It's time to start making progress. Losing in the 1st round of the playoffs is massive progress for this team. Screw the draft. I'm so tired of getting excited about teenage hockey players who most likely won't even be here for a couple of years.
but.. the rebuild HAS stagnated. Nobody is really picking up their game besides Tavares.
The rebuild has stagnated because the cheap ass owner wont spend money to bring in real vets to help. but rather, bring in over the hill vets and waiver wire pickups. No rebuild would succeed like that.
Please don't shoot me but i voted #1 pick. I know it's absurd but if Wang refuses to spend any money then the only way we will get any help on this team is via the draft. This would have been a great 3rd poll choice.
1st overall
1st round exit
1st round exit but with basically the same line up going into next year
Hate being a Debbie Downer but how will we improve with the current roster with no outside help yet again?
I do also understand we have prospects but get some freaking quality leaders in here. Every time i see Okblowso with that A on his sweater i want to puke!
Last edited by MattMartin: 03-08-2013 at 12:12 PM.
Another highly touted 1st round prospect or a sign of progress to not only the fans, the players, but other FA's as well?
It's not a real question to me, 1st round exit all the way.
Getting the 1st overall pick, IF he's really ready to be contributing on the NHL level is just plugging one hole. But a first round exit, at least shows signs of progress from our usual of not even making PO's. Showing FA's that the Islanders might finally show signs of progress, and that it might not be so bad to sign with us, might end up helping us plug a lot of the holes on this team. Not to mention how morale is probably not flying high every April when we sit out of the PO's usually, and how that affects a player like Tavares year after year...you might as well hit him in the groin every April with a sledgehammer for how much it must hurt not making PO's every year for a player of his caliber.
I would take ninth place over first overall. But what does it matter? Wang owns the team, regardless, so no great hockey in store, just more of the same. Anyone wanna take Wang rock climbing? Any Kennedy folks want him to go skiing with you? Until he gets a special invite, we might as well draft Jones and watch him suck with this bunch. NO HELP. NONE. Snow got us this roster and aside from a few mushrooms growing on the turds....it's still chock full of turds.
When we hire a real coach, I'll care. Until then, I go game by game hoping for a win. Thinking about this long term is like watching feverishly to see if a snail will cross the Serengeti.
Draft Jones and we'll have two phenomenal players no one in their right minds wants to play with. So my answer is playoffs.
It's time to start making progress. Losing in the 1st round of the playoffs is massive progress for this team. Screw the draft. I'm so tired of getting excited about teenage hockey players who most likely won't even be here for a couple of years.
This is obviously true. I wouldn't be upset with either scenario. There are 3-4 elite prospects in this years draft (Jones, MacKinnon, Drouin, and possibly Barkov). All 4 of these players have a strong opportunity to be impact players in the NHL next year, which would be very similar to adding a top 6 forward, or in Jones' case, a top 4 dman.
With this being said, if we make the playoffs it likely means that we are closer to being perennial contenders than one might have imagined and with the eventual arrivals of Strome, Nelson, Nino, Reinhart, etc. things could only get better with each season.
Unfortunately, we will likely fall somewhere in between (without a top 4 pick, and no playoff spot). If the question is whether or not I'd rather "just" miss the playoffs or get a top 3-4 pick, I choose the latter. I make that choice because of the following reasons:
1) Capuano gets fired if we're that bad. We need this to happen in the worst way.
2) We get one of the projected elite (and safe) players in this year's draft.
The boys on the ice will give everything they've got. At least, they won't go out and lose due to some mandate or request from above for a better draft pick.
Despite the past few somewhat successful games, there's no doubt in my mind that say Seth Jones wouldn't mean WORLDS more to this franchise than playoff participation with a likely 1st round exit this spring.
Some second half expectations
Islanders who will have better statistical second halves than first:
Boyes, Bailey, Hickey, Finley, Martinek, Visnovsky, MacDonald
Players who definitely will not:
Aucoin, Strait
I'm not sure about the rest...
Eastern Conference teams that will have better second halves than first:
Washington, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Tampa Bay
Eastern Conference teams that will have a hard time maintaining their currently good position in the standings:
Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, New Jersey
Team I suspect will ultimately finish last overall:
Edmonton
Suck it up & get the 1st. Not so much because i love Seth Jones or anything like that, only because i'm afraid of Jack Capuano getting any credit for us making the playoffs. Give me Jones & more importantly a new coach.
Suck it up & get the 1st. Not so much because i love Seth Jones or anything like that, only because i'm afraid of Jack Capuano getting any credit for us making the playoffs. Give me Jones & more importantly a new coach.
Who cares who gets the credit? I don't give a **** who the coach is as long as we make the playoffs.
Not to single you out or anything, but I'm pretty shocked by some people wanting a draft pick over a playoff appearance. Its like some Islander fans are so used to losing, they're afraid of success.
I'm completely torn. I want this team to turn the corner, but they simply don't have the horses on the second & third lines or through much of the defense.
Making the playoff would be a step in the right direction.....on the surface. This team needs another catalyst badly, and this is where the logic in building internally through the draft becomes less and less flawed. Jones or MacKinnon could grow into that catalyst, as could Strome, Niederreiter, Reinhart, Mayfield, etc. They need a change in mindset and culture as bad as more talent, and that isn't coming until I see the "A" taken the hell away from Okposo and given to Streit if he's retained, with the "C" given to Tavares. They need better leaders, better defense and secondary scoring that doesn't have a thing for Harry Potter. This is where guys like Pelech, Mayfield and Reinhart come in, as they're leaders of sorts on their junior teams and in time could help take the brunt of the leader role.
If I knew for a fact that the Isles were drafting #1 or #2 overall, I could live with it. If this isn't the case, I'd rather see them drill their way through the remainder of the season and flip how many ever non-untouchable players it takes to get help for the rest of this season and next. They need help now, not in 2-4 years, and if Jones, MacKinnon, and Drouin are the only players ready to make that leap immediately and the Isles aren't in line for either I'd rather go down swinging.
The further away form a top-3 pick they are, the more I want them to duke it out. The further they get from the #8 spot, I'd rather see them lose bigtime and get someone who can enter the league next season, rather than draft 5th to 9th overall and wind up either rushing a prospect or continuing this 'becalmed in the Horse Latitudes" crap we've seen.
Tavares thrives for that kind of pressure. I want playoffs, especially because nobody would respect us and we can beat anyone except the Bruins. You should ask an Oiler fan if they want a top prospect or playoffs. Top picks do not guarentee you anything. Islanders need some credibility and respect around the league. Making the playoffs or winning a round would definitely give us some.
The team has older UFA's to be. Sign or trade at deadline. Sorry, the Isles have passed on trading UFA's at the deadline before because allegedly teams did not meet Snow's price. Ok, but all those except Nabby walked and the Isles did not even come close to the playoffs. Is this proper asset management? Maybe if Snow flipped those guys he would already have a DEEPER pool of picks/prospects, etc. to use as disposable assets. He uses assets to acquire cap hits first, players second. (Wiz, Viz, Thomas, etc.)
In the season before the Isles acquired Peca/Yashin/Aucoin/Osgood, did the Isles make the playoffs and gain 'valuable' playoff experience? Heck no.
They used that SUMMER to acquire (aka spend) it via high quality NHL players, which led them to make the playoffs the subsequent seasons.
Sell off your UFA's and use the assets acquired in the summer plus the UFA period to ACQUIRE high quality NHL players. You have no 'it's the building' excuse anymore. Can't wait for this summer's version "they won't come until we get there..."
The team has older UFA's to be. Sign or trade at deadline. Sorry, the Isles have passed on trading UFA's at the deadline before because allegedly teams did not meet Snow's price. Ok, but all those except Nabby walked and the Isles did not even come close to the playoffs. Is this proper asset management? Maybe if Snow flipped those guys he would already have a DEEPER pool of picks/prospects, etc. to use as disposable assets. He uses assets to acquire cap hits first, players second. (Wiz, Viz, Thomas, etc.)
In the season before the Isles acquired Peca/Yashin/Aucoin/Osgood, did the Isles make the playoffs and gain 'valuable' playoff experience? Heck no.
They used that SUMMER to acquire (aka spend) it via high quality NHL players, which led them to make the playoffs the subsequent seasons.
Sell off your UFA's and use the assets acquired in the summer plus the UFA period to ACQUIRE high quality NHL players. You have no 'it's the building' excuse anymore. Can't wait for this summer's version "they won't come until we get there..."
In other news this summer: "Islanders Owner Charles Wang has utilized the cash he does not spend on the on ice product to buyout the remaining year of the NVMC lease. Charles stated he was disappointed this type of transaction did not apply to reaching the cap floor, as a result he will acquire a player or two with high cap hits, yet lower actual salary to offset the costs to buyout the lease. Isles GM Snow said he will not deviate from his play of building within through draft picks. The Isles look forward to their new home at Barclay's Center."
This team is too good to get the first overall. They're not finishing in the bottom 5.
I'm not saying it's probable, but they play well against Montreal and Pittsburgh. With a hot Nabakov and a healthy team, anything can happen once you're in the playoffs.
If one of the choices was First Overall and Cappy gone...I'd take that but it's a pipe dream.
