This Islanders franchise has been through years of heartache and complete disarray. The ownership of Charles Wang looks committed in building a winner and a new arena if the city of Long Island can get on board with his revitalization idea of transforming the county of Nassau. If not, Wang is prepared to relocate the team. With a thirtieth place finish last season, it is looking more and more evident. Wait; enter the first overall pick that a team is rewarded if finishing last. The Islanders gained something positive out of a negative in drafting John Tavares, and he is exactly the type of player this team needs. The fan base was lost, but now they have something, or a player to get excited about. The Islanders are still a long way from competing at a high level, they have a lot more work to do, but they do have a solid building block in Tavares.
In Tavares the Islanders are getting a pure goal scorer from his days in the OHL. If there is one knock on him, he doesn’t play a full game, and takes shifts off, and sometimes even looks bored and confused. Playing in the NHL, something that will most certainly happen, you can’t do that, and he will be scrutinized. Don’t expect Tavares to rattle off a high octane season where he rips the league apart. A sixty point season should be achieved with his skill set, and he will get all the opportunities to do that. Tavares will get first line minutes, power play time, and may even get tested to play in other situations. At the end of it all, he may just lead the team in scoring.
The Islanders are so young and lack so much experience, that John Tavares is already listed as the number one left winger. It’s good for Tavares but bad for the organization, because they don’t have much talent. The Islanders do have a few good young players, but hardly worth to get excited over, not just yet.
Doug Weight is the team’s only veteran forward, but his skill set and scoring abilities have dropped considerably. Injuries have also crept up on him as he played in just 53 games last season.
Basically, this whole Islanders offensive unit is full of young players that are still under development. A few players that should have improved seasons are Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey, Blake Comeau, and Jeff Tambellini.
Until none of the Islanders’ young players develop into consistent scorers, they are very behind in competing, and will most likely have another thirtieth place finish this season.
The Islanders defense is one unit that doesn’t have a rookie or a sophomore. They are full of veteran players, but a few can play the game at a high level, and a few of them cannot. Mark Streit is the best defensemen the Islanders have and finished with a +5 rating, which was pretty damn good on this team. His 56 points were tops on the team to finish the season. That’s how you know your team is bad, when a defenseman leads the team in scoring.
After Streit, the Islanders defense is full of minus players and veterans who are barely hanging on. Radek Martinek and Brendan Witt are two defensemen on this team that finished with a combined -50 rating. These two cannot play anymore and here because the Islanders need stop gap measures until they develop good young players. Two of them are Bruno Gervais and Freddy Meyer. For Gervais he is 25 and needs to have a good showing this season. Meyer is 28, so time is running out on his future with the Islanders. So far he hasn’t been the most consistent player.
The Islanders defense will struggle this season, and it will hurt even more because the number one goalie job seems to be in the air. You’d think that job belongs to Rick DiPietro, but he hasn’t played in a full season since signing a 15 year contract five years ago. It seems his skill set is diminishing, as he should be entering the prime of his career. Making it even tougher for DiPietro to win the number one job back is, the Islanders went out and signed Dwayne Roloson to a two year contract. No way is he going to be a back-up, because he is capable of starting at least 60 games. To make the goaltending picture even fuzzier, the Islanders also signed Martin Biron. Last season he won 29 games, in 55 games started, so even he can be a starter.
Either way the Islanders go, they need DiPietro to be their number one goalie if they want to succeed.
OVERALL--> THE ISLANDERS HAVE A WEAK TEAM THIS SEASON, WITH A BAD DEFENSE, AND A GOALIE SITUATION THAT NEEDS TO BE SOLVED DURING TRAINING CAMP.
POSITIVE--> THE ARRIVAL OF JOHN TAVARES. HE ALONE WILL ATTRACT BIGGER CROWDS AT HOME GAMES, AND EVEN A FEW ON THE ROAD.
NEGATIVE--> A LOT OF YOUTH, AND A FEW OF THEIR YOUNG PLAYERS STILL HAVEN’T SHOWN SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT, EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE PLAYED A FEW FULL YEARS WITH THE TEAM.
X-FACTOR--> IF RICK DIPIETRO IS HEALTHY, THEN IT IS HIM, BECAUSE THIS IS STILL HIS TEAM, UNLESS JOHN TAVARES HAS A MARVELLOUS ROOKIE SEASON.
SLEEPER PICK--> THIS TEAM REALLY DOESN’T HAVE ONE BECAUSE NO ONE JUMPS OUT AT YOU OR SHOWS PROMISE.
PREDICTION--> THE NEW YORK ISLANDERS WILL NOT MAKE THE PLAYOFFS, AND FINISH LAST PLACE IN THE EAST AND THE LEAGUE.
The opinions and thoughts expressed in this or any other article written by 12nadnuk are of his thinking and what he thinks is correct or close to it in the sporting world. If there are any problems by anyone, 12nadnuk is open for rebuttal and what not, and honest criticism. There is also a comments section, so feel free to post what is on your mind about the article. Thank you for reading.
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