Well, that was a different kind of day.
The IHDBs on the new guys the Islanders signed Tuesday:
On two-ways:
Jack Skille
Harry Zolnierczyk
David Leggio
And one Kael Mouillierat. “It was definitely important to be back in a place I was familiar with and comfortable with,” Mouillierat said; knowing the coaching staff also helped.
And on one-ways:
T.J. Brennan
Cory Conacher
and Chad Johnson.
Garth Snow said they’d targeted depth at forward as a concern. They figure this helps address it.
The reported $300,000 on the back end for Harry Zolnierczyk is a big change, though that’s the way the market has been going for a while. “I think in the past we had situations where we had entry-level players who needed playing time,” said Snow, who in the past has said he wasn’t constrained to $105,000. He added that, as the draft went to show, they felt they needed depth on the wings. “It’s kind of cyclical. This is an offseason, with a young team up here, you need some call-up options, some depth players to help push our young core up here.”
The 2008 offseason comes to mind as a similar case, and that’s one where they were aggressive as well in filling gaps, with a bunch of prospects due the next year. On July 2, their signings of Yann Danis and Mike Iggulden trickled out. (If I remember correctly, they weren’t technically announced that day. It was a different era.) A day later, they’d signed Kurtis McLean, Brett Skinner, Mitch Fritz, Chris Lee and, out of college, Peter Mannino. Joe Callahan came a week later.
That July 3 may be the only one to rival this July 1.
Tim Leone spoke to Leggio, who has played at least 36 games each of the past four seasons in the AHL but is waiting for his NHL shot. “Between David and Kevin (Poulin), we feel we’ve got pretty good goaltending in Bridgeport,” Snow said. “God forbid we have an injury up here, we feel one of those two can come up and help us get some wins.”
The defense here remains young. Very young. Lots of those guys on entry-level contracts that Snow was talking about. (That list of players signed becomes even more of a loose suggestion, a picture of where guys finished, when you note that it’s up to 25 players on the NHL side. Other kids could be added to the Bridgeport list.)
Or, with 47 contracts now including the RFAs, maybe there are trades. It’s early. (There’s room, obviously, for AHL contracts.)
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Speaking of young defensemen: First time I talked to Snow since the coaching change. “With all the young defensemen we’ve got coming through the system: Brent (Thompson) is obviously a former defenseman, Bogy’s (Eric Boguniecki) a forward,” Snow said. “It just seemed a natural move. Obviously with the familiarity of how we play here, with Brent being on the staff the last two years.” That, obviously, doesn’t help Scott Pellerin. “Pelly’s an excellent coach and obviously a good friend of mine,” Snow said. “It’s never an easy situation with something like that, unfortunately. Sometimes you’ve got to make a tough decision in the chair I’m in. You never take it lightly.”
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The Wolf Pack, riding the same playoff-free drought as Bridgeport (well, a few weeks shorter), were also getting retooled.
Via EliteProspects, Orlando announced it has signed former Bridgeport winger Nick Larson. Brett Gallant’s brother Alex is also signed there.
There are other alumni notes in the daily running post from earlier, if you missed them, including Jon Landry to Washington and Dylan Reese back on these shores, as well as a new coach in Manchester.
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Fun World Cup ride with the U.S. team. A tough way to go out, but hey: Tim Howard. Unreal.