First Rounder No Guarantee

His name is Robert Nilsson. He was drafted by the NY Islanders in 2003 in the first round, 15th overall. This year, the LA Kings took Derek Forbort at 15th. Peter Holland was drafted by Anaheim in 2009 and Erik Karlsson was drafted by Ottawa in 2008. Number 15, the middle of the pack and no guarantees.

Robert Nilsson played 53 games for the NY Islanders in 2005 and 29 games in Bridgeport. He scored 14 goals and 34 assists that year. Not too bad for a rookie season. But it wasn’t enough to keep him on the Islanders. It was, however, enough for Edmonton as they took the package of Robert Nilsson, Ryan O’Marra and the 2007 draft pick for Captain Canada, Ryan Smith. There were those that said the Islanders overpaid for what turned out to be the rental of Ryan Smith, but Nilsson played only four games with the Edmonton Oilers and 19 in their AHL affiliate from March to April of 2007 after playing 50 in Bridgeport that season. Perhaps he didn’t even unpack that year and wasn't sure where he was waking up.

In 2007-2008 he played 71 games in Edmonton and only 5 in their AHL affiliate. It was his time to shine, and he did -- to a point. Nilsson scored 10 goals and 31 assists for Edmonton that season. Was he no longer the kid rumored to be moody with a less than stellar work ethic?

In April of 2008, the Oilers signed Nilsson to a three year contract. In January of 2009, he suffered a concussion. From looking at his stats page, it seems he suffered a few that kept him sidelined again in November and December of 2009 as well as April of 2010.

Last season he still managed to play 60 games but only came away with 27 points with 11 goals and was a -17. Nilsson has struggled with his consistency all along. Perhaps he hasn’t changed at all. Perhaps it is his work ethic or perhaps the spark of talent that everyone saw in 2003 never seemed to grow.

At only 25, he is owed $2.5 million for the last year of his contract. The Oilers have placed him on waivers to pave the way to buy him out. With only five years of NHL experience, would anyone think a team would be ready to buy out a young, first round draft pick?

It seems a shame that someone that had so much promise in 2003 would be in this position only seven years later. Let’s hope our draftees don’t end up with the same fate.

On the other end of the spectrum, with 14 years in the NHL and one more year left on his contract at $3 million, this first rounder of 1993 (11th overall) could face a similiar fate. Will he be put on waivers to pave the way to be bought out, will he continue to play in Bridgeport or will the NY Islanders be able to package him in a deal?

Weight IN: Witt Where?

Late yesterday afternoon, I tried to follow the chronology of the "Doug Weight Returns to the Islanders" signing information and found that it had spanned a full 24 hours and over 75 different Twitter users.

I heard it first on NHL Live on Monday afternoon and it was credited to USA's Kevin Allen. At first I didn't think much of it because Doug himself had spoken to any reporter that would listen expressing his desire to stay on Long Island and return to the Islanders.

It wasn't really news, but it IS June so it was covered like it was a hot topic. Late Monday night, I write a quick entry on HockeyBuzz about the possibility of Doug returning and what it may mean to the locker room. It was only meant to get conversations started as it is -- JUNE. Dumbass that I am, I didn't post a link to it because it wasn't anything important. Had I known... Had I known...

By 9:45 am yesterday, the Tweet went out that Doug had been signed, or should I say, had been JUST ABOUT signed, with only a few details pending. But from the time line I saw, that wasn't the first news bulletin to hit the wire. It doesn't matter any more anyway. Word spread quickly and like a game of telephone little pieces were added to it each time. Perhaps that's what happens because of Newsday's pay wall or because it WAS really a SLOW media day for hockey, but it went out over and over and in multiple languages.

At precisely 1 pm, GM Garth Snow put down the golf clubs and called into NHL Live for a few minutes. When asked about the contract, he said that they were "pretty close to getting a deal done." and that he was "looking forward to a healthy Doug Weight in our room."

So the deal that isn't exactly finalized and signed was Tweeted out later last night as being worth $800-900,000 plus bonuses.

Call it smart, call it a mistake, call it misplaced loyalty, call it whatever you wish. I call it keeping a good man around who has been friend and land lord to John Tavares.

So now here's another line in the water. While I was driving to work yesterday, Hockey this Morning on XM said that the two week NHL buyout period had started. I sent out a Tweet wondering if Brendan Witt would be bought out or not. Oddly -- NO ONE picked up on it.

Witt has one more year remaining on his contract and it is worth $3 million. He played the final games of last season in Bridgeport. Do we really expect him to be paid $3 million to play in Bridgeport? Would any other club want the veteran defenseman for something -- anything?

Good question, right? The sad thing is Witt is a great guy. He truly is!! But he just wasn't the player last season that he had been when he was given the 3 year contract. It happens. So -- Now what?

Finally! HOCKEY!

Ladies & Gentlemen -- The First "Schremp" jersey! I'm sure there will be plenty more. I'm calling for another goal by Robbie tonight.

Okay, three days off and the Isles hit the ice in Tampa Bay against Vinny & the Bolts and all their ownership problems. Yeah, the circus is still in FLA.

Brendan Witt was placed on waivers yesterday (a surprise to him) and Josh Bailey was deemed to need to miss the next two weeks (or four since it's olympic break) with an upper body injury.

Biron is in Bridgeport playing with the Sound Tigers and getting some game action this weekend. Hopefully that snow storm that's heading our way won't interfer with their travel plans.

There will be an all encompassing Cover-It-Live free-for-all tonight between numerous bloggers from numerous outlets covering tonight's game. When I have the address, I'll post it.

Lastly, here is the link to a post on Hockey 'n High Heels from three hockey ladies with their thoughts on the upcoming Vancouver Olympics.

Scott Gordon post game Bergie Love Fest 2-26-09

I know, I was slacking last night on the updates. But you can't swing a rally towel around this Internet without hitting a blogger doing live game updates, so I'm sure I wasn't missed. Besides, everyone knows when my friend Vicki is in the building, I'm generally MIA from the box.

But here's where I come in handy: The post game.

So after watching the longest third period any of us have ever witnessed there wasn't the normal sense of disapointment heading down to the post game. An exciting way to tie up the game, a spirited overtime and then the stand-on-the-chair so you can see shoot out was entertaining enough to make us all forget about the loss.

Since the Leafs had scored two goals, one at the very beginning of both the first and second periods, Gordon was asked if it was difficult to not be deflated by such quick scoring. I loved his answer:

"We could have easily deflected after our extended losing streak in December. The one thing I stress to our players, we are building something here for next year. And I'm not going to stop coaching and trying to get our team to be better and I expect the same from all our players, but particularly the guys who will be here next year to get a better understanding of the system play, HOW we want to play and our team identity. It's all going to be built the second half of the season. I've said, as much as I want to win, and I know the guys on the team want to win the objective is to get better. And considering the circumstances of what we've had to go through, considering the injuries and Ricky being out all year, we've had hurdles and adversity. And one of the key areas of how we handle it is our character and not breaking away from what we want our team identity to be."

Of course, we're not 100% sure who WILL be here next year.

Gordon explained how the ref told him that Brendan Witt just got caught in an unfortunate situation which earned him a 5 minute major game misconduct. We'll have to see how the league feels about it later today.

But it was Gordon's discussion about Sean Bergenheim that made me stand there smiling quietly. Scott compared recently traded Chris Campoli to Sean Bergenheim in the fact that both of them had talked to Scott about their roles on the team. It's obvious that Sean reacted somewhat differently than Chris.

"Someone who, for me, has turned a corner is Sean Bergenheim. He didn't like his situation, we talked about it. He didn't like my conversation and a week or two after the initial discussion, we had ANOTHER discussion. I think he saw the big picture a little clearer. Immediately there was a situation that happened to him that his response was what I would have expected of anyone on our team, but it was different from what he would have had in the past. Which to me, was very encouraging."

It seems that Campoli couldn't make it work for him with Gordon.

"They're not always going to see eye-to-eye with what I see, but in the process, I'm always trying to work with them and get them to see things in a different perspective and hopefully they come around."

Chris didn't. He proceeded to say that if the room is better without him, so be it. OUCH!!

Scott continued to talk about Sean, "With Bergie, you're always going to see his physical play, his skating. He's a strong kid and for me what's changed he's challenging himself offensively to do more things. I don't mean trying to beat people one-on-one or trying to make plays which shouldn't be part of his repertoire. He's challenging himself more with the puck, to be a puck possession guy, to protect the puck better, to be deceptive, to cut back on the opposition. And as a result more things are happening for him offensively."

Jon Sim, looking healthy and happy was waiting in the locker room. He explained his goal as a "...great pass from Strieter and I just took the puck down the wing and let her rip....Everyone wants to play. You're happy when you get a lot of ice time and you're not happy when you don't play a lot. You still have to go to work and work hard."

It was very humble and he gave Mark Streit a lot of praise for his play.

We continued the Bergie Love Fest in the locker room when he came in to address the media.

"The penalty shot; I had something in mind. But he left that side open so I changed it. I was going to deke but I shot it. I wanted to lift it a little higher but it just didn't go where I wanted it. And then the goal was where I figured, I'm going to deke this time and it worked."

He should have known better as it seems that Sean and Toskala know each other pretty well. Although the comeback was encouraging, Sean's thoughts on the game were telling.

"We had a pretty bad start, but we picked it up. I think we played much better and killed a five minute major. Five on five, I think we had a pretty good game. It was good that we got the one point and we came back, it shows something about the team, but of course, we have to find a way to win these games. "

And that's what Scott is trying to teach them.... for next season.

Another Re-Run - Game Recap

If I'm tired of watching this, I'm sure the team is as well. Another three goal lead, another third period collapse. Everyone stands in the room and asks "What happened?" The answer is easy to describe and hard to fix.

Stan Fischler asked Scott Gordon if the team was tired in the second. He answered that they had to be because they spent so much time in their own zone. And then Scott said something I never thought I'd hear. The power play was atrocious.

In the locker room, Brendan Witt was already in his stall -- waiting for the onslaught. Again, the question at hand; WHAT HAPPENED? He said they stopped skating and started watching. Well, Crosby and Malkin are fun to watch. But that should be for us in the audience.

"They outplayed us. We don't complete 60 minutes to give ourselves a chance."

When Joey MacDonald entered the room, again the same questions again the answer boiled down to "We stopped skating."

Stan Fischler finally got the answer he was looking for when Doug Weight with a quarter size welt on his face said "The third period, we were tired and sluggish. Give those guys room and they're going to make plays."

I was happy to see Josh Bailey allowed into the room. He did have a two point night, and he handled himself well. Islesblogger.com Mike led the questioning for the bloggers that surrounded him after Point Blank had finished talking to Josh in the far end of the room.

I actually couldn't take much more. I waited in the foyer for my car escorts.

While I was waiting, I watched Bryan Trottier wait patiently with a man and his young son. As Sidney Crosby come out, he stopped him, introduced himself and asked for an autograph for the boy. Not only did Sid sign for him, but he leaned down and had a little conversation with the boy.

No matter what you think, this is really what it's all about. A star player taking the time late in the evening to chat with a young fan, an Islander fan at that.

Yes, it was a lead squandered once again. But there is still nothing greater than the game itself. So we will watch, and wait. And pray they can figure out how to fix it.

Charity Begins at Home, but knows no Boundaries

Pat LaFontaine is a genuinely busy man. He was even busier last week as he unveiled the latest initiative of his Companions in Courage foundation with the help of the NHL media outlets. The announcement of new technology Microsoft XBOX 360 portable kiosks came on Wednesday of last week. On Thursday LaFontaine was a guest on just about every show NHL.com had to offer. This man does not tire when he is trying to get his message out. What he has done for ill children since 1997 is just beyond admirable, it’s remarkable.

Having personally dealt with the death of a young sibling long before the video game era, I can relate to how much these Lion’s Den rooms mean to desperately ill children and their families. There is hardly anything you can do to get a young child’s mind off what is happening to them in a hospital. But with the power of the internet and the new technology that abounds, they can at least have a few hours when they don’t have to think about it.

My stepbrother was confined to a hospital bed for the last months of his life, just waiting -- waiting for a miracle cure or his last breath. There was not much he or anyone could do to take his mind away from the moment. If there had been something like these new game kiosks that could have been brought into his room, perhaps his last weeks would have been a little easier. They cannot take away the pain, but they can take a mind to another place. Check the NHL.com article for all the details of this new technology and how LaFontaine is bringing a little comfort to so many families. http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=361564

Also notice that both Rick DiPietro and Ted Nolan spent a little time last week on this project too. I haven’t been able to get any details on their experiences, but I’ll keep trying. This seemed like a no-brainer for Rick to be involved since he has always been great with the kids. But I thought Ted Nolan more as the Charity GOLF type than the Video Game type. But I think that’s just because he’s closer to my age than to Ricky’s.

Ted is no stranger to charity foundations, as he has his own Ted Nolan Foundation to benefit Canadian aboriginal youth and will be busy this off season with various Canadian community charities as a keynote speaker on May 29th and manager of his own annual charity golf event.
Meanwhile, Mike Sillinger, and his new hip back home in Regina, with his partner Jamie Heward have their Shooting Stars Foundation and are getting ready for their June 12th and 13th events.
Check their website at http://www.shootingstarsfoundation.ca

In February, Bruno Gervais teamed up with the Red Cross in Nassau County as a celebrity spokesman, and he also heads up another Red Cross based charity in Canada. Also, we all know how much work Mr. & Mrs. Brendan Witt have put into their Witters Hitters, also a children’s based charity to bring children with cancer, and their families, to enjoy a hockey game they wouldn’t normally get to see.

There are currently 904 players in the NHL, I’m sure there must be about 500 NHL based charity foundations too. It’s endless. Maybe over the summer, when I’m bored out of my mind without hockey, I’ll go looking for all of them on the net. But it is nice to know that the guys, who put so much of themselves out on the ice, put so much of themselves off it as well.

For something the nay sayers tell us is such a violent sport, it’s got some of the greatest guys on the planet.