How Rick DiPietro Retirement Rumors Roll

I was at the Draft Party in 2000 (my first ever) and I was just 9. I looked up to the guy and I was very naive, I thought he was going to be amazing. I grew up with hope for Ricky and chanting “D-P!” at the Coliseum.

I feel bad for the guy. The contract was never going to work out. It would be best for the organization if he retired, moved on and maybe replaced Butch as color commentator. He works hard. He wants to help the Islanders. I just don’t see it happening as a goalie at least this year nor next year. I would like him to try and fully recover this year, get some practice time in at the end of the year and over the summer. Really try and get his game back. Then come back next year and start in the AHL. Take the year in the AHL and prove that you’re good again, be a rock at the back for all the youngsters coming up next year in BPT, let them gain confidence. Then maybe come back if you’re ready to be a backup.

Just my two cents.

I often wonder what goes on in DP’s head. I highly doubt it is as nefarious as some fans might think. It has to be hard for someone (competitive or not) to watch as his dream slowly fades and he can do nothing about it except train and try again. Too often we forget how long other people hold onto their dreams even when outsiders claim the hope is too thin.

While it is frustrating to watch DP return only to be re-injured or hurt the team’s shot at winning, it is too easy for us on the outside to fire criticism after criticism because we don’t have to deal with the problems or the existential crises that each injury might deepen.

If he chooses to retire, that’s fine. If not, then that’s fine, too. I would hope he can find some closure to his career, and I hope he stays with the organization even when his playing days are done. He’s always been a class act for the organization and represents the Isles regardless of record or his playing time. It would fit with the Isles to promote another goalie to somewhere in the head offices.

always seemed overrated to me, the 15 Year contract immediately made me think this franchise was permanently screwed and it made me furious – it has been the worst contract in sports history in some ways, the end of wihch would be the best thing for all considered if it can be worked out

You could blame Rick I suppose for being a suck up, and getting Wang to commit to a ridiculous deal like this

I suppose

Rick however has been classy of late, the way he has been used isn’t really his fault and you have to credit him for his positive attitude in the face of what has been an absurd period of injuries – also unprecedented

The thing you can blame him for is that he doesn’t learn or play very smart – insisting on roaming out of his net to play the puck even after it fails over and over and over again – how thick a head does he have?

Fantastic post though – it is very hard to be mad at Rick for what has transpired, the team’s use of him largely is the same as Mottau or Rolston – committing to players to whom money has been spent on regardless of their level of play – but the RDP experiment will go down as a failure, and the sooner we move on, the better

Not even starting regularly, he gets hurt after 8starts in a game. And to make matters worse, he reinjures himself before he’s 100%, “most likely in practice”. Not to mention, the stats are still bad. He’s not even able to maintain . I am/was a huge DP supporter for what the man has been through and hoped for the best, but he was as healthy as he’s been in forever entering this season, and still the injuries linger and the play is still sub-900 goaltending. It’s time for him to sit down with an insurance company and take whatever they give him. He’s already made over $30mil in his career counting this year, so even if insurance only paid him $10mil of his remaining $40mil, the guy would still be way ahead of the game. I’m sure he’s got enough money to lay back on and live casually for a while right now. Money shouldn’t be a problem, and if I was Wang/Snow, I’d tell DP to start looking at insurance payoffs and I’d even help him with a case. That cap hit will eventually hurt us when we are a playoff team, and we need to address it asap.

One thing I do know is, if DP doesn’t retire and Garth doesn’t have plans to start him in the ahl next year and keep him there till he proves otherwise, and spend that 4.5mil of cap money elsewhere(roughly ~10% of our team salary), I’ve then had enough of the cap floor BS and am no longer going to spend money on tickets at all, only watch on tv.

Just waned to say thanks for all the kind words, but I also wanted to just throw it out there that Dom did an incredible re-write on this. So he definitely deserves some credit for this post (and then some!).

and upon hearing the bombshell that Milbury dropped on Islander nation, I was completely stunned. I was so psyched for us, having Luongo waiting in the wings, and looking like a star in the making. After the shock and the alcohol wore off, I did what any good eternal optimist Isle fan would do, I got behind RDP, figuring if MM traded Luongo to make room for him, then he MUST be the real deal. I convinced myself that with that cocky attitude, maybe he would become our Patrick Roy. Ahhh…what could have been if the injury gods weren’t so mad at Milbury. Sure, the contract was ridiculous, but I always remind people that they would have signed it too, if their boss came to them with a contract offer with comparable salary and security. D.P. must be applauded for his dedication and effort, but sadly, it’s over. Time to move on.

Its nice to see writing about Rick that isnt reactionary and devolving into inane ramblings.

Rick doesnt need to be prodded into retiring and god knows there is NO need for a buyout.
This situation will not last all that much longer. Maybe they will try this next year one more time- but that would be it. At that point if Rick still doesnt retire, I think he will be in Bridgeport until he changes his mind.

Its a shame to see things like this happen to any player, but its even more of a shame when its a genuinely good and talented guy.

Ill also go on record saying that, once he does retire, I do not see him taking any media job with the Isles, at least not for a long time. He’s gonna be seriously depressed when what he worked to be for his whole life is finally an impossibility… he wont wanna chat about it.

Pre 2005-2006 – 1 Game missed due to illness/injury with the flu in 03-04. 50-06 on, 186 games missed to injury. Yeah, about that.

Finally, a rather sober look at the Islander Situation…

Which one of these guys would you pay more to NOT WEAR YOUR CLOTHES!

If you take away the fact that he’s getting a crazy, insane salary (that he was offered, he didn’t demand it), to me RDP is one of those sad, sports stories that should inspire people rather then cause laughter.

and it is finally getting some wheels

I do feel sorry for DP, he had a nice future in the NHL at one time, but he has a lot of money to fall back on. I just hope he can manage to have a healthy rest of his life, time with a family and kids and all.

I was a RDP fan, being a former goaltender, I saw he was coming into his prime and could have been the #1 net minder for this club. But having said that he is not bigger than the club. I think Mr. Spock said it best "the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few or the one."

We have all trashed RDP on this board, and I admit to have been one of them. But, I never trashed RDP as a person, as MarkD wrote, he is an Islanders with the desire to whatever he could for the team. I’ve trashed him about his on-ice performance.

Time is bitch, aging is a bitch and one’s time in the spotlight can end quickly and unexpectedly, Bret Lindros comes to mind. Time has caught up with RDP, Injuries have caught up to RDP, and his professional athletic career is most likely over. It is not over because he is not wanted anymore, or is hated in the locker room, or bad moths the team. It most likely over for only one reason, He can’t perform at an NHL level. Did he perform at an NHL level? Yes! Can he perform at an NHL level now? Most likely, NO. That is the sole reason why RDP does not goal tend for the NY Islanders NOW!

We may see RDP in net this year, but I’m hoping not. If the Islanders are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs you may see him give it the last college try before he realizes his time in the spotlight is over.

….but what was the supposed rumor about DP and Zenon? Did I miss that one? I really have no memory of that. And I wasn’t drunk, so……little help??

I’ve mentioned this before, but folks that make fun of his contract are the same folks that would be cheering if he hadn’t gotten hurt. We had a bonafide #1 goalie locked up long term at a reasonable 4.5 million per season who was improving each year until he needed a Life Line. Could it have been a 10 year deal instead of 15? Yeah…. As long as WangSnow continue to spend as little over the cap floor as possible, RDP will be the ultimate cap mule. I never questioned Rick’s intensity and passion, but unfortunately the tools just aren’t there anymore. How could they after all the injuries he’s been through? I’m not the only one that has questioned his lateral movement ability, which being in the Roy-esque hybrid style, is certainly important to success.

As a fellow goalie, I understand Dipietro’s plight, but ultimately IT HAS TO END. He is no longer an NHL goalie. In his younger years, he relied on his speed and quickness. But I have always said his height was his biggest detriment to his NHL career. As quick and speedy he was to drop down into the butterfly, he was ALWAYS getting beat high glove side. In this day and age, you need your goalies to be 6’2 to cover the high net when they drop down. But with his knee problems, his biggest attribute was stolen. Which is a shame, because it really did cover for his other faults. I must admit I was never a big fan of DP, saying he was always too short to be an NHL goalie, and that he was Milbury’s last FU to Islanders Fans (Being that both of them were from Boston, and I have long contended that Milbury had a secret agenda to destroying the NY ISLES). BUT, DP amazed me many times with the way he could make these timely leg saves or shoot across the net to rob down low…He did steal many games for us, but he was never that “steady rock”. He is also a head case, which if you know anyone thats been close to him, to be the truth. It doesn’t surprise me that Z, who is a consummate NHL pro, whose been around, and knows success, and probably the #1 reason the ISLES aren’t the same this year (hello continuity??) didn’t like DP….

I just hope that at some point there is a Disney sports movie ending at the end of this tunnel.

As I’ve said many times before, if the entire team had even half of Ricky’s heart and passion for the Islanders the franchise would be in a much better situation than it is right now.