Let's play a quick game of What if.....

What if Ryan Smyth resigned with the Islanders?

Instead of Smyth going to the future Cup Champs (in his eyes) Colorado, Ryan stays with the Islanders and get the "C".

- Would we have re-signed Jason Blake to stay competitive?
- Would we have been able to get some of the other good UFA's over the past 2 years?
- Would Josh Bailey been sent back to juniors?
- Would we have made the playoffs?
- Would we have kept Yashin?

and ultimately...

- Are we better off without him (hindsight being 20/20. He didn't exactly lead the Lanche to the promise land)?

clebo, that's a good question. I don't think Blake would still be here but I wonder if Poti and Kozlov would have wanted to come back.

hey, hope you don't mind, I moved this into rumors section since it's hypothetical scenario.

No worries...thanks...

I think you are probably right about Poti. I'm not sure Koslov would have stayed because he I believe was close to Yashin and went to play with his fellow Russian Ovie in DC. Was Blake giving any kind of hometown discount to stay?

Tough call. He had two less than stellar years after us so would he have been run out of town by now anyway? Plus the question about Bailey, would we have been in that position to draft him had we remained an 8th spot playoff team?

I don't remember too well. I think Snow wanted him for less years and money.
Blake went for the payday.

ryan smyth???when was he ever on this team? :D

Ryan Smyth signs on or before July 1...Kozlov stays, Poti stays. We make the playoffs as a 7 seed the next year. We get slightly worse. We don't get Bailey. We don't get Tavares, we may get deHaan ,we are 12th in the conference this year.

so we should be applauding smyth then booing him for leaving. having him here would've made us compete harder.

"What If..."we just stop this plan and try rebuilding with young AHL talent
with little or know talent. :torrey:

What if

Scott Gordon and his OVERSTINK system was fired and someone like Bob Hartley was brought in or better yet Bryan Trottier was given a shot?

:letssee:

THATS THE PROBLEM WITH COACHING
ITS LIKE THE GOOD OLD BOYS CLUB
ITS THE SAME NAMES OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN
AND FEW HAVE EITHER HAD 1 SUCCESSFUL GIG
OR NONE WHAT SO EVER
THEN YOU BRING IN THE NEWBIES
AND WELL THIS TEAM IN THE LAST 15 YEARS WOULD
MAKE BOWMAN AND ARBOUR LOOK LIKE FREAKIN RETARDS

I was thinking about this during the Kings game. Good post.

If we resigned Smyth we probably wouldn't have Tavares. I think we're better off without him only because he's not a franchise player. For the money we would have paid him, he'd be getting paid like one.

I've pondered this question often, and I think it's an easy one. Ryan Smyth did us a favor by not signing here. We offered him too much money; he is not an elite NHLer; and I suspect with his bloated contract, we would have stayed in the old and frustrating endless cycle of always trying to make the playoffs but never really rebuilding the organization.

I prefer the rebuild as opposed to blaming ryan smyth for us being mediocre

Coaching is the least of the problems. You don't win with AHL talent. We have three fourth lines and one defenseman, and a goalie whose five hole is bigger than the New Jersey Turnpike.

Let's Play "What If..."
===================
What If the Islanders did not S**K :letssee:

Then Jesus must have descended and strapped on a pair of skates and proclaimed: "Let there be Lighthouse!"