St. Louis Blues Opposition: The New York Islanders
By Todd Panula
The St. Louis Blues get to see a familiar face whenever the New York Islanders are across the ice. It has been hit or miss whether they’ve wanted to see him or not though.
The St. Louis Blues thought they were getting their goaltender of the future when they traded for Jaroslav Halak. While he never played poorly, he never achieved what many hoped after his magical playoff run with the Montreal Canadiens.
Halak was included in the failed Ryan Miller trade and then bounced around the east coast. He eventually settled with the New York Islanders.
Halak is still not putting up big numbers, but he’s getting what he wanted. When healthy, he is seeing the majority of the starts for the Islanders.
New York can’t complain too much about what they’ve gotten from Halak either. He’s led or at least helped the team to the playoffs two years in a row, even though Thomas Greiss was in net due to injury this last playoff run.
The Islanders are in a bit of a pickle right now though. They’ve improved every year except one under Jack Capuano.
However, they may have hit their peak. If first or second round exits are as good as they can be, it might be time for more shakeup.
Islander fans are hoping that is not the case. They’ve missed the playoffs 12 of 16 years before the current regime took control. Always with the promise that the team was being built.
Now, they seem to be on a bit of an ascension. Taking steps backward would only be counter productive.
Key Additions
With all the previously said, here is where it gets murky. The Islanders added Andrew Ladd and P.A. Parenteau.
In and of themselves, those aren’t bad additions. However, given who was lost – we’ll get to that in a bit – and the money handed out, you wonder what the brass are thinking.
Garth Snow, the GM of New York, gave Ladd a seven year contract. The deal is worth $5.5 million per season.
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Ladd is still a productive player, but he’s coming off his lowest point total since 2008-09. Also, he’s 30 and your numbers don’t usually go back up when you get later in his contract years.
Parenteau is a bit of an enigma. He’s put up respectable numbers in the role given, but he’s never been on any team longer than two years.
New York is obviously hoping he can recapture what he was with the Islanders in 2010-12. He had 53 and 67 points in those years.
If the Islanders had only brought in those guys as supplemental pieces, it would have been a stroke of genius. Unfortunately, they were brought in as replacements and it doesn’t seem likely to end well.
Key Losses
So, 24 year old fourth-line player, Casey Cizikas has eight goals and 30 points and is rewarded with a $3.5 million deal. Kyle Okposo, 27, has 22 goals and 64 points and they can’t get a deal done.
Is he overrated? Perhaps, but these days in free agency, everyone is.
The sad thing is how it all went down. The Islanders were either playing hardball or Okposo just wanted out.
However it went down, the fans end up paying. Cizikas gets overpaid and Ladd is given a contract only $500,000 less per year than Okposo gets in Buffalo. Doesn’t make much sense.
Also gone from last year’s playoff team are Frans Nielsen and Matt Martin.
Martin is no great loss. For whatever reason, the Toronto Maple Leafs threw a bunch of money at him – $2.5 million average – when he only broke the double digit goal barrier last season.
Nielsen earned a $5.2 million deal with Detroit. Yet, when you’re giving Ladd $5.5, it doesn’t make much sense again.
Nielsen is two years older, but doesn’t have the physical toll Ladd takes. He hasn’t shown signs of a drop in production yet either.
Islanders Outlook
Craig Custance says the Islanders have plenty of good young talent waiting in the pipeline. Like the Blues, perhaps they will get guys to step up.
On paper, however, they have not improved and may have taken steps backward. They got older with their free agents and, at best, the production will be a wash. At worst, the numbers will go down.
Their other problem is their division. In a year where they had 100 points, they had to depend on a wild card spot because the Metropolitan had so many good teams.
They have not made the improvements to make a move up into the top three guaranteed spots. Now they must hope their offseason will not drop them below the bottom two wild card slots.
Good things can happen. Perhaps Ladd will be the Islanders’ version of Troy Brouwer with the Blues.
On the surface, though, their deals don’t seem smart. On paper, they don’t seem as though they’ve taken steps forward after a good season.
Blues Games
New York holds a decided advantage in the series. 39-50-20 is the overall mark and the Blues have only gone .500 at home against the Isles too.
St. Louis is much better in this decade compared to the rest (7-3-0), but they’ll be hard pressed to make up that run of the Islanders in the 70’s and 80’s.
Fans hoping to see Halak, or root against him, will have to wait awhile. The Blues don’t see the Islanders until December.
The first game will be at the Barclays Center on Thursday, December 8. The Isles will play in the Scottrade Center on Saturday, March 11.
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The Blues will be hoping to face Jaro again. St. Louis won both games against the Islanders in 2014-15 with him in net. St. Louis lost both games last season (3-2, 2-1) and Halak played in neither.
The Islanders were pretty good, both at home and on the road last year. St. Louis will need to bring their game and play it hard if they hope to win both.