Isles Insight V1.1

Welcome to the first installment of “Isles Insight” where we reach out to the fan base of the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders in order to get their opinions/views on current topics surrounding the organization.

In our first installment, our good buddy Matt Clausen has delivered his thoughts on the whole scenario that was finally put to rest earlier this evening: Ilya Kovalchuk.

by Matt Clausen

Ilya Kovalchuk: Why I’m happy about this Weekend and why the Devils and their fans will come to hate it.

I began this year’s free agency frenzy period on the road and getting text after text and checking on Twitter for updates and as an Isles fan was immediately discouraged that guys like Paul Martin, Dan Hamhuis, Zbynek Michalek and Anton Volchenkov all signed deals with contending clubs. What hits me even more is that Garth went hard after a few (being the highest bidder on both Martin and Hamhuis, as well as apparently getting into the Volchenkov and Michalek races) and came up short for a number of reasons: either they want to play close to home; the fact the Barn is well…the Barn; or playing Defense and actually being a defender in front of Martin Brodeur sounded like a better way to spend six years then being part of a still rebuilding team unsure about its future.

All discouraging, especially after last year and the fact that the Islanders employ Bruno Gervais.

The team needed to add two more NHL level d-men to their stack to alleviate pressure to Andy MacDonald, Dylan Reese, Dustin Kohn and to provide proper developement time for Travis Hamonic and Calvin de Haan (still suffering from a shoulder injury where reports made it sound that there is a possibility he might miss this upcoming weekends scrimmage).

On day one the Isles struck out.  With close to 10 million in cap that needs to be spent to hit the salary Cap floor, not the cieling, but the BARE MINIMUM, a team needs to pay players to play in the NHL (I, for one, am not entirely certain on what the penalty of not reaching the floor is, though it’d be awesome if the Isles were allowed to take one contract from a team 10% over the cap on the first day of the season in order to satisfy the requirement, and if that were the case, NHL fans would howl murder, but I would get a kick out of it personally).

Conclusion: Day one was not fun in being an Islanders fan.

Day two brought two defensemen and two bottom six forwards: Mark Eaton, Milan Jurcina, P.A Parenteau and Zenon Konopka respectfully.

In reflecting on the moves, they filled nearly every hole the Islanders had, two NHL d-men who, if healthy, will provide time to further develop the organizations top D prospects, and are signed short term (Eaton for two years and Jurcina for one).

Konopka provides the team another toughman who can skate (and is something of a minor league scorer), and Parenteau is more or less Berginheim with the ability to finish once in a while, and more so than “Bergy”.

Then came the news that would shock Isles nation.  The Islanders were getting in on the Ilya Kovalchuk sweepstakes, an erroneous report (The Islanders offered a 10 year 100 Million dollar deal, which would’ve left the Islanders about twenty, that’s right TWENTY, million in cap space for the season if true) essentially took the Los Angeles Kings to bow out of the competition the next day.

So, in conclusion for day two: Solid signinggs, great complimentary players, and potential excitement of grabbing this years big fish.

Day three and four: Saturday and the Fourth of July, moving on due to the quiet nature of the topic at hand.

Today (July 5th, 2010) the Isles came out around 9 p.m. EST saying they were out of the Kovalchuk sweeps and had discussed a short term deal while the New Jersey Devils, Kovalchuk’s incumbent team, had offered a seven year, $60 million deal to stay at the Prudential Center.

Well, Kovy wants to win now and the Islanders don’t provide that this year or next, however, the Devils, in my opinion,  do not provide a winning formula once Martin Brodeur retires.

Face it, they have to trade a contract to finalize the Kovalchuk deal, be it Zubris or Elias, doesn’t matter. This is addition by subtraction, one which could be a substantial talent to your line up in New Jersey. Sure there is a potential second line consisting of, for the moment, Langenbrunner, Arnott and Rolston, but let’s be serious. Henrik Tallinder and Anton Volchenkov provide a great first D pair…but past that it’s…to me that’s it. The Devils seriously lack in prospects and if anything happens to Brodeur, they’re not a playoff guarantee, a strong team, but NOT a guarantee…and as more of the veterans fade, it’s only going to get worse.  So, if the Devils do sign Kovalchuk to a seven year deal, years one through three may bring a cup and a few playoff appearances, but it won’t much more after that.

Then by years six and seven, it could be “hope that Ilya and Parise score, otherwise we are SCREWED” type motto….by that point the Isles will, hopefully, be a perennial well run and cap conscious playoff powerhouse.

Now this is merely speculation and probable heresy to any Devils fan, but Lou [Lamiorello] and Marty [Brodeur] won’t be around forever, and the question to consider is “what then.”

As for the Islanders, we still need a scorer, and that scorer should be signed this year, continue to build up and improve upon last seasons results, and add more high rolling scorers next year this way when the approaching year five of the rebuild arrives, things could have much greater balance on the Island.

It’s year three and we could have, if done right, added the marquee talent that would’ve helped with revenue this year, but all is not lost. The Islanders are still on the right path; Kovalchuk wouldn’t have taken us too far off the rebuild, honestly, going after him is win/win in the long run, if you don’t get him, recoup that amount, invest it in multiple players wisely and continue the rebuild to become the next Capitals, Penguins, Blackhawks, and soon the Kings.

Just my thinking, but I have a felling Ilya’s presense in Newark will become burden in place of boon.

A big thanks to Matt Clausen for being our first fan on “Isles Insight”.

Stay tuned throughout the off-season and as the regular season approaches for more reactions from YOU, the fans of the New York Islanders.

See you next week.