Weird Islanders: The Podcast! - Episode 10 - The Reluctant Euros (with guest Desmond Zantua)

Along with Desmond Zantua of the Through the Island podcast, Mike and Dan talk about five import players who didn’t want to become Islanders. Some stayed a little while, some longer and one not at all.

Alexander Karpovtsev and Richard Zednik were traded to Islanders playoff teams and left almost as quickly as they arrived. But they made enough of an impression that real heads couldn’t forget them. Lubomir Visnovsky and Evgeni Nabokov fought tooth and nail legally to keep from coming to Long Island, only to sign on for more and become fan favorites. Yes, we bent the podcast’s rules a little but for “The Silver Fox” and “The Professor,” we’ll do just about anything.

And our final subject was able to successfully dodge the Islanders’ grip altogether, which worked out just fine for everyone except the Sabres.

Along the way there are legendary rants, mysterious absences and an entire rock band of Weird Islanders.

Thanks again to Desmond for coming on. You can listen to the Through The Island podcast here, and follow the show at @ttislandpodcast on Twitter. And check out his band Career Day on Bandcamp and elsewhere.

WEIRD BONUS MATERIAL!

• Where to even begin? “Karpovtsev to give Islanders blueline help?” Not quite.
• Pat Foley outdoes himself here.

• Sadly, his story has a tragic ending. RIP.
• “Richard Zednik is an Islander!” True. But not for long.
• Thankfully, he survived this horrific skate cut. Viewer discretion is advised.
• There are too many Lubo links to include but you can start here, at the trade announcement...

• And end here, with our own Michael Leboff paying tribute to “The Silver Fox.”
• Dom was kind enough to summarize the entire Nabokov saga at the time.
• There wasn’t any room to get this into the episode but here you go from 2013:

• And Leboff again brought it all home for The Professor.
• Christian Ehrhoff, we hardly knew ye (but at least we didn’t pay ye).

What makes a “Weird Islander?”

We’re always open to suggestions about other Weird Islanders to discuss. Remember the criteria. Candidates must fulfill one of the two of the following:

• Played one (1) season or less for the Islanders or very short stints over multiple seasons.
• Be a veteran NHLer who is not generally associated with his time on Islanders.

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Theme song: “Knuckles” by Björn Falk. Hear more of his music on Spotify and at Bandcamp.

Drum sfx via Zapsplat.com.