Please release me/Let me go

The Islanders confirm Dubielewicz, while indicating he still needs his formal release from Ak Bars Kazan.

—-

Edit: Vladimir Nikiforov has been replaced on the ECHL National Conference All-Star team, with BST tryout Tom May. The event is next Tuesday and Wednesday.

—-

It’s all speculation; it’s all conjecture. Which is what makes it fun.

The Islanders blogosphere lit up a bit at this TSN report about the Islanders’ accepting an exhibition invitation to play in Kansas City.

Aside from reportedly having some crazy little women there, they’ve also got a new building. Now, the market may be questionable for another franchise, but the building and the connections there are going to make them an expansion/relocation candidate in a lot of rumors and maybe some threats for the near future.

The Islanders are working hard for an arena and real-estate development deal. It’s slow to materialize. People put two and two together and wonder what this exhibition game might tell about the future of the franchise.

Is this Horace Stoneham at Candlestick Point? Way too early to know. Is it a nudge? Maybe. Will the powers that be listen? Wow, is politics even less-knowable. For now, it’s just light reading.

The Sound Tigers’ future is tied up in the Islanders’, obviously, although it’s believed that Bridgeport’s future doesn’t have to be. But it’s still a story to keep an eye on.

Edit: That last bit reads funny, on second look. The point is that should the Islanders ever leave the Island, and then they pull out of Bridgeport — and nothing indicates that the day is imminent in either site — it’s believed someone would be interested in moving in.

Michael Fornabaio