Insanity On The Island: How NOT To Run Your Team

Greetings friends, no this is not a post about everyone's favorite TV castaways, there's only island crazy enough to have a man named Mad Mike and that's Long Island, or as the residents call it, Longisland (that's one word for you out of towners). It seems that some owners will go pretty far to get what they want. Case in point, Mr. Bob Clarke did just that when producing the first offer sheet of the 21st century to Ryan Kesler, attempting to steal him away from the Canucks for unnecessarily large $1.9 million, more than double what the Canucks were going to pay him if signed. Naturally GM Dave Nonis had no choice but to match the offer begrudgingly, ticking off many GMs who wouldn't want to pay a 10 goal scorer that much money. It's the danger of precedents that set people off, arbitrators, GMs, and agents look to other contracts to say why a certain player should garner so much. It's a big deal because it's one of the things that caused the lockout in the first place. Time will tell if the CBA can stand up to this nonsense once again.

But enough about the Flyers, Clarke's damage was minimal compared what Islanders owner Charles Wang just did to his fan base. Wang personally negotiated a deal with #1 goalie Rick Dipietro, the 2000 #1 pick, the first goalie to ever that high, for a 15 year, $67.5 million contract. I'll repeat that, 15 years, $67.5 million. The longest contract in NHL history, 2nd longest in all of the major sports. To say that such a move is bold, brash, and completely idiotic is to be cruel to such adjectives. Wang made it known that GM Garth Snow (some of the most hilarious words ever uttered) was not really involved in this, but that he made the negotiations. Wow, really, no kidding. Wang, give it up, we all know you're in control and Snow is nothing more than a puppet. Some suggest GM by committee, I suggest GM, President, Owner, and future Coach Charles Wang. A 15 year contract means that he'll be an Islander to 2022, to 40 years old, getting paid $4.5 million every year, a contract that can only be broken if he retires due to injury. Before this, Alexei Yashin with his 10 year contract on the island was the most untradeable player in the league, but Dipietro is now unthinkable. Yes in truth Dipietro is and will be a better player than Yashin is, because as good as Yashin could be, he just doesn't care anymore and doesn't have to; then again that's the danger of the 15 year contract, does Rick have enough drive to care after he may never have to sign another contract in his life at such a young age. He's an Islander for life because as unnamed GMs stated, no one will touch that contract and if Rick fails, Wang won't be able to trade him. Of course this was icing on the cake for the Isles.

Back when Mad Mike Milbury was the GM, things were terrible too, not quite THIS bad, but bad enough. When Milbury elected to take Dipietro #1 in the draft, there was a reason. They had a #1 goalie prospect in the name of Roberto Luongo, taken #3 in his draft. But Mad Mike got tired of Luongo for some reason, and sent him packing to Florida. The trade was Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha. Today that would be considered highway robbery by the Panthers and it still holds up now. While trading Roberto was foolish, Jokinen certainly had been a disappointment thus far, failing to reach his #4 overall status in both LA and Long Island. Parrish was becoming a fan favorite in Florida while Kvasha hadn't shown too much. In the end, Luongo left for Vancouver while proving to be a strong top goalie talent and Keenan turned Jokinen into the captain he is today. So now, the Isles have neither player they received in the deal and the Panthers have Jokinen, Bertuzzi, Auld, and Allen; to say it's one sided is understatement, even if it was just Jokinen for Parrish and Kvasha. But that was Mike, this is Charles and he makes Mad Mike look tame by comparison. After hiring Neil Smith as the new GM, he was fired 40 days later to make way for Garth Snow, the then backup goalie of the Islanders. Smith in his short time acquired Mike Sillinger, Chris Simon, Tom Poti, and Brendan Witt for the team and while none of them are serious impact players, aside from Poti they were fairly worthy additions to the team. But with the Dipietro signing, firing Neil for Snow, and even signing the incredibly underachieving Viktor Kozlov, Wang may have already outdone the damage that Milbury had crafted, and that's saying a lot.

But with all that, I'd like to tip my hat slightly to the Blackhawk organization. I know it sounds strange, since they are easily the worst run franchise in the league...that was until Wang showed his power. Now they're 2nd to worst and that's gotta be good for something. I will credit them for finally making a bold but not entirely stupid move in ridding themselves of Mark Bell and Kyle Calder. Mind you, both were pretty darn good players for the Hawks, but the return of having Martin Havlat could mean so much more while Smolinski, not a fave in Ottawa, could help them as well down the middle (considering I'll be surprised to see a healthy all season Tuomo Ruutu). Havlat gives them a potential superstar, if he can stay healthy, that they haven't had in a while. Their defense is very promising, both Seabrook and Barker (who unfortunately got injured recently) show light at the end of the tunnel along with other young defensemen. However, the team will continue to live and die by Khabibulin, the most highly paid goalie in the league outside of Luongo failed miserably last season, although not half as bad as his now backup Patrick Lalime did in St. Louis. In a stroke of luck for once for the Hawks, Lalime is out for 2-3 months, this is a good thing because 3rd stringer Sebastion Caron is in my books better than Lalime, especially if he pulled out wins for the Penguins. The Hawks may finally be on the rise, of course then again, they still don't broadcast their home games on TV due to cheap management that wants the entire city of Chicago to come out to the games. Of course, if they were broadcast, would anyone be watching? I guess it depends who you'd rather see lose, the Blackhawks or the Cubs.

See you at the red line.