Islanders Bits: Shockingly, Developers See Coliseum RFQ as Political

Well here's a story that will stun you as much as seeing the sun set in the West each day: Newsday says developers are reluctant [mobile users here] to take the County up on the Nassau Coliseum redevelopment RFQ. I know right?! Among the reasons:

"They remain concerned about the project's potential to make money. They cited the troubled economy, zoning restrictions, the lack of public funding and perhaps the biggest unknown -- New York Islanders owner Charles Wang 's plans for the team -- as reasons."

Some also characterized this chapter in the saga as -- you might want to sit down here -- "political posturing." No kidding. These RFQ stories come with the Islanders continuing not to respond with comment on the issue.

Other Isles news and reads:

• A FanPost here, with another fine look at the CBA info that should apply to the Lubomir Visnovsky grievance.
• Monitoring of the Islanders off-season training, with players scattered around the world, has gotten video intensive. Interesting read there.
• Justin Bourne flashes the bling his mother received as a wife of a Dynasty member.
  
• Josh Bailey, outdoor life.
• Google Translate yourself some Ziggy Palffy.
• So they found out what happened to the Memorial Cup, and somehow this one wasn't blamed on Kirill.

NHL News

Back to where hockey meets municipal disarray: Really, really sounds like the Phoenix Coyotes ownership situation is no closer to resolution, which means Shane Doan probably hits the market for real (Philadelphia?). Sounds like the Red Wings are out of the running on Doan.

• As PGI posted with humorous call-back to the infamous (and fake) rider: Alex Semin signs with the Hurricanes for one year, $7 million.
• Finally, the verdict is in: The L.A. Kings clock scandal was completely human. Human "error" I mean.
  
• The Flyers locked up Jacub Voracek for four years, $17 million. Broad Street Hockey takes a look at comparables.
• The Flyers also expect to extend Peter Laviolette soon.
  
• Any list of the best late-round draft picks has several Islanders (though not all of those were drafted by the Isles).
  
• And sticking with annoying posturing, the CBA: They are discussing player benefits, which is not a very contentious issue. For the larger issue, the league says all their issues are now on the table. Plenty more there in this G&M roundup.
  
• Is NHL management and hockey ops jobs a closed loop?
  
• Brandon Dubinsky is handling this "you're a Blue Jacket now" thing pretty well.
• Tim Thomas, uh, Facebooks his support of Chik-Fil-A.
  
• More on Ted Nolan and the Latvians: A challenge to get them back to the Olympics.
• Sticking to international hockey: Rene Fasal is like the Bud Selig of the IIHF.
• Visually at least, this is how far EA NHL has come.

Hey, it's either read those or do work on a summer Friday.