New Faces on the Isle
In his first public appearance in months, New York Islanders GM Ryan Long met with the media today to discuss his decision to trade away long time centre Alexie Yashin, and speedy superstar winger Martin St Louis. In return, the Islanders received superstar centre Joe Sakic, and winger Pavel Datsyuk.
Many across the league were surprised to see New York move key players like St Louis and Yashin, however for those who have been around the league for a while, the move should come as no surprise. Ever since joining the league 4 seasons ago, GM Ryan Long has made a number of efforts to try and acquire Joe Sakic. However he was unable to pry him loose from Philadelphia when Sakic was there, and was also repeatedly denied attempts to pry acquire him from previous Coyotes GM Chris Chugg, So when new Yotes GM T. J Malcangi came calling about the availability of Martin St. Louis, and mentioned Joe Sakic in the offer, Long jumped at the chance. "To finally acquire Joe is a dream come true. We've given up a pair of superstars to get him, but we had no choice to bite at the offer"
Burnaby Joe seemed very happy about joining the 2 time CLUTCH champions, but quickly put to rest any rumours of him taking over the Islander's captaincy. "That role is Michael Peca's, make no mistake of that. He’s a great leader, and I'm just happy to contribute in whatever ways I can to help him out."
The other piece of the deal coming to the Islanders is hardly a throw in. Although Pavel Datsyuk is not yet at that elite level in terms of status yet, the Islander’s feel he is well on his way to becoming that. The departure of St. Louis also clears up the 2nd RW spot for Denis Arkhipov, who spent last year as the club's 3rd line centre. Datsyuk will join Sakic and Hossa on the top line, while Peca, Hagman and Arkhipov will form line 1b.
Many across the league were surprised to see New York move key players like St Louis and Yashin, however for those who have been around the league for a while, the move should come as no surprise. Ever since joining the league 4 seasons ago, GM Ryan Long has made a number of efforts to try and acquire Joe Sakic. However he was unable to pry him loose from Philadelphia when Sakic was there, and was also repeatedly denied attempts to pry acquire him from previous Coyotes GM Chris Chugg, So when new Yotes GM T. J Malcangi came calling about the availability of Martin St. Louis, and mentioned Joe Sakic in the offer, Long jumped at the chance. "To finally acquire Joe is a dream come true. We've given up a pair of superstars to get him, but we had no choice to bite at the offer"
Burnaby Joe seemed very happy about joining the 2 time CLUTCH champions, but quickly put to rest any rumours of him taking over the Islander's captaincy. "That role is Michael Peca's, make no mistake of that. He’s a great leader, and I'm just happy to contribute in whatever ways I can to help him out."
The other piece of the deal coming to the Islanders is hardly a throw in. Although Pavel Datsyuk is not yet at that elite level in terms of status yet, the Islander’s feel he is well on his way to becoming that. The departure of St. Louis also clears up the 2nd RW spot for Denis Arkhipov, who spent last year as the club's 3rd line centre. Datsyuk will join Sakic and Hossa on the top line, while Peca, Hagman and Arkhipov will form line 1b.
posted by Longer at 2:02 AM
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