Isles Notes

The aftermath of the Alexei Yashin buyout....has the rumors are flying today....from the credible to the ridiculous.....here are a few...

According to multiple sources the Islanders have interest in bringing back Michael Peca as an UFA this summer. Peca played only 35 games last year with the Maple Leafs after injuring his knee. Not a bad idea as he is still a stong defensive player and would be a good guy in the room. Peca and Yashin couldn't coexist in their time on Long Island....now that Yashin is gone....anything is possible.

Alexei Yashin's agent will contact Ottawa GM John Muckler to guage his interest according to the Ottawa Sun.....(that should be a very short conversation as Muckler should just hang up the phone on Gandler.)

Interesting quotes by Ryan Smyth's agent Don Meehan....

"The buyout is a consideration on a number of levels, but I don't think it's a critical or determining factor for Ryan," Meehan told The NY Post yesterday. "We have not yet had serious conversations with the Islanders, but Ryan will give the team every opportunity to sign him.
"He has not told me that he is committed to becoming a free agent on July 1. We expect to have conversations with the Islanders in the near future."

Sooooo now Ryan doesn't necessarily have his heart set on testing the market??....very interesting....also interesting is that every trace of Alexei Yashin has magically disappeared from the Islanders website and has been replaced with an image of.....Ryan Smyth.....coincidence??...

The focus of fans now is how do we spend the $5.25 million dollars of cap space we cleared yesterday?....Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Daniel Briere, Michael Peca, Sheldon Souray, Thomas Vanek, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and others are all on the fan's radar....but who's on Garth and Ted's radar??? If I was a betting man....I would say Drury, Gomez, and Peca in that order.

Kyle Okposo has announced he will return to Minnesota for his sophmore season. After meeting with Islanders management he made his decision to return. Probably will be best for his development....

I asked Newsday writer Greg Logan if the Islanders had any intention on changing their dark uniform to the "retro" 1972 Jersey they wore in January. He responded that he hadn't heard anything about that....but he added that also hadn't asked about it either. He also told me the NHL was going to revert back to the white jersey's at home and the dark jersey's on the road starting next season.....which would be nice.....Personally I loved the 72 jersey and would like to see the team ditch the navy blue and go back to the old royal blue. Let me know what you think about that....if I get enough fans interested in that....I would gladly pass that info along to Greg Logan to bring up at a later date with Garth Snow.

I have a feeling that it's going to be an extremely busy summer....so I'm sure this blog will turn into a 11 month thing....(probably excluding August....as it is normally a dead hockey month)...

Have a great weekend....

Tony