Islanders News: Prospects in town for camp; Boyle's 'original' choice; reviewing free agency;

The NHL draft is history, the early free agent frenzy has settled down, and arbitration hearing season isn't until later this month. That must mean it's time for gawking at (mostly) teenagers: New York Islanders development mini-camp begins today, with the annual Blue & White scrimmage on Thursday. Here are the listed rosters for camp. Scrimmage details and ticket info here.

Practices aren't open to the public, but today's practices are at 12:45 (Blue) and 3:15 (White), while Wednesday's are at 10:15 a.m. (White) and 12:45 (Blue). Other readings to ponder as you breathlessly wait for details of prospect line combos and "looks good" tweets:

• At IPB/SNY, NHL.com's Brian Compton and Newsday's Arthur Staple discuss the Islanders' free agency moves, and what moves may come. [IPB]
• The official site calls Mikhail Grabovski's decision to sign "an easy decision." But I'm sure the money helped. [Isles]
  
• Pierre-Marc Bouchard has found work, and unlike trade buddy Peter Regin it's not in Chicago. (In Switzerland, with Zug). [le Twitter | Swiss Hockey]
  
• In a way it's better than you thought, in a way it's worse: At the end of the day, Sun Belt veteran Dan Boyle chose the wrong New York not because of "contender" credentials, but because of Martin St. Louis in an Original Six "hockey market." (Cup history since World War II, evidently, is not a factor.) [Newsday]
  
• You know who was upset by the Mikhail Grabovski signing? Alex Ovechkin. [UPDATE: Fuller translation of comments at RMNB.]
  
• Yesterday you may have seen behind-the-scenes draft video of Josh Ho-Sang, including Garth Snow's infamous quote. [Windsor] Well, by popular request we've memorialized that moment in a t-shirt, applicable to all Isles fans (pro-Snow, anti-Snow and indifferent) [LHH t-shirt bonanza]
• (By the way, the original batch of LHH t-shirts are all still here, in case you need something to impress the new girlfriend or boyfriend.)
• RETRO GAME THREAD ALERT: We're trying something new on Wednesday evening. Watching a "live" (but retro) game/game thread of the John Tonelli Game 5 against the Penguins from 1982. Come 'round and make it happen.

Elsewhere in this Beautiful Sport

• Speaking of free agency, all of the moves are analyzed by TSN's Scott Cullen, the more lucid and sober of hockey commentators.
• Are the Rangers worse after their moves and losses? Asking for a friend. [SB Nation]
• Brutality: Mike Fisher is out 4-6 months. [On the Forecheck]
• Even more brutality: Senators GM Bryan Murray has cancer. [Sens]
• Writing on the wall: Jacob Markstrom, so recently acquired by Vancouver, has requested a trade now that they have Ryan Miller with Eddie Lack. [Score]
• Money be damned, more Oilers fan info about why Benoit Pouliot is a useful player. [mc79hockey]
• There are so many steaming piles of vacuous hockey commentary coming from "legit," professional writers who only see their mother's basement on Sundays. Hottakery is a miserable place to collect all that.
• Hottakery's second piece takes on silly media reactions to Claude Giroux's detainment. Travis Hughes of Broad Street Hockey took the same topic and blasted it out of the park.