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Old 01-03-2018, 04:39 PM   #4
dannibalcorpse
Minors (Double A)
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Long Island, NY
Posts: 168
The Islanders disappointing season continues as we roll towards the trade deadline for the 2017-18 season. The team stands 27-31-5, with their 59 points putting them 5 points back of the last playoff spot in the East. As January turned into February, new GM Dan Hampton started to make his first NHL trades, moving some older and more expensive pieces for potential future returns. First to go was winger Jason Chimera, scoreless in 7 games and a healthy scratch for the much of the year. Chimera finds himself in Edmonton now, with the Oilers sending back a 6th round pick. Shortly afterwards, Dennis Seidenberg (51 GP, 3-8-11) was sent to Ottawa in exchange for a 4th round pick in the upcoming draft. Finally, on deadline day, the Isles found themselves involved in three deals. Goalie Jaroslav Halak (15-14-1, 2.88, .897) was sent to San Jose for a 6th; Nikolai Kulemin (4-12-16 in 59 GP) was packaged along with a different 6th in exchange for LA’s 4th; and in the biggest deal made, Hampton packaged a 2nd, a 4th, and former 6th round pick Kyle Schempp(8-14-22 in 54 AHL games) and sent them along to Anaheim in return for defenseman Sami Vatanen. The 26-year-old Finn has 6 goals and 25 points total for Anaheim and will slot next to Calvin de Haan in the Islanders’ second d-man pairing. “We’ve got to be realistic - making the playoffs is still our goal, but with that becoming a steeper and steeper task, we wanted to set ourselves up for next year and beyond,” Hampton spoke to assembled reporters on the morning after the deadline. “Sami gives us someone that not only improves us this year, but an important cog for the next few years.”

Meanwhile, a couple of current Islanders have confirmed they’ll be here for a few more years. The aforementioned Calvin de Haan, a pending UFA, resigned for 3 years and $13.35M. de Haan has 5 goals and 14 assists thus far this year in almost 21 minutes of ice time each night. And, in the biggest transaction so far in Hampton’s career, he re-signed John Tavares to a 6 year, $49.6M deal. The captain and face of the franchise surprised many by only signing for 6 years - he’ll be 33 at the end of the contract, so there will be a chance for one more significant payday if Tavares keeps his production high.

This year has been no different than the last several for Tavares - he was named to the All-Star team, and at the deadline, he leads the team with his 24-30-54 scoring line. Jordan Eberle, recently moved up to the first line, has 17 goals and 41 points thus far, and Andrew Ladd has bounced back from a down year last year to put up a 17-18-35 on the scoresheet. The Islanders other All-Star Nick Leddy leads New York’s defensemen in scoring with 9 goals and 26 assists, and Anders Lee has done a good job finding the back of the net 18 times so far this year. Josh Ho-Sang has also put up a solid 10-11-21 line while showing strong possession numbers and a defensive game that many did not anticipate him developing so early in his NHL career.

Around the league, the Washington Capitals have slowed down a bit but still own the league’s best record at 42-17-5. In the Central, Chicago and Dallas are battling for the division crown; at the deadline Dallas holds a slight edge at 39-16-7 to the Blackhawks’ 41-20-2. Minnesota is lurking right behind them at 39-21-2 as well, so this battle should be very interesting the rest of the way. The Kings seem to have wrapped up the Pacific with their 39-18-6 record; Arizona is currently second in the division at 32-23-7 and 13 points behind LA. No one in the Atlantic seems to want to pull away - Boston (33-24-4) and Toronto (33-28-4) are currently tied, and Buffalo is 5 points behind at 31-29-3. Sidney Crosby has cooled off slightly; while he still leads the league in scoring (34-50-84), he’s been passed for the goals lead by Patrick Kane (36) and in the assists race by Jonathan Toews (52). Braden Holtby missed some time earlier in January, allowing Corey Crawford to overtake him for the league lead in wins (35). Jonathan Quick is positioning himself nicely for a possible Vezina win; Quick is 30-13-5 with a .916 SV% and a league-leading 1.84 GAA. Sergei Bobrovsky is right there with him at 29-11-5, 1.98, and his .920 SV% tops the NHL.

Meanwhile, the Islanders weren’t the only team shaking things up. Ottawa fired Guy Boucher in January after starting out 18-22-1; Dave Lewis, last seen behind the bench of the 2006-07 Boston Bruins, stepped up to helm the team the rest of the way. An even bigger name found their way to the unemployment line shortly after, as Anaheim cut ties with former GM of the Year Bob Murray and hired Tom Fitzgerald away from the Binghamton Devils. Players were on the move as well, with the most interesting case being Jaromir Jagr. In his quest to apparently appear for every team in the league, Jagr was traded (along with Tanner Glass) by the Flames to the Canadians for Charles Hudson and the rights to Arnaud Lazzaroni - but it didn’t stop there! After two games (and one goal scored) for the Canadians, Montreal sent Jagr to the Penguins with Matt Taormina in exchange for winger Scott Wilson. Pittsburgh had also flipped winger Carl Hagelin to the Maple Leafs in exchange for defenseman Connor Carrick a few weeks earlier, and wound up moving Chad Ruhwedel to the Flyers and received Brian Elliott back in return. The Flyers were also involved in the biggest (in terms of name value) trade of the season, sending Sean Couturier and Mike Vecchione to Dallas in exchange for John Klingberg and the Stars’ 5th round pick.

DOWN ON THE FARM

Bridgeport continues its strong play, heading into the final weeks of the season with a 30-23-2 record. Chris Gibson has been stellar in goal for the Sound Tigers (16-11-1, 2.64, .914) and many thought he was deserving of the call to the majors over Kristers Gudlevskis, the Islanders' new backup goalie. When asked, the GM was quoted “Chris has been doing exactly what we want him to, and he’s found a great rhythm that we didn’t want to mess up. Kristers has been playing less over the past few weeks with Gibby’s hot streak, so we thought it would be best to leave Chris to do what he’s doing.” Former Rangers draft pick Mackenzie Skapski, 23, was signed to backup Gibson the rest of the way. The brass has also noticed that Michael Dal Colle has started to make strides. Still just 21, Dal Colle recently scored his 12th goal of the year and is currently 5th on the squad in scoring. Deeper in the prospect pool, both 2016 first rounder Kiefer Bellows (24-32-56 in the WHL) and 2017 6th rounder Arnaud Durandeau (29-32-61 in the QMJHL) have made a strong case to be a part of the organization next year, while the overseas goalies Linus Soderstrom (22-6-3, 1.97, .930 in the SHL) and Ilya Sorokin (16-5-0, 1.00, .953, 12 shutouts in 21 starts) have continued to give the team hope for the future.
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