JP's January Plus/Minus Poll

I agree with your assessment of Grabs. As I noted here.
3.5 goals for 6 months is a good pace for Grabner. The team has tried to put him in a more offensive postion. I agree with your point, and I think that if he gets more defensive responsibilities 15-20G will be a lot more important… but first they need to imporve the back line. When they had a more mobile, puck savvy defense he exploded.
That minus has garnered the most attention… I wish I could have just put his breakaway stats there.

kid is a future #2 D for a long long time. By far our best draft pick yet on D from the Snow Era.

Tavares: obvious reasons

Hamonic: The thing they need most and have least is a mobile physical defenseman, why what could you possibly get in return that would justify trading Hammer. (If Mike Milbury is reading this PLEASE contain yourself)

Nino: His egg is starting to crack. Another piece of the puzzle is a solid middle six that offers physical secondary scoring. You don’t want to give up someone with so much upside that is so close (maybe 2 years) from being a very special player that you can retain for 4 years after that rather inexpensively.

Poulin: Unless DP retires they are going to need two relatively inexpensive goaltending options for quite some time. Poulin’s indentured servitude is HUGE. You’d like to think that Montoya starts to get the bulk of starts in February and they can come to conclusive 2-3YR deal… But they do have Nilsson and Koskinen in the bullpen, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to sign Nabby for a year. If Montoya gets traded STAY OFF THE LEDGE… there is logic behind it.

(Lee, Nelson, Strome, Kabanov, Petrov) One of them is going to get “touched”, thus making the remaining pool virtually untouchable.

(Donovan/Mayfield/Pedan) It wouold take a lot for me to give up any of these players. I wouldn’t be surprised if deHaan is shopped in the off season. Especially if he makes it back this year and shows some progress. There are still some GM’s that might think he is a bag of potential… the Islanders are passed that level of need. He probably should have been traded with Jankowski for a second rounder and a backup goaltender with GM potential.

but why cant the Isles trade one or both of PA and Frans and resign them in the offseason? Possibly take a cap casualty back from another team so we can have them for next year and then just resign Frans and PA and we gain a player/prospect/ or pick for nothing.

The first CAR game in Raleigh this year was posted as 13K+. I’d have bet my lifesize Barbara Eden doll that there were less than 10K there that night. I’m pretty sure that number is based on ticket sales.

It’s always been obvious that the Islanders and most other teams announce attendance as tickets sold, not number of people through the turnstile.

It’s not like you have to refund someone who didn’t make the game.

and that is definitely one of them. The PK outscored the oppostion PP for the month. That’s not bad.

As for Grabner, maybe a week off with some individual coaching and practice might help.

The only reason I gave Grabs a minus is because the team is desperate for secondary scoring and he has squandered the most opportunities. Other than that, Grabner is definitely holding his head above water as a NYI. He is earning his pay just by his defensive play. The fact that he is minus infinity is a testimony to how bad the defense can be. I guess we could look at CORSI and stuff like that, but Grabs always seems to have his motor running. There will be a stretch when he pots 50% of his breakaways and he will be over-plused…and back on the 30G pace.
As far as PAP and the officials I couldn’t agree more… but I couldn’t make the post a monthly report card. That’s what the comments are for.

I hit on a 12 and just assumed I’d bust. In my head he started at 19 and this is his 3rd year… this is why you don’t take the SATs at 2:AM.
Young, talented and locked up. More needs to go into protecting him… maybe Kyle should spend a few weeks with Trevor this summer.

Not sure that is going to be an ongoing injury problem, so probably not looking to pluck a goaltender. They are in a comfortable playoff position anyway.

I could see if it was a groin or a knee or something likely to flare up, but this is something that when it’s healed, he’s fine. I thnk at most you’re looking at him missing 4-6 games. Also, if their schedule looks weak coming up, that’s another strike against separating from an asset to get a backup goalie.

It is a little dangerous for them on a whole though because their backups have been pretty terrible. If Howard does get hurt for any length of time, they will probably have problems.

Nabby and a player to be named later for Brandon Smith. The PTBNL will be Calvin when he gets off the DL.
Smith is two years closer to the NHL. deHaan may have a slightly higher “upside” but he really hasn’t shown it. Detroit can afford to wait for it… and Nabby is a target.

I’d fear trading with Detroit. They are such good talent evaluators I have a hard time believing we wouldn’t get fleeced.

…but small sample size. If the trend continues I’ll give the big fella a plus in February.
Right now 2012 Gigantor = 2011 Milan Jurcina..

All evil points to Brian Rolston.
Logic: If BR was more productive, Josh Bailey would be coming out of the question mark he’s been wrapped in for 3+ years. If that happens maybe Comeau is still around… or Martin is near double digits… and they are the clear second offensive line. That puts the Nielsen line right where I want them… creating offense against the oppositions’ top line.
If I’m correct we’re going to see that in February.

Really tough call on either PAP or Nielsen. Both have their “potential” replacements in the system. Nielsen has Casey nipping at his role, and there are a few guys that would love PAP’s RW job..Strome, Nino, kabanov?
But when will they be ready, and will any of them be as good as the mature players they’d be replacing.
The question for either is what you get back in retrurn if you trade them. If they go, you have to get value… that’s the key.

And I know it’s been said before, but if we trade Frans, how are we going to replace him?

Most likely, if Snow has traded either guy he’s failed to sign him before the deadline. The team isn’t goin gto make the playoffs without some backline help. If you tade either it’s a forced opportunity to fill their roles with their “potential” replacements (see above) for a few months.
The most important part of this is that you have just as much of a chance to sign them on 7/1/12 with them on the roster on 6/30 or if they are on another roster on that date.
This is a deep draft, so unless you can sign them both before the deadline I’d hang a second rounder price tag on both of them. If you could work two first rounders out of this draft you’d probably be set for a while after you got rolling.
The worst that can happen is that they sign elsewehre… which was going to happen anyway.

they would want to and have to resign with us during free agency. This isnt practical because the market can really drive up their prices and verbal agreements or promises is basically just bad business. I just feel Parenteau and Nielsen could be the most coveted players out there for playoff teams looking to make a run. They are both very versatile, valuable and (the key word) cheap players who can easily be plugged anywhere into a teams lineup.
Problem is, like i said, a verbal agreement of a player wanting to come back and play here is probably just too risky from an Isles standpoint at this point in time. Would be a nice scenario though.

Because you got me excited there for a minute, but I couldn’t find any news on the subject.

On a budget team. Most likely he is on the third pair when this team becomes a consistent playoff team. Hamonic drives most of the offense and physicality on that pairing, but their numbers are similar. You’d think that a top pairing woould bring what Streit brought in his first two years… while carrying Bruno.
This, more than anything is why I say that the defense has to be fixed first. There are literally five players playing over the level that they should be tasked with. Possibly, the only player that is under used is Streit, and that’s because they can’t find a partner that with the defensive awareness to keep him a plus player.

Hamonic, s/b second pairing
MacDonald, s/b third pairing.
Streit, s/b first pair
Staios, s/b retired/7th defender.
Jurcina, s/b 3rd pair
Mottau, s/b AHL… when he played his 11th game this year he was over/mis-used.
Eaton, s/b 3rd pair (where he should be)
Reese, 7th defender (where he should be)
dehaan, AHL (where he should be)

Don’t get me wrong, I miss Jack Hillen, too, and there’s no way I like what Eaton’s brought to the team.

Obviously posted before OT last night. I get your point. But this is a team of band aids and travis hamonic. It’s unfortunate that the timing on Streit was poor. The 2008-09 or 2009-10 Streit with the 2012-13 Hamonic would have been awesome. It would be nice if they had the luxury to make Donovan-Hamonic the first pair for the rest of the year, but Donovan isn’t ready for that, and there is no staging area because Hamonic isn’t in the AHL, and there’s nobody at his level in the organization.
The fact that their goals against has improved is mostly due to the defensive play of the forwards and the shifting of defensive philosophies. This team, as a group, does not drive the offense except when the tavares line is on the ice. They are just too timid… and they have to be, because they have to compress to help even their top pair defend.
Amac is good… but he’s following up a 27 assist year with one that he will likely finish with single digits in that category… with top pair minutes. Is that a top four defenseman? If you’re his agent sell me on $7M over 3 years. That’s what Brent Sopel is making. The 5th? defender on the 2009-10 SC champs. He’s not physical, and if not for the really nice fit between him and Hamonic he might be floating around the league in obscurity. If you think you’re duncan Keith you don’t sign for $550K for four years. I just hope that travis pays his rent or something like that. If they increase their budget to a reasonable $55M they could(If players would join the team) legitimately get a partner for hamonic, and one for Streit (eventually Donovan/deHaan) and Macdonald is a third pair defenseman. And yeah… he might be one of the better one’s in the league. WIN.

Mark Streit had four EV assists in january. You’re correct that maybe my assessment is a little unfair, but I expect Mark Streit to drive play. No defenseman has done that, not even the almighty Hamonic, though he tries. he did it a little more in January, and their record shows it… but there is definitely something missing from the Gordon/Streit. Maybe Capuano has muted that in him… maybe his injury has cost him some aggressiveness. There is just something missing 5-on-5, and I really hope it’s not Bruno, because he’s not getting that back.

As far as grabner goes I tried to explain the minus twice in this post. I definitely do not have a problem with Michael Grabner. The fact that he hasn’t had an explosive month yet is (IMHO) due to a few factors that are beyond his control. LUCK (ha.. I never thought I’d be saying that), he has been absolutely stoned and the diversity of roles. FNGO never really got “going” this year. It might be a little bit of each of the three seeking new levels. Kyle has really found a home up top with tavares. frans has not delivered offensively… I’m not even sure i like him on the PP… and Grabner seems to be delivering more defensively than offensively (definitely a good thing). Since PAP replaced Kyle he seems to be more productive when he gets stuck on line changes… and Grabs time with bailey was just a mess. Bailey has had the COZO to contend with, then the broken puck shooting machine and then they asked him to be the guy who launches the rocket.
I have a feeling grabner will flourish offensively when the line takes on more of a defensive role and they get Rhett or Nino on the RW full time. Bailey with Ullstrom and PAP might be the answer. that would give them a fourth line of martin-Reasoner/Pandolfo-(Nino/Rhett). And that’s where they start next year.