An Impossible Dream? Maybe not.

As for the rest, all of those trade proposals are like NHL10/message board deals: Impossible dreams indeed.

Disagree. If Marty and Andy are having good seasons, a late first and a late second round pick would not be too much to give up…especially since it would help fill vital holes in the Hawk roster.

And if Frans is having a 40-50 point season, why wouldn’t he be worth an early first rounder or two late ones plus a prospect?

Completely agree Dom.

At best, the Islanders seem to be a bubble team in March. There are just too many tough divisional games to come this year, I just can’t see the Islanders taking enough points from these games to garner a playoff spot.

totally agree bob. That Habs game was the only game that I could hardly bear watching.
Every other game has contained a lot of hard work excitement and effort. In fact if a few of them contained just a few more minutes of that, they would have been wins.

that we really need to get one and preferably two or three potentially elite prospects from this very front loaded draft. How do we do that if we are competing for a playoff spot? The only way that I can think of is to work a trade to get Boston’s Toronto pick. If Frans has a breakout season, he might look very appealing to Boston with its cap situation—especially if Toronto starts to improve and that pick becomes less valuable.

Again, it is probably moot unless the Isles have at least 70 points at the end of February. If they have less, then players like Andy Sutton, Marty Biron, and Richard Park get moved. The value Doug Weight has to this team is such that I don’t move him for anything less than a second round pick. We might move Roly instead of Marty if there are enough teams willing to pony up prize assets for a goalie with a championship resume.

My thinking on the draft is evolving. I had thought that if we get the #1 overall, we simply draft Taylor Hall, Josh’s former linemate. I think now that we should look at a trade with perhaps Anaheim for their two picks +. The plus would depend on the value of the picks. Both are looking good right now. I would like to get 1 & 1 of the following forwards and defensemen:

Forwards: Teemu Pulkinnen, Vladimir Tarasenko, Nino Niederreiter

Defensemen: Troy Rutkowski, Erik Gudbranson, Jon Merrill

If we are a playoff team, trading third rounders for Selanne and Boynton would seem an inexpensive upgrade. This is especially so since Boynton would be on my summer shopping list anyway. Even Selanne, although he is said to be retiring, might be a good asset. If there is a nice playoff run and we draft Pulkinnen, he might feel a year or two on the Island would be a good idea.

I would trade for Boynton if I’ve traded away Sutton because Boynton’s somebody I’d like on my roster anyway. Of course, the Ducks are unlikely to part with Selanne unless he agrees, so perhaps it wouldn’t happen anyway.

I think that Chicago would gladly part with a late first and a late second round pick if it would not only fill huge holes on their roster and make them a more realistic Cup contender but also enable them to fix their postseason cap problem.

If the team is making a serious run for the playoffs, it would be damaging to morale if Garth did not make reasonable efforts to improve the team for a playoff run. I am not talking about trading core players or first or second round picks either.

That said, I agree with you. It would be better if we made a bid, faded in late January, and Garth started moving veterans to prepare for the draft. I no longer think that we will get the #1 overall, but even if we get the #3 or #4, we might be able to work a trade down with Anaheim or Phoenix that would net us two mid first rounders and a second rounder. Then if we were able to deal Roly and Sutton for Chicago’s first and second rounders, we might be able to come away with two quality forwards and a defenseman—in fact two defensemen with our own second round pick. My forwards would be Niederreiter and Pulkkinen and my defensemen would be Rutkowski and Tinordi (unless Gudbranson is still on the board because of his injury).

personally i would prefer to see them falter – a higher draft pick would help us a lot more than a few playoff home games.

Personally people who say this kind of thing will never make sense to me. To see the team that you supposedly love falter- and actually PREFER that- is illogical and no shiny draft pick will ever make me feel otherwise.

if this team, (as is) is good enough to battle for a playoff spot come feb, then i hope there are/were no trades, because by then, i’ll have enjoyed watching all of them gel into the team that they are, and i wouldn’t want anything coming in to break the chemistry up… and also, take a page from HoF’er LL next door, he rarely makes big moves and more often than not just shores up depth issues before the playoffs

while i wont ever say i want them to fail, the reality right NOW is that if we don’t play our A game (and sometimes our A+ game) we usually will find ourselves on the losing end – our A and A+ games sometimes aren’t and wont be enough too, because, talent-wise, we are behind 24-26 other teams… and if that’s the case, then i can understand the sentiment that says, well, if we are going to be bad, lets be bad enough to make it worth our while

To me, Nielsen is the one player who might be a difference maker for the draft. He would not likely be part of Garth’s core but might put up some big production numbers and rate a big deal at the deadline. What if he has 35-40 points at the deadline and another team’s center goes down? Could bring a first rounder, another pick and some prospects. That is a little iffy, but only a little with all of the injuries this year. The more first and early second round picks we can get for this draft, the more likely it is that we will complete the core by next September.