Prospect Info: Isles Prospect Talk PART XI
- Thread starter PK Cronin
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SI
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- Feb 16, 2013
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But depth in the AHL is key to their success - having Somerby as the 8th D spending some time in ECHL and providing cover.
I like Somerby's toughness.
SI90
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What I meant by it is same old Islanders. Them sending Tavares to recruit Vesey was interesting, and not something that usually happens, more of a shock than the norm. This year's sitting on the sidelines is more Islander's like. This is an organization that is on the brink of disaster, maybe even attempting to try to get the top college free agents makes Tavares feel like they are making an effort. Them sitting it out completely shows where they may be headed. It's a telltale sign, as was July 1st's Free Agency period.
As far as the NEW owners, it's the same old same old. No different from Wang, still run like a minor league team. Did you see the article about how many scouts the Isle's employ ? It's downright embarrassing.
They are in it for the real estate, just like Wang was. Winning is secondary. You can tell it is, as they never held Snow accountable like they said they would (not just Snow). Ledecky, last July after the sale went through, said something to the effect "Winning a round for the first time in 23 years was great, but next season we expect a progression from that, and we will hold people accountable."
Of course that never happened. So the fact that they aren't trying to add to the prospect pool, on good prospects that cost money only, is another telltale sign. Meanwhile the Rangers are ALWAYS mentioned as teams in the thick of these types of signings. I'm just so sick of the Islander's status quo.
LordNeverLose
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Butcher and Kerfoot are not particularly great prospects. I suspect Butcher will be a career AHLer and Kerfoot plays a couple years as a 4C, nothing more.
To say that us not going after these two shows some flaw in the organization is genuinely laughable. We already have at least 15 prospects better than these guys.
I think Butcher has what it takes to be an NHLer. He can be a mean SOB and takes his business very seriously.
Know nothing about Kerfoot.
If I saw the NYI running after every halfway decent NCAA free agent, I'd be worried that there's not much of a plan and one isn't very convinced about the possibilities of the guys the team already has signed.
I also can't remember the last time we signed an NCAA UFA who actually turned into a player for us?
Know nothing about Kerfoot.
If I saw the NYI running after every halfway decent NCAA free agent, I'd be worried that there's not much of a plan and one isn't very convinced about the possibilities of the guys the team already has signed.
I also can't remember the last time we signed an NCAA UFA who actually turned into a player for us?
LordNeverLose
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CREW99AW
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Isles will have to resist the temptation to rush Barzal into the nhl because of their weakness at second line center.
They also have to resist the urge to keep him down if he's ready just because of things that happened with other players in the past.
Last cut 2 years ago, then made the team out of camp but wasn't given a shot last year.
Issues in the past was a result of the Isles coaching staff not trusting younger players and not playing them enough. The best example of this is Nino, who played on the 4th line with the likes of Jay Pandolfo. That cannot happen. Even last season with Anthony Beauvillier (who was not amazing by any stretch), did not get the minutes he should've gotten it. Young players develop when put in positions to succeed and given the minutes to do so. The Isles rushed Bailey who was not ready. They played Nino with two AHL 4th line forwards. They did not play to Strome's strengths. And on it goes.
Nino has become a legit 1st line player in Minnesota. It's heartbreaking. I have no issues with Barzal playing at the NHL level. But he needs to be given top 9 minutes. He needs to be given opportunities to make mistakes too without getting bumped down to a 4th line or the bench. If the Isles continue to value guys like Kulemin, Chimera, Clutterbuck, etc over the younger (less safe) players on the ice, development will continue to be an issue. I believe Doug Weight had a better pulse on who is good and who isn't than Capuano ever did. That bodes well for development.
Agreed. Cappy was awful with the kids. And he created this potential problem with Beau/Barzal. He picked Beau(who I didn't think was fully ready) because he always liked the scrappier players. Now, if Barzal outplays Beau in camp, it's really hard to send Beau to Bridgeport after a full season in the NHL.
When we lost to the Penguins in 13-14 and then to the Caps in 14-15 playoffs, the Isles misdiagnosed their issues. They thought they weren't playing "tough" enough. That 14-15 team was amazing. Both in style and performance. We just ran into hot goalies in both series. Because of this misdiagnosis, we started playing a more bland style of hockey, which saw us limp into the playoffs in 15-16, and beating the Panthers for our first playoff win in forever. This doomed the Isles for last season. Again, the Isles were guilty of misdiagnosing its own team. The reason we made the playoffs and beat the Panthers was due to outstanding goaltending. We were actually nowhere near as good as we were in 14-15. This unfortunately locked Capuano in for another season and another season of nondescript hockey. Last year was very similar to 15-16, with the only difference being worse goaltending. Thankfully, Snow fired him (too late). Hopefully Weight is better in recognizing real issues regarding style, lineup, etc. Capuano was downright awful in giving icetime to the wrong players.
Our prospects are pretty good, which is why we're in the top every year in prospect rankings. We just did such a poor job giving them a chance at the NHL level.
Cappy should've been canned during the Caps series. As soon as he even suggested sitting Lee for Colin Macdonald.
CREW99AW
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I don't think it hurts a prospect's development to get a lot of ahl ice time.
Especially , if the alternative is getting 3rd/4th line nhl minutes.
Great post and I agree 100%. It was great that the team succeeded in spite of Capuono but it was a two-sided sword because it kept Capuono as coach and hindered development. Let's hope that Weight can pick up where he left off last year.
Sheva7
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- Oct 11, 2011
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My 2 cents playing a high tempo system is you tire yourselves out by time you make the playoffs. This is why Bruce Boudreau usually has high scoring regular season teams that fail in the playoffs.
While you can argue we are currently using a bad system, the system we used in 14/15 is destined to get your team great regular season stats but go nowhere in the playoffs.
Islanders4Cups
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It will be interesting to watch if this project will make it as a bottom two or thrive as a top 4 in the league or be a career minor leaguer. I think there is an even chance of all 3 scenarios.
This could be true, but I'm not so sure. Bottom line is the hockey playoffs are more random than we give it credit. Goaltending becomes even more important in the playoffs. A strong argument can be made that having the puck and driving play is a lot less tiring than chasing the puck. The Isles dictated play in the 14-15 season. Teams were chasing them. That year they played the Caps, and outplayed them in a good number of those games. Through the first 6 games, it was very even with the Isles outplaying them badly in games 3 and 4, with only winning one of them. The difference was goaltending.
PK Cronin
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- Feb 11, 2013
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There are a lot of differences between regular season and playoffs.
During the regular season teams don't really game plan for their opponent and typically focus on their own strategies. This results in more relaxed games where certain things aren't emphasized as much. This is the reason scoring seems to dry up for the Isles in the playoffs when they need it most (typically late in the series), the opposition figures out how to mitigate the offense. It took Tampa Bay 1 game to figure out how to stop Tavares.
Strict run and gun offenses typically don't work because if the other team figures out how to stop your offense, you lose. A guy like Boudreau coaches a style that works when the other team doesn't plan for it specifically, but might be too simple during the playoffs when all of the attention is solely on his system.
The physical play picks up in the playoffs, so if your team can't execute their offensive system while getting hit, that's a massive problem. Some teams can deal with it, others can't.
As you mentioned, the goaltenders are more focused and play a huge role in whether a team wins or loses. There's a finite amount of games so one bad stretch can cost a team.
The teams are seeing the same players at minimum 4 times. They can pick up on habits and zero in on these things. The team that's able to adjust the most is the team that will win.
Lastly, the whistles go away from the referees and the playoff rules come out. I'm a fan of that personally, but a team that was either weak or strong on particular aspects of special teams might be impacted by the lack of calls during the playoffs.
That's my 2 cents.
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