At mid-day the NHL Trade Deadline was a half-day of epic nothingness, with Andrei Kostitsyn joining his brother in Nashville as the only half-way remarkable move.
On the Islanders' front, Brian Rolston cleared waivers like pretty much everyone on the planet feared assumed -- I guess people just don't know the value of a nine-point 39-year-old anymore, now do they?
There was lots of scuttlebutt about Islanders desirable pending unrestricted free agents P.A. Parenteau and Evgeni Nabokov, but nothing truly new today or even worth citing: It was already widely reported the Isles are working on a contract with Nabokov and not inclined to even shop him. It was already widely reported that Parenteau had shut down the contract talk studio for the season. Newsday's Arthur Staple did say the Isles are getting calls on Parenteau and defensemen Mark Eaton and Milan Jurcina.
It's theoretically possible the Islanders could reach contracts with either of them at a later date if they're not dealt at the deadline. It's just a risk of losing them for nothing. By "shelving" talks a couple of weeks ago, Parenteau and his agent Allan Walsh were calling Garth Snow's bluff. The thinking here is if Snow doesn't receive a top-shelf offer for Parenteau, he'll up his offer and give Parenteau -- who wants to stay -- what he wants.
Meanwhile, around LHH:
- Leave your official contract offer(s) for Parenteau in this FanPost.
- Relive the top 5 deadline trades by the Isles and the morning comment chatter here.
- Rewatch the Ryan Smyth trade post-mortem here.
- And realize how far the playoffs are out of reach here.
- Check out SB Nation's stream of deadline coverage here.