Blue Notes

it'll be a great battle between Kondratiev and Pock for the 7th defenseman position

Great article, thanks guys. While browsing, I found this on Islanders Beat..Canadian fans and press are bias towards Islanders, and is why They vote Bobby Orr the better player than Dennis Potvin. Hmm. I thought Orr Was the better player. They also remark how Ranger bias under Colin Campbell has set them back. I thought their poor management was the cause there.

#3 for Roszival? aren't they retiring the #3?

where the HELL is Shanahan!!!!!

COME ON ALREDAY SATHER!

yeah i've been wondering the same thing.
why hasn't roszival picked a new number? #3 is off limits now

wow what a crappy mess we have

Glad to see Kondratiev back. He was a solid defenseman who the rangers gave up for vile nimonen. Hope he makes the team. I still think a big trade is coming to free up space for shanny.

Rich, why dont you just stay the heck off of our site, then. Canadians all are Anti Islanders, are you an American or what. Colin Campbell kept us from further advancing our dynasty, something your team never had to worry about. ...Sir William.

I really wanted to see Jarkko Immonen get another shot at making the team as well, I've always thought he had some talent.

I also heard that "Jake Taylor" is actually a misprint and his name is "Mike Taylor". Jake Taylor from last year's Wolfpack team is a defenseman

I really cant wait in a few years to possibly have a line combo of: Cherepanov - Anismov - Zherdev.

Sir william...there either is another "Rich" on this blog or someone is trolling here. And yes, I think Sather isn't done-too many centers in camp, and he's gott'a make a descision on Shanny sooner or later. I'm just stoked to get this training camp under way already.....time to drop the puck \_

Actually, Jake Taylor used to be a catchaer for the Cleveland Indians and the Mexican League.

Jake Taylor was the name of the catcher in the movie Major League

it will be a positive step forward for this site when you have to register to post. Unless somebody steals your password, only you can post with that user name.

Steve does a great job soliciting comments and keeping this place moving but there's still a big job to do. Once that's done, when I talk to say LI Joe, I know I'm talking to him and not some troll impersonating him.

Any date when that will be done Steve?

RE: Dubinsky getting an offer sheet of $4 million or so...

One name DUSTIN PENNER...one season @ 29g 16a for 45pts and Edmonton signs him to offer sheet @ $4.25 per

last year Dubi was 14g 26a for 40pts...assuming he increases those #'s this year, why is it absurd to assume a team will throw $4 million at him?

I have to agree with Dude when he says we have a proven commodity in Dubi. You never know what you will get in a draft pick (compensation for Dubi being signed away). So unless you know for sure you are getting a top 5 pick in a deep draft then I think you keep Dubi. Where I don't necessarily agree with Dude is saying only Stamkos was worth losing Dubi...how about "the big four d"? I would have to think at least two or three of those kids will be equal to if not far better than Dubi...always a crap shoot I guess.

Jake Taylor ... Nice.
I hear Rick Vaughn and Pedro Cerano are assistants to the traveling secretary too.

JOKE...

I'm aware of Dustin Penner. It was the dumbest move I've ever seen. I agree its not absurd that someone offer-sheets Dubinsky for 4 million dollars, I just think I would do EXACTLY what the Ducks did and take the 3 pick Compensation Package. Edmonton was the 6th worst team in the league that year, and gave away 3 picks to acquire 1 guy. How do they expect to re-build by giving away picks like that? Signing Penner to 4.25 million dollar contract is known around the entire league, as one of the dumbest moves made so far in the Salary cap era. So, if another desperate bottom 5 in the league team tries that again, i would take the package and enjoy my top 5 - 1st round pick!

nice to wish upon dubinski raising his point totals. are you jerks forgetting whos line he was on last year. good luck with your team of misfits.

agree with lenny about registration.

someone wants to know where Shanny is. I hope not here. Would love him in organization but not as a player. he was a hall of famer and is bright guy. but hurt us with a 25% increase in salary last yr including bonus and the bonus counts against one of the years cap.

I am sure Dubinsky would accept 3.5 mil if Sather offers him that early on in the season. He wouldn't want to take a chance to piss off Sather and Renney who drafted and groomed him.

I wouldn't even trade Dubinsky for Stamkos, Dubinsky has more size and much more physical.

Jagr had nothing to do with Dubinsky's success, in fact I think he hurt him with his garbage playing style.

Did Kondratiev ask to come back or did Rangers ask him to come back?

Tyutin trade is looking more and more amazing.

Trade Betts!!!

somerset,

you may see the Penner signing as a bad move but you can't say it's known around the league as one of the worst. In the end, the Oilers know they have a top six power forward who may play top line in the future. The Ducks hope the compensation picks turn out to be nhl quality players. I took a quick look at the '08 draft and the Ducks picked Jake Gardiner at #17. So assuming he is the conditional 1st rd pick, you are then hoping that he turns out to be better than Penner as an NHL player. Would you trade Dubinsky for Jake Gardiner and a 2nd and 3rd rd pick? And Edmonton has done pretty well for themselves in the last few drafts (Same Gagne comes to mind) so I don't see them as not building for the future when they have a pretty impressive group of young guys like Penner, Hemsky, Gagne, Smid, Stortini etc.

maybe I am wrong about Gardiner being the compensatory pick...if Edmonton was a bottom six team then shouldn't it be a higher pick? So let me know who the 1st rd guy is that the ducks got and we will evaluate that against losing Penner (or hypothetically losing Dubinsky for whovever Anaheim chose in the first rd).

The Islanders fans are so bitter at 25 years of mediocrity that they twist and manipulate any fact to suit their sick minds simple to make themselves feel better.
What ever happened to the NTP?
Or how he was such a genius?
Why is it that in the 4th year after the lock out their NOW catching on to what the rest of the division is doing?
THEY REALLY ARE LOWER THAN WHALE SH!T.

What is up with Sauer? I thought he was out untill December with a knee but he is on the roster?

Perfect example of why Steve needs to implement registration here. That was obviously a troll posting as me at 2:26.

Behavior like that just degrades this board.

Slick Willy, More Stanley Cups than you too, you got something to say, do it to my face. Moron. ...Sir William.

sommerset; signing Holik for $9 million was probably the dumbest move ever made.

Pock should have been a #6 Dman last year, but never was given a chance.

It looks like my argument will stand. I took the following quote from a link I will post...

"After all of Brian Burke's razor-tongued taunts about the first round pick he received for Dustin Penner, how it would surely be a lottery selection given the way Kevin Lowe was driving his franchise into the muck, Edmonton finished last season as one of the hottest teams in the league.

So the Ducks will choose 12th, not first, in the June entry draft. And after all the fears in Edmonton that a deep playoff run by Anaheim would render the first-round pick they received in the Chris Pronger trade virtually useless, the Ducks bowed out in the first round.

The Oilers will pick 22nd, not 30th. After all that, all the bluster, name calling and hand-wringing, the two teams are just 10 spaces apart."

http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2008/05/08/the-dustin-penner-deal-was-not-so-bad/

So it looks like Anaheim traded down a little and picks Jake Gardiner, I still would want to ask...who would trade Dubinsky for Gardiner and whoever you would get with the 2nd & 3rd picks later? Or do you think Gardiner will be better than what Penner can potentially be? The only way this scenario works out is if the team losing the RFA gets a top 5 pick in a draft like '08 or what I hear '09 will be. Otherwise you are definitely losing a known NHL commodity to hopefully get a potentially better prospect that will be two or three years away from the NHL.

Greg Moore also has a number change. Fritsche took 49 and Moore now is listed as 42

JOKE ...

I want to start by saying, I appreciate the debate . Bringing quotes and opinions to the argument is great. I hate having these disputes with hard-headed people who just repeat the same thing over and over again !!

But anyways, I think it's fine to look around the league and see what other teams did to their homegrown talent but MORE IMPORTANTLY i think you have to look at the signing trends of The Rangers. Last year, mid-season, Sather signed 2 potential RFA's. Tyutin (4years/2.8 million per) and Girardi (2 years/1.55 million). Who played better in the playoffs and is still here? Now you can argue whether who is better/more important to the future of the franchise but lets just say Girardi and Dubinsky are of equal importance.

Sather signed Girardi to only 2 years and to the final year of his RFA status in order to evaluate then, his worth for the future. I'm ONLY arguing that the same will be done for Dubinsky. He will sign a smaller contract, MID-season, through the rest of his RFA status (possibly 2-3 years) for around 1-2 million.

Then when those 2-3 years are up Naslund will be gone (and his 4 million dollar contract), most of our prospects like Byers, Moore, Potter, Sanguenetti, Del Zotto, Anismov, and Cherepanov will be in the line-up on their own entry-level contracts making under a million a year for most. And then, there will be more money to give Dubinsky the "Mike Richards type money" if he gets better and better every season and deserves it !!!

Let me ask you a question?? In the same off-season Kevin Lowe also "offer sheeted" Tomas Vanek and Buffalo decided to match the 6 year/ 40million dollar offer. Would you have matched that as well ?? Taking into consideration Vanek scored 84 points the season prior, you could say at the time he was worth it. But, its dangerous ground to over-pay young players that kind of money without him having a couple of consistent seasons under his belt. This year he dropped to 64 points and he would be the 2nd highest payed player on the Rangers if we had him at 7.1 million a season

No, I don't think I would have matched Vaneks offer. Like you pointed out, its easier now after seeing his stats drop. But I still think I would have made the same choice. Vanek is more or less a one dimensional player, whereas Penner can play a physical game on the nights where he isn't scoring. Also there is a big difference between 4.25 mill and 7.1 as far as spending that kind of money on a young guy.

Bottom line...I HOPE TO GOD you are right about Dubinsky accepting a 1 - 2 million per contract. I had a similar point on a different thread that hopefully one or two of our young guys take cap friendly contracts until contracts like Drury etc run out.

When you talk about people who repeat the same thing over and over again, are you by any chance referencing the "give me a crease clearing D-man" type of posts?...lol.

actually Kondratiev went for Sykora; Nieminen went for the pick that then went for Ozolinsh.

Joke...watch your step buddie, you'll eat your words on that D-man reference. If I am right (and I hope I'm not) I'll make sure this blog knows just how wrong you were all along re: this one particular need.

I dont understand what the big deal is with a crease clearing defenseman....I don't really post that often and I think I've posted on this specific topic like 3 times.....While everyone would like one, and I would have liked Orpik, but only him bc he's unique, but we did not have a crease clearer and we were near the top in defense. We have guys like Girardi, Staal, and even Kalinin that will be fine this year....besides the fact that there wasn't anyone out there that we could sign, and I wouldn't want to trade our youth for a defenseman we don't need

JOKE ...
Exactly the type of posts im talking about. We have a lot of RFA players on 1 year contracts (Zherdev, Prucha, Fritsche, Dubinsky, Dawes, Callahan, Korpikoski, Sjostrom, Dane Byers, Greg Moore, and Corey Potter) and I hope, depending on their performances, they realize the path the Rangers are starting to go down and take "cap friendly"hits since they are so young and have plenty of time in the UFA market for teams to bid outrageously for them.

RICH ...

The Rangers were the 4th best Defense in the league last year with a bunch of 1st-2nd year prospects and veteran d-men that would either not be signed (Malik and Strudwick), or play on 2nd-3rd line pairings on other teams (Mara, Backman, Rozsival). And this was all done with Tyutin being our "crease-clearing D-man".

By the Rangers trading away Tyutin this summer and signing Redden, I think it shows that the Rangers management lean more toward good positional "defensively responsible" players then "crease-clearing" goons that take themselves out of position to make the big hit.

somerset, i don't think of Tyutin as a ""crease-clearing" goons that take themselves out of position to make the big hit." Tyutin through a few hits but was solid. I think he was traded bc Slats wanted a talented goal scorer in Zherdev.

I completely understand...and also know that the biggest change will this year will be in our transition game. Look, Orpik is gone and we're gonna have to rely on Staal and Girardi to get the job done and I expect him a lot out of them and of course, redden this year.....even though we were 4th in D last year, just remember how many goals were in fact scored around the crease because we didn't have a good CCD. Right now, I just wanna get TC started...it's gonna be competitive that's for sure.

Kevin...
I dont think he's a goon either, but he was our biggest hitter last year, and it goes to show that the Rangers find that aspect for a D-man not as important as position (which wasnt a strength of Tyutin's)

Tyutin was a better hitter then positional player and he is gone now.

Rich ...
agreed on the goals scored around the crease, but the defense was excellent all year long, so nothings perfect

what number will Rosie wear when the #3 goes up to the rafters?

Although everyone says that we def need a crease clearer, we did pretty well last year without one. And obviously it would be nice to haver but i think that Stalls gonna be a banger this year ... just a thought.

'Colin Campbell kept us from further advancing our dynasty, something your team never had to worry about...Sir William"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAAHAHA

OMG - that is funny. What's next, the team moved to Hamilton because of the versus deal? People on the island didn't come to Isles games because Mike Myers promotes the Maple Leafs with Love Guru.
Dear god man face the facts. There wasn't an advancing of your 25 year old DEAD dynasty because the owners.
Please keep living in the past. It's the funniest (and saddest) fan behavior EVER!!!
The cake is yours!

why the hell is someone posting under my name trying to instigate a fight with Islander fans?

I've said it before, I'll say it again.

I consider the Isles irrelevant right now.

I pay them absolutely no mind.

I worry about the Penguins, Devils and Flyers.

I do not worry about the team on the Island, so I do not post about them.

That is an Islander fan troll trying to start crap posting under my name.

14:45 is not me....not it's getting sad. I barely even post and someone is using my name.....doesn't even make any sense is this case either...hmm...

last post not me either

Did anyone notice Petr Nedved on the list? Whats up with that?