The group I was in with new Islanders owner Jon Ledecky today was very concerned with ice quality. (The team is confident in it; they didn’t think it was bad to begin with and think it’s improving.) But Newsday’s Jim Baumbach had Ledecky saying that they’re happy having their AHL team in Bridgeport. Granted, we’ve heard this before from lots of different people. There’s nothing in there specifically saying “and no way are we taking them across the Sound in 11 months.” And granted, they are still here, which, all in all, is the important thing: the moment. But still, it’s the new all-around boss (or, at least, one of them) saying they’re happy where they are. Not a bad starting point.
Seems to be a very genial guy; talked about talking to fans on concourses, on the subway. Believe he has been to Bridgeport a few times, so you may have run into him.
Later this afternoon, the Islanders dropped that Alan Quine has re-signed, and like Scott Mayfield, it’s a two-year, one-way contract. (In a reply to a reply to that tweet, Arthur Staple notes that the two-year deals help for budgeting purposes. Interesting.)
Another one-way contract you might not have expected: Cory Conacher goes back to Tampa Bay after a year in Europe. (Lindsay Kramer, who’d know him as well as anyone except Jon Cooper, saw this two years ago in Utica, which followed his Islanders/Bridgeport tenure.)
This from the other day: Kyle Okposo’s farewell to the Island, with shoutouts to Kimber Auerbach and to AHY-when-it-was-AHY.
And in another episode of As the Affilations Turn, Binghamton‘s Tom Mitchell said “we are going nowhere.”