clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Islanders News: An expert, a Hall of Fame snub(?), and Belmont arena features

Dreaming about a post-pandemic Belmont, and puzzling over the Hall of Fame.

By Dominik

If you buy something from an SB Nation link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Carolina Hurricanes v New York Islanders
“A super solid guy” and “a pro all the time”
Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

The NHL announced its next Hall of Fame class yesterday. Outstanding NHL all-stars Jarome Iginla, Doug Wilson and Marian Hossa (who is still under contract with the Coyotes but whatever!) and Canadian women’s goalie Kim St-Pierre are among the inductees, as is longtime Oilers attendance prize winner Kevin Lowe. Ken Holland gets in as a builder.

Who is your top Islanders Hall of Fame snub? Seems there’s a grand ol’ case for Pierre Turgeon — at least given the present bar — but he was quiet and didn’t tag along for any Cup wins.

Meanwhile:

  • Amid concerns about the Coliseum ownership shutting its doors indefinitely, the county executive did a radio interview in which she assured us the next Islanders game in New York will be in Nassau County. [Islanders Insight]
  • NEW! One way or the other, we will know the fate of goalie prospect Ilya Sorokin next week, when the deadline for unsigned draft choices comes to pass. At The Athletic, Arthur Staple talks about how weird it is that the saga has gone on this long, through the entire shutdown and even a switch in agents:

Sorokin’s switch to [Dan] Milstein from veteran agent Paul Theofanous, who represents Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov, Rangers star Artemi Panarin and Wild draft pick Kirill Kaprizov (who is in the same boat as Sorokin), hasn’t affected any talks with the Islanders nor the NHL’s stance. According to a league source, Sorokin has been ready to sign his contract for weeks. Milstein has plenty of high-profile NHL clients as well, Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy among them.

  • Staple’s also hosting a Q&A chat this morning at The Athletic, starting at 11.
  • Anders Lee’s style is reminiscent of some guy Stan Fischler saw play in the 1940s, but his character and leadership is unanimously respected. [NHL]
  • Alumni Corner: Catching up with Andy Sutton, who toiled during some dark years (“names like Freddy Meyer, Andy Hilbert and Rob Schremp are some of the life-long friends he made on the Island”) and was sold as a pending UFA to Ottawa. You might also remember his “are you an expert?” moment. [Isles]

Uncle Leo is also a cool Dad Leo:

Finally, picture yourself in a post-pandemic world where the new arena at Belmont has all kinds of features to make gathering in crowds fun again (Click on the dateline to unfurl a sequence of tweets and features):