2019-2020 New York Islanders thread

I was about to post in here that a Caps insider said Trotz would be the Isles coach by tonight. 5 years, at least $20 million. Good move by the Isles, good raise for Trotz. Hopefully the Caps give him a nice video presentation when he returns to Capital One Arena next year!

 

Celebrate good times, c’mon!

 

If Darnold proves to be the real deal then the Jets will have hit a grand slam as well. For me the Yanks are rolling, the Isles have rejoined the NHL(thank you L&M) and the Jets have a potential franchise QB to build around. Exciting times for sure.

 

It's official.

 

I think it is a perfect spot for Trotz. Obviously the huge pay raise, but his job is to get a franchise back on track, and Trotz is perfect at that. He coached the expansion Predators, turned them into a winner, he took over the Caps after they missed the playoffs, they went to the 2nd Round 3 straight years and won the Cup this year, so expect a good year for the Islanders. Of course they have to re-sign Taveres, but I think they will. They need a goalie too and the Caps are looking to trade Philipp Grubauer. He was really good for them this year. So good, Trotz started him over Holtby to begin the playoffs. If he wants to keep playing for Trotz, that could be a slam dunk trade too.

 

What killed the islanders last year was their lack of good play from their defense, they could score with the best of them but they gave up a huge amount of goals.

Halak or Greiss were on an island last year with the amount of easy chances Scott Mayfield and Pullock we’re giving up.

If they can somehow trade a pick for a defenseman or get their defense to play at a better level you will see more wins.

Ho-Sang has a great opportunity to be taught by one of the best coaches in the NHL and help give the team some depth with Barzal and Ho-sang on the second line.

The pieces are there, I believe Trotz will have an immediate impact on this team.

 

Yeah, I agree. Obviously still a lot to happen this off-season, but you could currently make an argument for all 8 Metro teams to be playoff-caliber in 2019. Clearly the Capitals, Penguins, Blue Jackets, Flyers and Devils, who made the playoffs in 2018, the Hurricanes and Islanders were pretty close, and you know the Rangers will make moves and a push for the playoffs too this year. Should be an exciting year! Tough though.

 

This is what I’m most excited for. With real coaching Ho-Sang has an opportunity be a big component for us. If Trotz can’t get his head out of his ass nobody can.

 

Isles just added eight more games to the Coliseum schedule, five minutes from my house. Nice.

 

Question for you. Is Champions still around inside the Marriot? As an Isles fan living in NJ the only games I can get to are Saturday night games. Usually we would leave at 1:00 and pull into the parking lot around 2. We always would go to Champions watch college football, have some Blue Point Toasted Lager and wings before heading over to the Coli.

 

Yes and no. Champions is gone - when they remodeled the hotel in 2017 they got rid of it.But, there is still a restaurant, which is called Crop & Kettle. They still offer sports bar-type food (including beer on tap), but also more upscale things. I'm not sure that they have the sports bar vibe of games on TV any more, however; you would have to call and ask them. Here is a review from Newsday from a few months ago:

https://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/restaurants/crop-kettle-uniondale-long-island-marriott-1.17720297

 

Thanks for the info. I will check it out.

 

First Lou then Trotz, now Wahlstrom and Dobson? Are you kidding me? Never thought the isles would have a chance at even one of them, but both? Madness!

 

If Lou can get one of our goalie prospects over here he’s truly blessed by the hockey gods.

 

Walhstrom I’m on the fence about but Dobson, I never thought he would fall to them. The defensive player pipeline is clogged at this time. Within the next couple of years, 2 or 3 of these guys are going to make a difference for this team.

Is it enough to keep Tavares?

 

I don’t necessarily agree the D is clogged. We only have 2 real top 4 guys in Leddy and Pulock, both of which are offensive D-men/pmd’s. After that you got a bunch meh in Pelech, Boychuck(who is fast approaching obsolescence) and Mayfield who is a career bottom pairing guy at best. Doesn’t look like Hickey is going to be re-signed, and rightfully so, and who knows what they decide with deHaan.

After that, you have in the pipeline Toews, Wotherspoon and MVS, none of whom project to have top pairing upside like Dobson does. Toews looks the closest to that but I’d be surprised if he’s ever better than a #3.
But again, none of them have the complete 2-way d game potential Dobson has.
By all accounts he still needs time to fill out so he’s likely at least 2 years away, so maybe 1 or 2 more years in juniors and another year at most in the A and he should be ready, assuming no cdh-style injuries.

 

Mayfield will always be an AHL player, he looks the part of NHL defenseman but that’s about it. I saw him play in Bridgeport he was terrible there before he was called to NHL.

With regards to Towes, MVS and Witherspoon, sometimes it takes being paired with a veteran to make it click, these guys can play the game physically with NHL players, it’s the mental part that makes or breaks them. Once it clicks mentally and they are not thinking the game but simply playing it, that is when you see them blossom.

Honestly, I thought the Isles could trade for Senators Karlsson but after the Hofmann trade, Erik is probably going to stay a Senator.


I would like them to re-sign Dehaan, would like to see how Trotz would develope him.

 

Karlsson would be a coup and we could afford him and sign JT. It’s just a matter of how many prospects it would take to get him.