Transaction post-mortem

So, the Isles traded Mike Mottau and Brian Rolston on Monday, after losing Tim Wallace on waivers a few days earlier.  The three departed players combined to play in 109 games this season, tallying 4 goals (all by Rolston) and eight 8 assists, while registering a combined -29:

Mottau 0-2-2  -10

Rolston 4-5-9 -12

Wallace 0-1-1  -7

Wallace by the way left the Isles last week with a few distinctions.

With only 1 point in 31 games, he is the only forward (and 1 of 2 skaters) to appear in that many games in his Islander career and record one point or fewer (John Erskine had 1 point in 34 games)

Wallace is one of 6 forwards in Isles history to play in that many games with 0 goals  (Marty Reasoner 42, Wyatt Smith 42, Craig Berube 38, David Maley 37, Raffi Torres 31)  Ironically, Reasoner had scored 96 goals before joining the Islanders and Raffi Torres has scored 121 since.

Wallace has played 57 NHL games with 0 career goals -- it is the 5th highest total of games played among those who have forwards who have never scored an NHL goal and is 21st among all skaters.

The Isles acquired two minor leaguers in the trade for Mottau and Rolston.

One of them got a welcome to the organization from PA Parenteau via twitter:  "I would like to welcome Yannick Riendeau to the organization. The fans will enjoy this kid #greatvision"  Riendeau was a 58-goal scorer as an overager in junior, but has struggled to find the back of the net in the pros.

The other acquisition, defenseman Marc Cantin earned a bit of a reputation during training camp for his "compete level"  -- always at a level 10.
 http://www.csnne.com/hockey-boston-bruins/news/Bruins-prospect-Cantin-a-project-worth-w?blockID=562998

Both new acquisitions are still under Entry Level Contracts. Riendeau will be a restricted free agent after this season while Cantin is in the first year of a 3-year ELC.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Nino's here for good

No big surprise because there was no real talk about it but Nino Niederreiter will finish the season with the Islanders.

With the passing of the NHL trading deadline, he is no longer eligible to be returned to the WHL.  He is also not eligible to play for Bridgeport.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Will you lose part of Saturday's Isles game in the sun?

It's possible.  According to an insert I just received from iO MSG/MSG+ are subject to sun outages from Feb 29 - March 7th.  The outages, which Cablevision describes as "an interruption in satellite signals caused by interference from solar radiation. The interference is caused when the sun is in direct line with a communication satellite and the sun's radiation overwhelms the satellite signal. ...During this time, you may experience interference with picture quality and sound when watching television."

The outages occur twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring.

The potential outage times for MSG/MSG+ on Saturday are from 2:11 - 2:23 pm, which should fall during the 2nd period of the Islanders' game in Boston.  A potential outage is listed for the same time on Sunday, but the Isles-Devils game does not start until 3pm (2:30 pre-game).

Note that these outages will affect 100's of channels during various daylight hours during this period.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Staios Saga

Several outlets (including SI.com and TheNationalPost) reported that Steve Staios was traded to Vancouver for a 6th round pick around 3:30 this afternoon and then retracted this announcement a few minutes later.  This would have been after the Rolston/Mottau trade was confirmed. 

I wonder what happened.  The Canucks made two other trades around that time -- maybe this was a back-up if one of those didn't fall in place.

Update (5:40pm)
Apparently some idiot created a spoof Jamie McLennan account ...and tweeted this "deal".  It was picked up by Neil Smith, working for SportsNet and several other outlets.  

Garth told Arthur Staple that he had no conversation with Vancouver about Staios

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

$1.3 million $saving$ for Isles on Rolston/Mottau trades

Per CapGeek, Bruins add $1,094,595 in cap space by adding Rolston and $172,973 for Mottau.  Both will be be unrestricted at the end of the season.

Isles save approx $1,081,081 in salary to Rolston and $205,405 on Mottau (salary differs from cap hit -- Mottau cap hit is $800k for season but being paid $950k).

So the Isles trade two players not part of their future, save $1.3 million doing so, and then add two players who could potentially develop -- or at least help Bridgeport's Calder Cup run.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Quick Skinny on the prospects

Isles acquired Yannick Riendeau and Marc Cantin in the trade for Mottau and Rolston.

Riendeau, 22, is a former 58-goal scorer in the Q, where he played for current Lightning coach Guy Boucher.  He has split time this season w the Providence Bruins (AHL) 3-3-6 in 18 games and Reading Royals (ECHL)  9-20-29 in 33 games. Riendeau's most famous teammate from his 58-goal, 126 point season in Drummondville was Sean Couturier of the Flyers.  However, Riendeau is 4 1/2 years older than Couturier.

Cantin, 21, is a first-year pro, who has also split time with the same two teams, going pointless in 19 games with Providence and 1-5-6 in 16 games with Reading.

Cantin was a teammate of Casey Cizikas' at Missisauga St. Michaels last season.  Cantin, a defensemen, went 10-31-41 in the regular season (61 games) and added six assists in 20 playoff contests.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Mini-Skinny: Isles 4, Rangers 3 (SO)

Mini-Skinny: Isles 4, Rangers 3 (SO)        

• 1.       PA Parenteau's second career two-goal game.  The first was in Washington on January 17^th.
• 2.       Evgeni Nabokov remains perfect in OT/SO's as an Isle (7-0).  He's actually been perfect in eight overtimes; DiPietro was the loser in an October shootout after Nabokov was unscored upon in overtime.
• 3.       Isles' PK has allowed six PP goals in last five games after allowing only 5 in prior 27 games. They have allowed two power play goals three times in that stretch after allowing multiple power play goals only twice in the first 56 games of the season.
• 4.       Moulson now has opened the scoring 10 times – tops in NHL. He is four goals shy of his third consecutive 30-goal season.
• 5.        Isles scored twice in first 8:42 after scoring only once in prior two games…combined.
• 6.       A fight…and seven more hits for Matt Martin…who leads the NHL in hits by a wide margin.
• 7.       Isles are 5-1 in last 6 shootouts; this was their first home win in last five shootouts, dating back to 12/29/2010 win vs Pittsburgh – the night the Isles stopped Sidney Crosby's point streak.
• 8.       Frans Nielsen scored on the Isles' first SO shot; he is now 21-35 (60%) in his career.
• 9.       Isles are 5-1 all-time in shootouts against the Rangers; only Ranger win came the night Rick DiPietro held the Rangers to 1 goal on 57 shots in regulation/overtime (3/5/2007). Isles win the Coliseum portion of this year's season series 2 games to 1 (4 points to 3), but trail overall 3 games to 2 and 7 points to 4.  The final meeting is March 11^th in New York.
• 10.   Casey Cizikas played 11:33 in his NHL debut.
• 11.   Isles still in 13^th place, but close within six points of 8^th place Florida, and seven points of Southeast leader Winnipeg. Florida holds two games in hand on the Isles and four games in hand on the Jets.
• 12.   The Isles begin a four-game road trip in Ottawa on Sunday (5pm). 

The complete Skinny returns next week.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick