cup Final in a television special. The special will air at 7pm, although the date of Game Two is not yet known. The Hart, Calder, Norris and Vezina trophies, as well as the Ted Lindsay Award will be announced during the special.
The Islanders’ John Tavares is a finalist for the Hart Trophy, given to the player judged to be the most valuable to his team. The other finalists are Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby.
Tavares’ teammate Matt Moulson is a finalist for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship, along with Patrick Kane and Martin St. Louis. That award will be announced on the NHL Network at 5pm, the day prior to Game Two of the Finals.
One of the neat things that NHL.com has been doing lately is editing actual NHL highlights to mimic NHL 94, the classic video game. First they did Pavel Datsyuk and Patick Kane, now John Tavares has gotten the special treatment.
If you’re not familiar, NHL 94 is the classic NHL game released just about twenty years ago now. It’s famous in pop culture for that scene in Swingers with Vince Vaughn and for being the first hockey video game that everyone really took to. It had a couple predecessors, but they were very similar versions.
For me personally, this was the hockey game that my generation grew up on. Kids who were hockey fans and those who weren’t both loved it, and it was released on both NES and Sega Genesis, which were HUGE systems at the time. I can honestly say I spent a good four years after the game was released playing the PC version on our circa 1990 IBM computer. That version of the game came on — get this — two floppy disks, which is just crazy when you consider some games today require 8GB on your XBOX (looking at you, Halo 4). That’s like a kajillion floppy disks, give or take. I’ll have to take a look and see if I can dig up the disks, they’re probably still sitting in the basement somewhere.
In playoff action last night, the Ottawa Senators got absolutely shellacked by the Penguins 7-3, including a four-goal third period. Ottawa netminder Craig Anderson was given the hook after 48 minutes, allowing six of those goals. While it was bounced around on Twitter last night, and may seem like a convenient and lovely narrative, Anderson’s struggles do not automatically endorse Evegni Nabokov being an excellent goaltender who happened to fall victim to a high powered Penguins offense.
The Penguins have a hell of an offense, there’s no doubt about that. However, Anderson has still played much better against the Penguins in this series, and throughout the 2013 season, than Nabokov did. And Nabokov’s play, or trying to relate Anderson’s play to Nabokov, doesn’t change the fact that the Islanders have a goaltender question to solve this summer.
After dancing around whether or not his plan of six Islander games at a renovated Coliseum would need Madison Square Garden approval in an interview on Bloomberg last week, developer Bruce Ratner was more to the point yesterday afternoon on Fox Business.
“I don’t think it requires [MSG’s] approval,” Ratner told Fox Business Network yesterday. “It doesn’t, actually.”
And so continues the back and forth. I’m sure someone, somewhere, knows who has to approve it.
This might be one of the more unusual scenarios that we’ve heard regarding coaching positions, but if reports are to be believed, Islanders coach Jack Capuano may be coveted by his alma mater, the University of Maine, for their vacant head coaching job.
After enduring a few bad, losing seasons Capuano guided a young Islanders team to the playoffs this year. That’s got to be more than enough incentive for coach and team to continue to work together, but it’s not clear if Capuano is under contract for next season. The Islanders don’t release coach contract info but the prevailing wisdom seems to be that Capuano’s contract was up after this year (after three years at the helm, and that sounds like a standard contact, anyhow). Back in April, Newsday’s Arthur Staple wrote that Capuano’s contract was likely up:
On the subject of Capuano’s contract status, neither he nor GM Garth Snow would comment. It was believed that Capuano’s contract runs through this season, but Snow steadfastly refuses to reveal any information about his coach’s status.
There’s been no news of an extension, at least not yet, and with the Maine job vacant since early April — a seemingly extended amount of time — that has led to lots of speculation. That speculation has included Scott Pellerin, also a Maine alum, as well as Capuano.
Radek Martinek — D — #4
Keith Aucoin — C – #10
Casey Cizikas — LW/C – #53
Josh Bailey — LW
