Critique New York Islander's Selections

MichaelK

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Mar 13, 2004
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Hey we have 2 other teams in the Atlantic, so why not do the Islanders next

7 NYI KYLE OKPOSO 4/16/1988 St. Paul, MN US 6' 0" 195 USHL DES MOINES RW R

60 NYI
(from DAL) JESSE JOENSUU 10/5/1987 Pori, Fin. FI 6' 4" 207 FIN ASSAT W L

70 NYI ROBIN FIGREN 3/7/1988 Stockholm, Swe. SE 5' 11" 176 SJL FROLUNDA JR. W R

100 NYI RHETT RAKHSHANI 3/6/1988 Orange, CA US 5' 10" 170 USA US NAT'L U-18 RW R

108 NYI
(from T.B) JASE WESLOSKY 8/14/1988 St. Albert, AB CA 6' 2" 170 AJHL SHERWOOD PARK G L

115 NYI
(from PHX) TOMAS MARCINKO 4/11/1988 Poprad, Svk. SK 6' 4" 187 SVK KOSICE C R

119 NYI
(from CGY) DOUG ROGERS 1/20/1988 Watertown, MA US 6' 0" 175 USHSE ST. SEBASTIAN'S C R

126 NYI
(from CHI) SHANE SIMS 4/30/1988 East Amherst, NY US 5' 11" 192 USHL DES MOINES D R

141 NYI
(from COL) KIM JOHANSSON 1/21/1988 Malmo, Swe. SE 6' 1" 172 SJL MALMO JR. W L

160 NYI ANDREW MACDONALD 9/7/1986 Judique, NS CA 6' 0" 188 QMJHL MONCTON D L

171 NYI
(from COL) BRIAN DAY 8/4/1988 Boston, MA US 6' 0" 186 USHSE GOVERNOR DUMMER RW R

173 NYI
(from S.J) STEFAN RIDDERWALL 3/5/1988 Stockholm, Swe. SE 6' 1" 189 SJL DJURGARDEN JR G L

190 NYI TROY MATTILA 1/12/1988 Rockford, IL US 6' 2" 176 NAHL SPRINGFIELD LW L


I have to say, I think the Islanders had one of the better drafts, with potential steals in Joensuu, Marcinko, and Rakhshani. Not to mention a sleeper in Shane Sims. Personally I am glad the Islanders took a player who is a commit to my alma mater :)
 

Kvashinator12

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X-SHARKIE said:
IMO, along with the Bruins, you guys probally put together the best draft of anyone.


what do you think of the Marcinko and Joenessu picks...I wanted them to take Strait in the 2nd round instead, but if Joenessu develops that will be huge...
 

islandermaniac

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i wanted to see a d-man taken a little higher, but i can't argue with the "take the best player available" strategy either.

personally, i don't like what i hear about joensuu, but i will readily admit i haven't seen him play. i like guys who can skate, and he sounds as though he struggles to do that. i would have liked to have seen a d-man picked in his place.

he is the only guy that i had a problem with the isles selecting. the goalie picks i liked, as well as a few possible steals...in particular the marcinko pick. i'm not exactly sure why this guy fell. central scouting had him at #26 for international skaters.

all in all a very productive draft. 13 players is quite a haul and 6 of them are american allowing the isles to hold their rights for a long time.
 

Trottier

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X-SHARKIE said:
IMO, along with the Bruins, you guys probally put together the best draft of anyone.

Wow, you made my draft weekend, Sharkie.

I recognize that much of this is speculating on futures, but coming from one who knows his stuff (you), that's encouraging.

Would appreciate other feedback from other draftniks. Paging Jon Prescription, Steblick and anyone else! :)
 

boredmale

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Personally i think the Islanders didn't have enough draft picks
 

KH1

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boredmale said:
Personally i think the Islanders didn't have enough draft picks

:D

IMO the pick to watch from the Isles is Rhett Rakhshani. I will admit that I had never heard of him before the Isles picked him, but everything I've read about him makes me feel like we got a steal. I have a hunch about him just like I've had hunches about Shea Guthrie and Chris Campoli in the recent past.

Then again, it's only fair for me to point out that I thought that Dimitri Chernykh was the next Bryan Trottier. So who am I to judge. :help:

In any case the Isles draft followed the same trend that it tends to under Tony Feltrin: an emphasis on 2 way players who work hard and commit to forechecking, backchecking and defense. A lot of leadership material, and a lot of Europeans (Ryan Jankowski the head Euro scout is one of the best in the business.)

Feltrin and his crew have brought the Isles from one of the bottom prospect pools in the league to one of the top in just a space of 2 or 3 years and they deserve all the credit in the world for that.
 

Ohio Jones

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If nothing else, you guys should have a sweet group of penalty killers in Marcinko, Rakhshani and Figren along with Colliton. Nice draft. I like Okposo, but I wonder if Mueller doesn't have more upside... does the Island have a true #1 pivot prospect?
 

garypl

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Aug 2, 2005
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This from an SI columist--Looks like he puts the isles in the bottom 3rd of all teams in this draft--he pretty much said that we swung for the fences on many of them--

The Isles drafted 13 players, more than any other team. Quantity doesn't equal quantity, but it did allow them to take a couple of interesting flyers. Head coach Ted Nolan may have mispronounced his name on the stage, but Kyle Okposo (8th) will patrol the wing on the first line before long. The Isles swung for the fences after that, taking several players with big upside but big questions. Jesse Joensuu (60th) has an amazing shot, but is painfully slow. Rhett Rahkshani (100th) is a fierce competitor, but really small. Tomas Marcinko (115th) had first round potential for some, but his inability to finish dropped him to the fourth. Grade: B-
 

sarcastro

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Jul 28, 2005
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Joensuu and Marcinko are both guys that I wanted the Wings to take and I think the Isles absolutely stole them where they picked them. I've heard mixed reports on Joensuu, some think his skating is just a technical issue and that once he gets proper coaching he'll be just fine.

Okposo is a good pick. He'll be a brute on the wing for a good long while. Size and speed are the key to the new NHL.

Figren is supposedly very highly skilled and could be a sleeper.

And if any combination of their other picks pan out, geez, you have to like the Isles' draft. I think the Avs had the best draft, personally, but the Isles did pretty damn good too.
 

scott99

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May 13, 2005
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I give the Isles a "B" for this draft, but will see 5 years down the road. I would have preferred Mueller, or even Little, since 1st line center is still not adressed (maybe free agency). Since Kessel was available all the way until the 5th pick, I wish they would traded up. I still think he will be the best player coming out of this draft, and would have been the Isles 1st line center for the next 15 years. All in all, I like what they did, Joenssu and Marcinko are nice prospects, and they added goalie depth (no prospects besides DiPietro before this draft).
 

KH1

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scott99 said:
I give the Isles a "B" for this draft, but will see 5 years down the road. I would have preferred Mueller, or even Little, since 1st line center is still not adressed (maybe free agency). Since Kessel was available all the way until the 5th pick, I wish they would traded up. I still think he will be the best player coming out of this draft, and would have been the Isles 1st line center for the next 15 years. All in all, I like what they did, Joenssu and Marcinko are nice prospects, and they added goalie depth (no prospects besides DiPietro before this draft).
2 notes:

1) I highly doubt that anybody in the top 5 was looking to trade down with the Isles. Boston especially was thrilled to have Kessel fall to them.

2) Like him or not our #1 center is Alexei Yashin until further notice.

The reason that I think the Isles passed on Mueller is that he's a very similar prospect to Ryan O'Marra and even to a lesser extent Petteri Nokelainen. We don't have a player like Okposo in our system.
 

MS

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I like the Okposo pick, and I like the Joensuu pick for where they got him.

The rest of the picks ... who knows.

They are clearly one of the teams looking to draft a lot of US College players they can hold on to for 4 years, and took a whole pile of guys out of USHS and Tier II. Very difficult to rate those picks until we see what they can do next year against better competition. Same sort of story with the Europeans - a couple of 'B' level Euro talents in Figren and Marcinko with some upside who could pan out if everything goes right, but these Euro jr. guys are always tough to read because they've had so little exposure outside of a couple games at the U-18s.

Looks like an OK draft, but it's one of the more difficult groups of selections to read right now.
 

Hunter Gathers

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Islanders had one of THE BEST drafts I've seen in recent memory.

Marcinko is an absolute STEAL where he was chosen.

Everyone knows I'm not a fan of the Finnish Slug, but I guess he's a decent gamble where you guys took him.

I really like the Ridderwall pick at 173. The kid has a lot of untapped potential.

Brian Day can also be a pretty big steal. I've always liked what I've seen from him. It'll be interesting to see how he does in college.

I also love the Okposo and Rakhshani picks. The Golden Rhett could be a steal if he puts it all together. I think he's still a pretty huge question mark, but he's definately worth the gamble.

Okposo is going to be a great player in this league. Most definately.

I criticized the depth of the prospect pool prior to the draft and while the cupboard definately got more full, I think the next draft will give you guys one of the better pools in the league. Especially if you draft this solid again.
 

scott99

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King Henry I said:
2 notes:

1) I highly doubt that anybody in the top 5 was looking to trade down with the Isles. Boston especially was thrilled to have Kessel fall to them.

2) Like him or not our #1 center is Alexei Yashin until further notice.

The reason that I think the Isles passed on Mueller is that he's a very similar prospect to Ryan O'Marra and even to a lesser extent Petteri Nokelainen. We don't have a player like Okposo in our system.

As far as Kessel, if you believe in him, and want him, you do WHATEVER it takes, within reason of course. Not to say that they didn't try, we'll probably never know. Okposo-I like the speed and toughness factor, he'll be interesting to watch the next 3 or 4 years in college, but 58 points in 50 games in a way lesser league than the 3 major junior leagues does not impress me, especially when picking 7th overall. Mueller was the better pick, all the scouts say he is a first line center, regardless of similarities to O'Marra, O'Marra was never spoken about as a 1st line center. I'm hoping Okposo becomes a star, and at least as good as Mueller (if better than Mueller I'd feel even better, lol).

Very intriguing draft, with some prospects, that if they do pan out, watch out.
 

Hunter Gathers

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King Henry I said:
The reason that I think the Isles passed on Mueller is that he's a very similar prospect to Ryan O'Marra and even to a lesser extent Petteri Nokelainen. We don't have a player like Okposo in our system.

I disagree completely on this.

You don't have a single prospect like Mueller at all in your system.
 

Draftman

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X-SHARKIE said:
IMO, along with the Bruins, you guys probally put together the best draft of anyone.
Thank you for your impartial assessment. I especially liked your scouting report on Shane Sims.

The Islanders got great value with Sims, Joensuu, and Marchinko. Okposo was a solid if unspectacular selection. Thankfully, the Isles took a couple of goalies (a desperate need). There is still an organizational need for defensemen which was not addressed fully. They should have taken one or two more defensemen before the fifth round. Overall grade: B+.
 

Seph

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Jon Prescription said:
I disagree completely on this.

You don't have a single prospect like Mueller at all in your system.
I think the implication is more that we come a lot closer to having a Mueller in the system (O'Marra, Nokelainen, Colliton) than we do an Okposo (closest we have is Comeau). Yes, Mueller has a higher upside than any of the similar players, but the same can certainly be said for Okposo over Comeau. On top of that, Joensuu could have similar upside to Mueller, though is clearly more risky, and with three guys like O'Marra, Nokelainen, Colliton there's a better chance that one breaks out and shows a higher than expected ceiling.

But I really appreciate you giving us your opinion, and glad to hear how highly you and Sharkie thought of it. Both of you guys follow these guys closer than I, so I'm glad to hear positive reviews from you.
 

Bluenote13

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Okposo is a good pick, but oh man, I wouldve taken Mueller 10 times out of ten.

Joensuu is a good gamble, if he & Hugh Jessiman make it to the respective clubs it'll be funny watching the twin towers lineup against each other, Jesse looks like the Finnish version of Hugh, though you wish he had Hugh's skating ability ;)

Figren is underrated in my book.

Marcinko is the guy I like. I think he's the one to lookout for, if he pans out you have a nice big Center to throw up the middle to compliment your other smaller forwards.

The rest of the Isles picks have nice potential and thats what you hope for when drafting so many bodies.
 

TeamKidd

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Bluenote13 said:
Okposo is a good pick, but oh man, I wouldve taken Mueller 10 times out of ten.

i think most of us islander fans agree with this. most of us wanted, expected, and would have taken mueller over okposo....

that being said, i know where the isles are coming from with this pick, and it fits very nicely along the lines of the type of players that we are collecting and the attitude we want to play with.

having said that, i still would have taken mueller...i really do believe in taking the BPA, and even with similarities to other isles prospects, none of the others (omarra, et all) seem to have the skill level and upside that mueller has. you take mueller, then if omarra turns out to be near him, you can either trade him or be "stuck" with a lecavlier/richards situation...which is not a bad problem to have.


i'll let you know how this all shakes out 5 years from now, lol.
 

God Bless Canada

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I want to see what Okposo does in the NCAA before issuing my verdict. He sort of fits into that Travis Zajac/Kris Chucko/Andrew Cogliano mold of a player who needs to do the job at a higher level before people really rave about him. (We now know what Zajac is capable of). But Okposo definitely has the makings of a very good power forward, and there aren't as many of those around as there were about 12 to 15 years ago.

There are more skilled playmaking centres out there like Mueller than quality power forwards like Okposo. I don't know whether that factored into the decision or not. As for the Mueller vs. O'Marra battle, O'Marra doesn't have Mueller's offensive upside.

Joenssu is an interesting one at 60. At that point in the draft, it's hard to pass up a player like that. But I'll say the same thing I said about Nigel Williams. Usually when a player falls as far as Joenssu did in his draft year (went from a potential top 10 to almost out of the second round) there's a reason or reasons for it, and those reasons are generally exposed as the player progresses in his career. I don't fault the Islanders for picking him, but it's a caveat for those who are excited that they got him at this point in the draft.
 

BelovedIsles

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Jon Prescription said:
I disagree completely on this.

You don't have a single prospect like Mueller at all in your system.

But we have two, maybe even three candidates, to be our number 2 center, which Mueller is projected to be. Why take another #2 calibur center if we can add depth to the wings and a "Nolan-type" player (ala K.O.). That's my logic, I think we wanted Brassard, but he wasn't available. I could be wrong for I am no prospect "guru" like some here...
 

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Mueller is the "safer" pick of the 2, but Okposo has more upside. Like a few mentioned Mueller will probably be a very good #2 center, but with Okposo we have a chance to have one of the top power forwards.

Sometimes you have to swing the bat to try hit a homer
 

MS

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God Bless Canada said:
Joenssu is an interesting one at 60. At that point in the draft, it's hard to pass up a player like that. But I'll say the same thing I said about Nigel Williams. Usually when a player falls as far as Joenssu did in his draft year (went from a potential top 10 to almost out of the second round) there's a reason or reasons for it, and those reasons are generally exposed as the player progresses in his career. I don't fault the Islanders for picking him, but it's a caveat for those who are excited that they got him at this point in the draft.

Although for every Adam Colagiacomo or Charlie Stephens there's a Maxim Afinogenov or Alyn McCauley who plunged during their draft year and then went on to a highly successful career.
 

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