Source: Lighthouse Hockey Requests Trade from SB Nation

Lighthouse Hockey has requested a trade from SB Nation, a source has confirmed.

The highly-regarded Islanders blog is unhappy with its current situation, the source said, and feels it would be better served being hosted by another network.

The five-year-old blog has dutifully covered the hapless Islanders day-in-and-day-out including all of the rebuilding club's mounting losses, rotating rosters and off-ice escapades. Despite being one of SB Nation's most family friendly and accessible blogs, Lighthouse Hockey was not even linked to the network's main page as the NHL season resumed last weekend after a four-month lockout.

Lighthouse Hockey's agent contacted SB Nation via e-mail last week about the trade request, the source said. It is believed that SB Nation is not amenable to a trade.

"Conversations between blogs are confidential," said SB Nation NHL editor Travis Hughes, who would not discuss a possible trade. "But Lighthouse Hockey has never expressed unhappiness to me. We view it as a valuable member of our community and big part of our future, because someone has to cover the Islanders now that they've decided not to become the next Quebec Nordiques."

"Travis is also a Flyers blogger so he cannot be trusted," the source, who is not Deandre Ruiner, said. "You see what they do to goalies? Same thing they do to blogs - they destroy them!

"Lighthouse Hockey is not getting the proper care and support that it needs to grow into the smooth-skating, two-way defensively responsible NHL blog everyone knows it can be."

There has been some concern about Lighthouse Hockey's development since last year. The site spent a very difficult season covering the struggling Islanders with a limited audience and in an unfamiliar grinding role. Rumors also swirled that SB Nation was only hosting Lighthouse Hockey solely to stay above the hockey blog floor, with critics charging that the network only covered the minimum through accounting tricks and by unachievable bonus coverage of international hockey.

But during the lockout, Lighthouse Hockey flourished, covering the Islanders' prospects, the team's impending move to Brooklyn and increasing its output of comedic articles with consistent energy and a high skill level. It even ventured into video, receiving an honorable mention for "Best Unintentional Cable Access Parody" at the 2012 Golden Bloggy Awards.

The blog's strong season has left its camp baffled as to why it hasn't been featured on SB Nation's homepage. The source believes that Lighthouse Hockey would prefer to play immediately for a network with more autoplay ads like Bleacher Report, HockeyBuzz or ESPN.com.