OffThePost.org

I never did this before, but may as well now.
Signed Bolton to a 1 year deal. Yawn.
Traded conditional pick for Halak & signed him for 4 years at $18 million.
Traded conditional pick for Dan Boyle & are supposedly shopping his rights since he said FU, although added that the Isles have been nothing but classy the entire time. They've been shopping his rights for almost a week now, which means nobody is biting, and especially now that any team can talk to his agent, I expect this to be a failed move. 5th rounder next year lost. The bigger loss is the Isles' credibility. This is yet another guy for pundits to point out who didn't want to go to the Isles.

RFA Anders Lee has accepted a 1 year QO. Both sides want to see what he can do over a full season before penning his next contract. Great idea. I think he's going to be a very good 2nd liner. He & Brock Nelson show strength & poise with the puck rarely seen in kids so young. I expect big things from both.

Word on the street is that Snow was calling agents at literally 12:01, the first minute teams were allowed to talk to agents about pending UFAs. It is widely reported that he called on Matt Niskanin & Brad Richards. Richards is an interesting one, because he may not want to move, and wouldn't have to if he signed with the Isles. I don't think that's a good reason to choose a team to sign with, but it may help the Isles bring in a guy who is past his prime, but still a decent 1/2 ppg player. I can't see Niskanen signing with the Isles, as he'll be one of the top D-men available. Unless they break the bank, they aren't getting him.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Snow never got the return he wanted for the #5 pick, so he did the right thing & drafted Michael Dal Colle. I have to say, his photos didn't exactly look very happy wearing the Isles jersey. http://islanders.nhl.com/club/news.htm? ... L|NYI|home Maybe he was just nervous. I like what he says in his interviews.

Then in a move that may not have been necessary, Snow traded the 34th & 57th picks to Tampa for the 28th. Nobody can know if any teams were going to select him between 28 & 33, but Snow did what he felt was necessary & selected Josh Ho-Sang. Snow had a slight "whoops" moment while talking with James Duthie: http://islanderspointblank.com/islander ... on-me-too/
Duthie was asking about Ho-Sang's character being questioned by hockey pundits. Snow replied "He'll fit right in. They shit on me too." Then you can see his face change slightly as he realizes what he just said on camera. Later he told other reporters that he doesn't give a shit what anyone else thinks... Except of course Isles fans. And this is why I liked him for a long time. One standard pick, one "interesting..." pick, and telling it like it is. Now just avoid the Vanek-type moves going forward, and he'll be on my good side again.
We discussed Ho-Sang a bit here: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=6526

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

I think the Isles did very, very well MDC is a really nice player and Ho-Sang has a lot of potential, I think the move up was worth it, although I would have taken Barbashev over Ho-Sang. I was really impressed with him in his interview. Candid and quite articulate.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Ho-Sang just sounds like a really cool guy:

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/jrhoc ... 07955.html

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Ho-Sang still needs to learn how to play without the puck, it would seem, but his offensive upside is absurdly high for a late first-rounder.

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The more I read about the details, the more I like the Ho-Sang pick/move. 28th was the Rangers pick, flipped to Tampa in the Callahan/St Louis deal. And one of the 2nd round picks they sent to Tampa was from the Vanek deal. Now, that sort of enhances the potential that Snow could have really blown that move entirely, but if Ho-Sang reaches his potential, it helps reduce some of the knocks against the Vanek moves.

Snow also added later on that TSN couldn't shit on him anymore than they already do just because of this move. Almost sounds like Snow is trying to show Ho-Sang that he's not afraid of the kid's "character issues".

Apparently Ho-Sang's OHL suspension has been reduced to 6 games, down from the insane 15. The kid has said he truly appreciates the Isles selecting him, and he's going to do all he can to show them they were right, and the other 26 teams that passed on him that they were wrong. Said he'll push until he can't breathe to make the Isles. I like it.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Remember the infamous pull-up test during the combine where lottery pick Sam Bennett couldn't do any?

Ho-Sang did more pull ups than anyone.

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I keep reading that many scouts had him as the most skilled player in the draft, but attitude is what kept him off draft lists. Fine with me! He said he's still learning when he can/can't speak out. Every once in a while you need a dick on the team. Or maybe he'll grow up. The Isles could use a little attitude.

I somewhat agree with Bennett- you don't do pull-ups during games. But if Ho-Sang is strong for his size, that's a plus. He's listed as 5'11" 175 lbs.

And in the last round, the Isles drafted a Sutter. Always a good move.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Pull-ups are partially about weight lifted, partially about the physics of leverage, the longer the arms, the more extension required and much more strength is required. On the other hand that same length helps generate rotational velocity such as in pitching or a slapshot. Shouldn't make too much out of it either way.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

I'm not making a big deal of it, especially since Bennett couldn't do one pull-up, and like three days later could do 2. If you haven't trained for pull-ups, going 0-2 in a few days is very impressive. But yeah, most work out moves don't translate to the ice. I think combines are pretty much BS.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Combines at least give exact height and weight measurements.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Thanks for the tip. Just looked and only 9 of the non-goalies invited were 6'4" or larger (8.3%), and yet somehow the Nucks managed to find 3 players 6'4" or larger that the rest of the NHL could not. Kudos to the Canucks scouting for a job well done. Maybe next year they just walk around the streets of Vancouver and take names of anyone over 6'10" and save all that cost of flying and actually analyzing talent.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Isles extend qualifying offers to:
Cizikas, de Haan, Donovan, Lee, Poulin, Nilsson, Gallant (AHL enforcer) and Ness. I expect Poulin to be in Bridgeport, unless they can't bring in a more experienced backup. The deal with Nabokov fell through.
They didn't extend offers to three minor leaguers, including the guy Mangene who came back in the MacDonald trade. He sounded like a throw-in by Philly to begin with.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Ho-Sang is a home run swing for the Isles. If there's a team to make that swing, the Isles are a good one. Can Capuano deal with the kid's personality? How can Tavares influence him? Great quote from Snow.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

I have no faith in Capuano dealing with anyone. I can't find much background info on the kid, other than lots of teams thought he had an attitude problem. Does that mean he's lazy and won't show up to practice? Or does it mean he talks shit during games? If it's the former, the Isles organization certainly hasn't "fixed" Kiril Kabanov. He's still a $3 million talent with a $0.01 brain, who was late and missed practices in Bridgeport last year. They demoted him to their ECHL affiliate in Salt Lake City & it didn't help any. If Ho-Sang's issue is that he talks shit or something like that, as long as he can back it up I'm fine with that. He's pretty small for the NHL as of now, so that alone may cause him to shut up until he proves himself.

Tavares should help, but seems more the type to lead by example than to sit the kid down & outright tell him how to behave. Maybe this kid will make him step up his leadership role and start talking more directly to players.

_________________
Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

This is more of a non-move, but supposedly the Isles made the same offer to Vanek yesterday they had during last season- 7 years, $50 million. He was supposedly ready to sign when the Wild made their 3 year, $19.5 million offer. I'm annoyed that once again there's a player taking less to play elsewhere, but quite frankly I'm not too upset about not having Vanek for 7 years, especially at that price. He disappears now & then, and that's just far too much money for a guy who ever disappears.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Isles sign Kulemin and Grabovski to four-year deals. Good pick ups.

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Grabo: 4 years/20M
Kulemin: 4 years/17.5M

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Surprised Kulimen got paid his production has been off for a few seasons. Hope he plays up to it in a new surrounding and likely playing again with Grabo.

Great job by the Isles. Those are high prices but they're still very good players and really make the Isles formidable at forward. With an open spot in the Metro the Isles are doing a good job getting the horses lined up for a run at it. Probably be between them and the Devils for that spot the Flyers are vacating.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb