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I thought this deserved its own topic. We have trusted one of our number 1 picks to the loving hands of Islanders GM Garth Snow. In Garth I have a great amount of trust. Just last year he won Buffalo's executive of the year award for doing the most to help the Buffalo Sabres. We count on him still. Not since the days of Billy Smith have we had a better reason to wish rotten luck, hard cheese, and misfortune upon the prospects of the Islanders. Our new second favorite team is any team playing the Islanders in 2014-15. So far the Islanders are not looking completely incompetent up front.....their blue-line is another story. Offseason moves to date: Mikhail Graboski - 1/2 point a game centerman via Washington Nikolai Kulemin - Once 30 goal scorer in 2010-11, he has had just 30 goals since. Via Toronto TJ Brennan - Well known to Rochester fans. Cannon shot. AHL savant. Unproven NHL talent Halak - Via - St. Louis - via Buffalo. Cody Conacher - Still young, but career sputtering since his rookie campaign. The Isles Top 6 include: Tavares, Neilson, Okposo, all who can put up points. The Isles blueline is not very deep: Visnovsky, Hickey, Harmonic, Carkner Youngsters Ryan Strome, and Griffin Reinhart could emerge this year. Although the Isles have some talent, lack of depth at every position threatens the success of their season. I think following the Islanders could be one thing that takes some of the sting out of following the NHL next season from a Buffalo perspective. So opening volley. Which teams today are the Islanders better than? Looking at rosters, I have this optimistic assessment: I think they are better than only Carolina, Buffalo, Edmonton, and Florida with certainty, and maybe tie with Ottawa and Winnipeg. So in Wangs world style, we say: Tank on, Garth, Tank on, Wang.

I know it is far to early but come on we are already discussing this in multiple places. Eichel/McDavid are fascinating prospects with franchise changing potential. We now know we have at least 3 first round picks in the 2015 draft with a possibility of at least 2 lottery shots. So this guy And this guy And that is just the top 2 guys. Here are some names to look up. http://www.draftsite.com/nhl/mock-draft/2015/ O and paraphrasing "You ain't seen nothin yet."

Gretzky was great. He would not score in todays NHL at 50% more than the next guy. The talent gap closed so the top players are closer. Also the game is played differently. McDavid could be the Gretzky player of his era or the Crosby if you will. What's jack eichel comparable too. Here discuss til your hearts content and stop wasting the development camp thread on it.

It is dream matchup of OHL playoffs - teen idol matchup that every girl in Canada was screaming about. We got our wish girls. It starts on Thursday. GAME TIME at Erie Thu Apr 9, 7:00 at Erie Fri Apr 10, 7:00 vs Erie Sun Apr 12, 7:00 vs Erie Tue Apr 14, 7:00 at Erie Fri Apr 17, 7:00 Marner and the Knights were 1-5 in games against McDavid and the Otters in the regular season. What makes this interesting is that the Knights have the hot hand, especially Marner these playoffs. Mitch, as you'd be able to tell from the pictures, is a late developer physically, but is his ceiling at McDavid's level? That question, and many others will make this an interesting series.

So I watched Hockey Central today and something caught my attention, one of them mentioned Malkin's injury history, and how both should be in the prime of their careers. I nodded to myself and thought "well of course, Ovechkin has been tearing it up every year" then I thought about Malkin and realized he's been largely average since his one and only 50 goal season in 2011. Now, "largely" is an extremely relative word here and I mean it more in the sense that he has been average in comparison to Ovcehkin, his draft-hype, where he was drafted, and how many perceive of him as the 3-4th best player in the world. So, here is my question: Given all of the information we now know about both players, and given you have a roster with no dramatic edge in need towards RW or Center, would you still take Ovechkin over Malkin? It's center vs RW, proven Cup winner vs. stats, Ruski vs. Ruski. Me personally, I take Ovechkin. He's healthy more often, puts up better stats (albeit at a less demanding position), and is just a bigger impact than Malkin. Here are the stats for both players http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=722892 http://www.hockey-reference.com/players/o/ovechal01.html And last year nhl.com did a 2004 redo and wrote why the have Malkin edged over Ovechkin http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=722892