Thursday, July 5, 2007

Early July Rumblings

1) The Free agent frenzy has come and essentially gone. As there are still some decent players out there, and more moves to be made we will hold back on issuing the obligatory 'winners/losers' post until later this month when more of the dust settles. From the first week some interesting stories have occurred/are developing:

2) Nylander-gate:

  • The alluded to name all the more appropriate since the Swede center is going to Washington, the site of the famed Watergate hotel. No, deep throat on this one. LOL Apparently Nylander and his agent came to terms with Edmonton late Sunday night, but according to Kevin Lowe his agent told the Oiler GM his client was too tired to sign the papers that would make it binding. Lowe awakens to find that Nylander had subsequently signed with the Caps the next morning.
  • So who is at fault here? If Lowe's story is accurate, and we haven't heard otherwise as of this writing, then it appears that either Nylander, his agent or both played a bit of a slimy business move here. Our legal council tell us that unless Nylander actually signed a binding contract any verbal agreements will NOT hold up in any court. Moreover, as it appears the Caps were innocent participants, and did not have knowledge of the shenanigans that Nylander/his agent pulled on the Oilers they can NOT be held liable, so compensation can not be expected. At most the NHL can sanction the agent and or Nylander, but his contract with the Caps will stand, and he will be a Cap on opening night 2007-2008

3) Isles/Snow blame arena:

  • Our first reaction was give us a F'ing break. Our second reaction was the same as our first! Snow must really be feeling the heat and or that line was spoon fed from Charles Wang who has been trying to build a new NVMC since he purchased the team 7 years ago. In fact, it is the reason he bought the team; As part of a broader real estate venture. Building a complex of office buildings/shops in the immediate vicinity to go along with the new arena. Local officials have been dragging their feet, and this is probably just a bit of a tantrum by Wang(through Snow) to get the project moving faster.
  • The main reason the Isles failed in retaining Smyth has been documented here numerous times. It seems only Snow/Wang didn't know they never had a chance of keeping him! Even if the Isles played in the Taj Mahal Smyth would not be their captain next season. To say otherwise is disingenuous to their dwindling fan base. Which is another factor. Ownership instability has plagued this franchise from day 1. At least in the first 20 years of the team the absentee owner didn't try to influence lower management's player decisions.
  • Since1995 the team has had a (sad) story book of: bad trades/cost cutting moves, coaching changes, GM's fired after a months service, and silly 10-15 year contracts, etc. To an outsider the Isles look like a circus. Who would come/stay willingly? Adjunct to that, how many new fans would all this nonsense attract? Few! How many old fans has it disillusioned? Too many to count! Its not the arena Garth/Charles, its what has been coming from your and your predecessors offices that has damaged your team's credibility!

6 comments:

Cincy said...

Feel free to blame Charles Wang and his predecessor owners, and feel free to blame the predecessor GMs to Garth Snow. But I certainly wouldn't put blame at this point on Snow for the team's lack of credibility.

As I'm sure you recall, Snow was universally lauded for pulling off a great move in landing Smyth at the deadline. In fact, it was described by most prognosticators as a "blind-side" of all the other league GMs. Snow even got himself a write-up in Sports Illustrated.

So contrary to your assertion, everbody DIDN'T know that Smyth would never sign with the Isles. The truth is, that didn't become anywhere near apparent until the weeks leading up to July 1, when it was obvious that Snow must've put his best offer on the table and there was still no word from Smyth's camp.

The Islanders certainly do suffer from a "credibility" issue. And Wang, et al are certainly to blame (although I think the jury is far from a verdict on the DiPietro contract - it's got just as much chance at this point to end up in the 'brilliant' category, since 4.5 million per is already way under his current market value). But it's not yet time to blame Garth for anything. He had a significant hand in assembling a playoff team last year. As as you wisely imply in your blog entry, the FA signing period is far from over and there's plenty of time to make significant trades before the first drop of the puck in October. The lack of UFA signings by the Islanders is indicative of a new mentality that's obviously being promoted by Ted Nolan and ascribed to be Wang. Grades on this years' off-season movement really should be withheld until next year's final standings are in the record books.

The Dark Ranger said...

fauxrumors,...this was a brilliant recap. well done in putting all this 'poor me' crap into perspective! That's it.

tdr

FAUX RUMORS said...

1) Sauce: The DiPietro contract may very well turn out to be a good move. We were lambasted for making that very case last summer:
http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2006/09/dipietro-deal-not-so-dippy.html#links.
2) However that along with the Yashin deal, MANY other 'unusual'/silly/inanne moves to go with owner/management instabiity over the past decade have eroded almost ALL credibilty of the franchise.
3) The fact that Smyth signed for over a million less to go to Colorado simply confirms what we have written here since his arrival to LI. It would be temporary. We laud Snow for trying/landing Captain Canada, it temporarily elevated fan morale, but it was move of desperation and was a short term fix that the team will have to pay for with the loss of 3 top prospects.

Stacy Schnall said...

faux the coliseum aint that bad. There aint no bad seets and its easy to find off the hiways. try gettin to the gardin by car!
I think snow will get us sum players who nolan will make play beter like he did with kozlev and that defes guy they lost i here we got that fedortanko guy. i bet he scores 40 this year! maybe we can get soray or trade for a good scorer. Were gonna be ok i think.

Antzmarching said...

Comments:

1. Rag$, CRAPS, Avalanche are certainly among the winners up to this point... The losers? Well, there are many - Buffalo, Islanders, Devlis to name a few...

2. Georgie McFly has almost NO knowledge regarding most things... However, in being fair, he didn't do a bad job in the free agent sweepstakes... Nylander has some good years left, despite his age, and Poti brings a legitimate PP quarterback... Kozlov will also help on the PP...

3. Blame the losses of Blake, Smyth, Poti, Kozlov, and Yashin on the "Dump" of an arena they play in? - that is not even worthy of my attention...

Antzmarching said...

It's great seeing you again, STAY-SEE... So glad you and your wonderful spelling skills are back here on Faux... And, Yes FEDORTANKO is a great acquisition - uh huh!!!!

 
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