2009 NHL Entry Draft

could, however, prove to be the most challenging and defining of all. We are officially at the end of year one in the Jon Ledecky/Scott Malkin era of ownership, Garth Snow remains at the helm of hockey operations and Doug Weight, he of 40 games of NHL head coaching experience, was seemingly the only option in a summer that saw at least four others looking for work with pedigree, and some even Stanley Cups, on their resume. We covered where the Islanders were this year in our annual season retrospective

the four losses, have allowed a staggering 20 goals while showing up for, arguably, four out of 12 periods of play (two in Ottawa and two in New Jersey). In four of their last six games, they have put less than 25 shots on goal. They are 26th in the NHL in 5v5 possession (47.4%) and have a PDO of 100.6, showing they are not garnering results due to inflated shooting or save percentages. Brock Nelson has no goals in 10 games, collecting only 4 assists in that span. Ryan Strome has 3-2-5 in the same

It's never been easy for an expansion team in the NHL to succeed in their first few years; ask the 1975 Washington Capitals and their eight total wins that year. But for the first time in league history, an expansion team has started the season 3-0, outperforming nearly everyone's predictions on what the team was capable of. Are they the real deal, or are we seeing an abnormality in what will be the worst season record in the league this year? It's important to look at who's been on the other end

There were no Canadian teams in the playoffs For the first time in 46 seasons, there were no Canadian teams in the NHL playoffs. The last time this occurred was 1969-1970 season where there were only 12 teams in the league and two from Canada being the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs. The league has grown to 30 teams (and is in the process of expanding), with seven of them being north of the border. Although there are only seven teams representing the red and white, it’ surprising to

Islanders fans have been desiring a ‘true’ first line for some time now. To be more specific, a true ‘first-line winger’ to play with captain John Tavares. Last season, it wasn’t quite good enough for some that Josh Bailey combined with Tavares and rapidly improving Anders Lee to forge a line that combined for 75 goals, 31% of the team’s overall production, and 174 points. This year, through 13 games, it’s even higher at 48%. ‘He’ll regress’, they said. ‘He will come back down to earth and be

Senators sign Jack Rodewald to Entry Level Contract Ottawa Senators have signed forward Jack Rodewald to a two-year entry-level contract. Rodewald was on a two-year AHL contract that is now a two-year Entry Level deal. The contract carries a value of $650,000 in the National Hockey League and $70,000 in the American Hockey League each season. (Ottawa Senators.com) The 23-year-old has three goals and one assist in five games this season for Belleville. He ranks first in goals scored while third

auction market occurs during the NHL draft. The draft lottery is a weighted system implemented to determine the order of selection in the first round of the draft. The 14 teams that missed the playoffs during the previous NHL season are awarded the first 14 picks. Teams 15 through 31 are set after the Stanley Cup playoffs. They draft in order of the fewest points scored in that season to the most points, subject to the results of the draft lottery. The Draft Lottery is utilized to assign the

It didn’t take long for the puns to start on social media regarding Doug Weight and his head coaching debut for the New York Islanders as they prepared to take on the Dallas Stars in Brooklyn. Admittedly, I joined in the ‘fun’ leading up to faceoff and at select times throughout the game. After all, why should you have all the fun? After New York kept their structure and confidence, even though the immense struggles of a power(less) play that was 0 for 7 on the evening and is 0 for their last 22

In Praise of Bill Peters Now firmly into his third season as a head coach in the NHL, Bill Peters, coach of the Carolina Hurricanes, has a lot of work in front of him to get this team into post-season contention. Through his first two years with the organization, Peters is still yet to participate in the playoffs. In fact, it has been seven years since Carolina last saw the playoffs. Peters ' current lack of post-season success shouldn 't be an immediate point for concern, as he came into the team

When asked what it means to finally climb back to NHL .500 at 10-10-5, he summed it up perfectly, as he is known to do. “It means we still have a lot of work to do. Obviously, we’ve certainly had some ups and downs, plenty of frustrations and while we’re certainly playing better hockey, we know we still