Good times are ahead if these two are in our future...but the question is who to choose???


I say Hedman. With the signing of Dubie this almost certainly entails that DP is shut down for the year. A healthy Dipietro is a good Dipietro. Now my Hedman pick is not solid unless one thing happens....We throw a ridiculous amount of money at Mike Komisarek. Top defenseman, Long island boy, basically he will bring fans and respectability. Add that with at least one respectable free agent winger and were looking at a team that can at least compete. For now I leave the team as if, and move Weight to wing.

Okposo-Comrie-Comeau
Guerin-Bailey-Weight
Hunter-Nielsen-Tambellini
Bergenheim-Hilbert-Park

Hedman-Komisarek
Streit-Witt
Martinek-Campoli

Dipietro
Joey Mac

Healthy Dipietro plus 2 Stud defenseman= Good things. Im sure different things will occur ex.(Comrie getting traded, Weight possibly retiring due to injuries, Witt being dangled out there), but for now I think there is veteran presence mixed with a solid defense and goalie that can make the Islanders a surprise team in 2009-2010.

Mike Francesca today mention something that Tavares had said that he wouldn't come play for the Islanders he was drafted but I haven't seen or heard anything. Anyone hear anything about this ?

According to an often quoted interview from the WJC Tavares' agent said he'll play anywhere.

LIKE MIKE KNOWS WHO HE IS?
ALL WE NEED NOW IS FLAMES LEAPING THRU THE COLISEUM ROOF
AND IT WILL BE THE END OF A PERFECT NEWS WEEK FOR NYI

I thought this guy mike was a ranger fan?

Tavares sets new scoring record
I say Tavares :thumbsup:

I wonder if those stats include playoffs. I think they do. So he has plenty of time to match/best his career mark of 72 goals in a season. He's at 58 right now.

We all know how Peter Lee's career turned out. :blink:

Dont put too much into his Junior stats. It's what we see at the NHL level that counts.

The way the kids are playing we may not get either.

Ya thats true Webby...course Peter did that in 5 yrs and Tavares did it in 4. ;)

And he also passed a few good goal scorers on the way
4. Dale McCourt
8. Tony Tanti
11. Dino Ciccarelli
16. Mike Foligno
18. Steve Larmer
25. Bobby Smith

But my favorites are:
15. Jon Sim
17. Nick Kypreos
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Top 25 Career Goal Scorers OHL

You have to look at it in 2 ways. What's best for the PR and selling seats will be Tavares. What's best for the team in the long run is probably Hedman. Now I'm not down on Tavares because he looks great and we need some scoring..ok a lot of scoring but we really need a big strong Dman to start the build from. Okposo, Comeau and Bailey seem to be developing well and will have a lot on their shoulders next year.

We are catching TB way too quickly though. All this conversation may be for nothing.

I'd take either one...or anyone else in the top 5. Though i think John Tavares is who they should choose if they get the top pick.

Eklund: http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=19978

Who can see Garth falling for this ?

It won't make a difference if we get the first pick anyways.

IF.


IF = prob not. :sick:

You obviously have been an Islander fan for a long time. :rotflmao:

It all comes down to who the best available player is when we draft. The best available player is Tavares and then Hedman according to most experts and scouts.

You draft on who the best available player is and not on need. The reason being is these kids take a few years to develop any way and what you need by then could be totally different.

Didn't TB dump quite a few players into the deadline?

not much to debate -its Tavares if we get #1 and Hedman #2

we could surely use either of them .the key is to stay in 30th so we're guaranteed one of them should we lose the lotto

It's still a tough decision.

Tavares has leveled off since the whirlwind that put him ahead of Hedman, while Hedman has picked his play up a few notches. I keep hearing other hockey fans comparing Hedman to Potvin, I don't see it.

I am still torn but I continue to lean towards getting a lamp-lighter and acquiring an UFA or two to bolster the defense, hopefully in front of DiPietro but most likely it will be the tandem of Joey Mac and Danis.

Bumping this back up to the top since we're so close to Draft Day.

Anyone change their mind yet or completely set themselves on one pick and one pick only?

Tavares VS Hedman VS Duchene VS Who?

Who :torrey:

Point Blank with Denis Potvin on who to pick.....

The People For the Defense of Victor Hedman often cite the precedent set by the drafting of Denis Potvin and subsequent birth of the Islanders dynasty. Even Clark Gillies and Butch Goring have pumped Hedman sight unseen, saying it all started with Potvin.

So the Person for the Offense of John Tavares called Mr. Denis Potvin to the stand. Actually, I just called him on the phone. (For this discussion we did not include Matt Duchene, although Duchene remains very much in the Islanders’ conversation). I figured Denis would stand up for the dman. Instead, he sounded like a man with no interest whatsoever in talking his team into passing on Tavares in order to draft a brother in the blueline fraternity.

“It’s just not that simple,” Potvin said over the phone from his Florida home. “I don’t think you can look at it as just the defenseman over the forward. And as much as I appreciate the lovely words from old teammates, journalists and fans, you have to be careful with comparisons. There is no second coming of Bobby Orr, just as there is no second coming of Bryan Trottier.”

So what would you do if you had the first overall pick, Denis?


“I would pick the player that’s best for our team and best for our market,” he said.

Potvin made that point at least a half-dozen times in our 15-minute conversation, stressing that the Islanders have to do what’s best for the Islanders and their specific situation. He watched both players closely when he covered the World Junior Championships in his hometown of Ottawa. He admitted to seeing a lot more of Tavares than Hedman, but studied the highly-touted Swedish defenseman as much as he could.

“Garth Snow is in a unique situation with everything surrounding the Islanders lately,” Potvin said, referring to the team’s last-place finish and the uncertainty regarding the franchise’s future in Nassau County. “I’ll tell you this: defensemen take time. Every team would love to have Victor Hedman on their blueline for 25 minutes a game, but John Tavares is a tremendously gifted and exciting offensive player. If you’re looking for a lot of bang for your buck, Tavares is the draft pick that’s going to give it to you right away. That’s one aspect you cannot argue.”

Potvin was excited about the potential of a dynamic first line for his Islanders.

“You have a teenager in Josh Bailey. I saw in games against the Panthers that he has some chemistry with Kyle Okposo, who I think the world of as a player,” said Denis. “Put Tavares on the line and whoa…you could have something special. With experience, they could form the kind of dominant line the Islanders haven’t had in a long, long time.”

The Hall of Famer posed a rhetorical question about Hedman.

“Is Victor the kind of explosive defenseman who is going to be one of your, let’s say, top three scorers? He’s a great talent, but I don’t see that happening. Plus, the Islanders already have Mark Streit, who was a real find for Garth. If you’re going to take a two-way defenseman first overall over a forward projected as at least a 40-goal scorer, you better be sure the dman can dominate in all areas. That’s a really tough call.”

I shared my concerns with Denis about the development of a teenage defenseman. The former Panthers television analyst was witness to the first 471 games in the playoffs-less career of Jay Bouwmeester. Florida’s first round pick in 2002, Bouwmeester will be all of 26 years old in September. But after coming through the growing pains in his first three seasons to become a terrific NHLer, Bouwmeester may leave the Panthers as an unrestricted free agent this July 1.

“That’s a very fair point,” Potvin said. “We saw the ups and downs in Florida with Jay. It’s not his fault. Defensemen take time. The trouble is, when you draft a player third overall at age 18, there are expectations that you have to place him right away in the NHL. That doesn’t make it any easier on a young defenseman, no matter how talented he is.”

In the end, Potvin refused to tell the Islanders what to do.

“Let’s face it: no one has seen both of these players more than the scouts around the league,” he said. “And it’s probable that no one has seen Tavares and Hedman more than the Islanders’ scouts. As any good manager will do, Garth is going to listen to his staff. Then he’s going to make the right choice for his team and his market.”


PointBlank