With a little over 24 hours remaining until Islanders GM Garth Snow prepares to make a huge decision with the #5 pick overall, the big question is will he use it, trade up, or trade down?
As you probably saw in my previous post, I'm very high on Russian super skilled LW Nikita Filatov. But in recent days it has been more and more emphasized that defense wins championships and a top flight stud defenseman is rare to come by. So there are many supporters who believe if one of Zach Bogosian, Drew Doughty or Alex Pietrangelo are available at #5 then the Islanders should snatch him up.
Recent rumors have the Islanders thinking about moving up to the #2 position in a trade with Los Angeles so they can take Bogosian, who I believe is the best of the top three d-men. I don't believe that trade is likely. Unless LA is willing to take one of the Islanders extra second & third round picks along with a swap of first rounders, the Islanders don't have much else to give up as they would surely have to give up a young player. That is not the direction the team is looking to go in.
On the other foot, if the three d-men are gone and Filatov is not for the Islanders accroding to Snow, they may decide to trade down by receiving a young prospect from another team, and then grab a guy later on in the draft that they still may have rated high on their list.
If you ask me though, the top three d-men along with Filatov are all capable of being franchise to impact players. So I don't see a reason to trade down unless it is a REALLY good offer.
Other Rumors
Forget the Islanders getting Bryan McCabe and the #7 pick from Toronto. With the state Toronto is in, even if dumping McCabe's contract would help them down the line, I don't see the fans in Toronto accepting the Leafs coming away with nothing Friday night.
2008 Islanders Picks
1st round - 5th overall
2nd round - 36th overall
2nd round - 53rd overall*
3rd round - 66th overall
3rd round - 73rd overall~
4th round - 96th overall
5th round - 126th overall
5th round - 148th overall^
6th round - 156th overall
6th round - 175th overall#
Total: 10 selections
* Acquired from EDM in Bergeron/Grebeshkov deal (was a third round pick; later became 2nd round pick for Allan Rourke + the 3rd)
~ Acquired from ANA for Bergeron
^ Acquired from PHI in York/Robitaille deal
# Acquired from MIN for Simon
& 7th round pick dealt to SJ for Davison
Blog News: You need a google account to leave comments on the blog. It might be slow coming at first because I don't know if anyone knows about the blog yet. But I wanted people to sign up so I don't get anonymous entries.
No comments:
Post a Comment