Spezza, Heatley could have been Islanders

Luongo, Jokinen, Spezza, Heatley, Chara, Redden, Brewer, McCabe and Bertuzzi. The list goes on and on. Never in the history of sports has one GM traded so many future all stars and received so little in return. All Milbury had to do was develop the talent Gordie Clark accumulated. Instead, he wanted to show that he was smarter than everyone and made all of those bad trades. In the end, he showed what an idiot he really was.

Heatley is a murderer. He would have been forced to leave Long Island just how he left Atlanta.......tool.

Heatly said that the quality of the "facilities" play a big part in decisions free agents make - This would be the facilities the "players" utilize. The Islanders don't need a new arena, they need to renovate the dressing rooms and training rooms so that when players play for the Islanders they feel like professional athletes like other NHL organizations offer their players.

I've said it before....hockey players don't care how long you have to stand on line to take a pee, nor do they care how long you have to wait for a hot dog and a beer. The dimensions of the rink are the same in every city, unfortunately the accomodations for players are not and the Nassau Coliseum is among the worst-

Wang, Snow...listen up now- Clean up the dressing rooms and training rooms- Give the players families a nice lounge to watch the game in.....players aren't experiencing enough good things here which is why you're never getting any good players. Make these renovations, get some players in here, start winning, start packing the house, start making money, and everyone will start enjoying hockey on Long Island again.

Forget the Lighthouse fantasy....we don't need it-

Is this one of the most depressing articles youve ever read or is it just me?

Oh man what could have been!

I'm not a Milbury fan, but these shoulda, coulda, woulda articles are lame.
The Trailblazers would have been NBA champs many times over too if they had drafted Jordan. Deal with it.

I'm with GoOilers on that one - it's absolutely useless to go down this road.

And Mike, we absolutely need the Lighthouse, no question about it. The players facilities are a huge part of it, but the Coliseum as it currently stands can't support most of those things. In addition, fan atmosphere is also considered....the Islanders, with a winning team and a building constantly sold out, would be an attractive destination. As an up-and-coming team with a new facility and constant sellouts, we would also be a strong destination point. The real fantasy is thinking the Lighthouse isn't needed and needed now.

ENOUGH!!!
Logan, here's some advice, go back to the drawing board and dig up some dirt on stories releated to the MODERN DAY ISLANDERS!!!
We know they could have been, talk about stating the obvious we only have read the same article for the past 8 years now. GET A NEW STORY

Why Logan? Why? Why must you torture me with this information. I've been saying this for years now and watched in horror each and every draft wondering what the GM will do next. This year as we all know, we traded the stupid pick twice before selecting Bailey.

Anyway, as far as the players facilities. I've been in their locker room and weight room. I felt like I was in the high school weight room again with what looked like donated stuff. It's small, it smells, it's old. Enough. Whether we get a new arena or not. The Isles need to treat their players better. For Christsake, Bridgeport has a better facility than the Isles do.

Look Im all for rebuilding but let's do this right for the love of all things holy. It's tough thinking about what could have been so let's not do this again and put together a solid group of kids that will generate a winning team for years to come. DP is a bust. Im sorry to say, but I've never liked him from DAY 1. When he was drafter by MM, I cringed. This was a horrific failure. MacDonald has done a decent job and proves that we don't really need DP to rebuild. The 15 yr contract is a joke. Trade him to Boston. They need a goalie and he's a Mass. native. I'll drive him myself. Get a 1st rounder or another young guy...perhaps Kessel or Axelsson.

Hey Logan, I thought you were an Isles beat writer. Heatley would've never been an Islander, Mad Mike has already mentioned, on several occassions, he was going with Gaborik. Luongo, what has he done in his career that sets him so far apart from DP? He hasn't won a cup nor gotten far into the playoffs. Spezza probably would've never developed properly here.

Bertuzzi, Chara sucked as Islanders.

You guys remember Rick Bowness as Coach offered Bertuzzi 1 dollar to go in front of the net? Because Bert would never go in front of the Net.

each time

If most fans are killing Milbury (rightfully so) for having traded draft picks/prospects instead of letting them develop, why are the same fans killing Snow for stockpiling draft picks and keeping them? I say let Snow stay the course.

Jokinen was playing just like Tambellini is now. I don't know what happened with the Panthers, but he played like he never did on the Island. I never understood the Luongo deal, and now that DiPietro is fragile, it makes the transaction even worse.

I believe the biggest mistake was selecting Kent's kid instead of JP's! Zach is playing much better than Rob!!

Not to drudge up the draft again, Hockey Rulz, but since you asked, I don't think those of us who are still not comfortable with the draft are mad that Snow kept picks, just that he traded down when there were still players pegged as potential franchise players when he already had 10 picks.

Too early to judge the draft, obviously. My personal belief is you take potential franchise players when they're there, because the opportunity doesn't present itself very often, unless you're always very bad. You may get lucky with a lower pick, but your chances are a little better when you take a player that has league-wide consensus of probably becoming a star.

If we took a player pegged as a goal scoring machine this past draft, we probably wouldn't hear Isles fans begging to finish last now so we could get Tavares next year.

All of that said, let's wait and see what becomes of Bailey and company. Maybe they really did see something in this kid that other teams missed amid all the hype over the top 6.

I want to punch milbury in the mouth, waht a douch....#$G

Nick wrote:

I'm with GoOilers on that one - it's absolutely useless to go down this road.
And Mike, we absolutely need the Lighthouse, no question about it. The players facilities are a huge part of it, but the Coliseum as it currently stands can't support most of those things. In addition, fan atmosphere is also considered....the Islanders, with a winning team and a building constantly sold out, would be an attractive destination. As an up-and-coming team with a new facility and constant sellouts, we would also be a strong destination point. The real fantasy is thinking the Lighthouse isn't needed and needed now.

Hey Nick-
Back in the late 70's and early 80's the Islanders put some pretty good teams on the ice. Back then the house was packed...Every Night.

Are you suggesting that the hockey fans tastes have changed since the late 70's and early 80's ? Madison Square Garden is older than the Coliseum and the place has some horrible sight-lines- Don't the Rangers still pack'em in ?

The Islanders haven't had an exciting team since the early 90's...this is why fans are not coming to games.

I still say free agents won't come here because of the well known dishonest reputation of Isles management- I'll also guarantee top tier free agents don't come because of that piece of garbage DiPietro. Nobody likes this selfish, arrogant cry-baby-

This is an important reminder from Logan because it talks to the inadequacies of not just Milbury, but the guy he worked for during his last SEVEN years on the Island.

Mr. Wang cannot lament the loss of millions of dollars per year based solely on an inadequate Coliseum. The meddling owner encouraged many of these deals and the 15-year contracts that have left the talent pool so dry and the season ticket base and community morale so low.

Management is once again preaching "patience" to the loyal fans. Well, what exactly have we been exhibiting for the last 25 years?

It's also important to remember that the Lighthouse ($2 billion) and the arena ($200 million) are two distinctly different issues. A new building is essential, but the Lighthouse project is a boondoggle.

When will our benevolent owner shine the beacon on the building instead of the 70 acres of prime real estate?

This article is salt in the wound. I hate these discussions about what could've been and honestly it all happened so long ago, I don't think it should be brought up again. But anyway, here's my two cents.
I personally get sick every time I watch Heatley score against the Isles, and he seems to do it quite often. Heatley, in my opinion, is one of the top 5 offensive players in the game. He can score, he can pass, he can play a physical game. If I was the GM, I would've taken him when he had the #1 pick in 2000.
Luongo is what he is, a solid goalie. I'm still not convinced of his elite status though since he never elevated mediocre Florida teams into the playoffs and he's yet to bring Vancouver any huge success. Is he an upgrade to DiPietro? Hard to say. Should we have kept him? Yeah. I'm a big DiPietro fan, but there's no way he should've become an Islander.
Jokinen was a bust here, plain and simple. He never was going to amount to anything on Long Island. He was lazy and unmotivated here and we shouldn't regret losing him because he never showed any glimpse of what he might become when he was here. At least when we got Parrish back in that trade, he put up some goals.
The only thing that makes me feel OK about the whole Luongo/Jokinen deal is that Florida never turned the corner and became something with these guys and essentially gave them away for nothing. And as I mentioned before, at least Parrish produced. To make you feel better, picture being a Bruins fan and dealing Joe Thornton away for three scrubs, two of which didn't last for the next season. At least it wasn't the worst trade in hockey history. And you could argue Florida dealing Luongo for Bertuzzi was just as bad if not worse.
Lastly, that whole Yashin/Spezza thing. At the time, the Isles had just been bought by Wang, had money to spend, and needed to make an impact. They needed to let the league know they were back. Did anyone cry when they landed Yashin? I don't know of any fan who was unhappy with the trade. Everyone was sick of hearing about draft picks and future. We went out and got a guy who was our first bonafide superstar since Turgeon. As for what happened to Yashin afterwards, that's another topic for debate. The trade was a necessary one and I would do it again. If I recall correctly though, we had the worst record in the league that year and lost the lotterry, which is why we had pick #2. If we had won it, we would've had Kovalchuk. And that was a real shame missing out on him. I'd take Kovalchuk over Spezza, Chara and Yashin 11 times out of 10.

This was written to make Islander fans miserable from a man who would rather be somewhere else.

He wants no part of how hard this team is working. You think he lobbies for Streit or protects our players like other writers protected Sutter or Shannon.

He did not even talk to Tomas Pock since he came here. The Ottawa guys got his comments.

What kind of beatwriter is that?

You think Alan Hahn is going to do this to Knicks fans in Newsday or the Rangers got this beatdown when they sucked forever and still do?

No chance.

i have a great idea to rid ourselves of the depressing state of the islanders. Let's have a night to honor the stars of the four Stanley Cup teams.