Islanders Almo-st Done Trading

The New York Islanders continued their line-up tinkering on Saturday, acquiring Russian forward Alexander Mogilny from the L.A. Kings. In the deal, the Isles also received a 3^rd round draft pick, while giving up 22 year old winger Brett Sterling, and a 5^th round draft pick.

When the deal was first announced, a call of Shenanigans was made by a division rival GM, screaming foul that the deal would put the Islanders over the cap. However calm was soon restored when it was made clear that in agreeing to be traded, Mogilny had also agreed to restructure his contract, which had 3 years at 5 million dollars remaining. Under the new deal, Mogilny will receive $2.5 million a year for 3 years, and a $9 million signing bonus. At the press conference to announce the trade, reporters questioned the sanity of a trade that costs your team 9 million dollars, when the team is doing so well already. Long was quick to respond.

‘Alex Mogilny is a savvy veteran player, who can still contribute in a huge way. Last year for the Kings, he had 32 goals and 71points. More importantly, he can play both wings, and LW has been an area of concern for us thus far. Nik Hagman is easily our #1 LW, but after that we have 2 rookies (Timofei Shishkanov & Stanislov Chistov) and Mike York. With the addition of Almo, we will be sending Chistov to the farm, and still leave us a great core on that wing.’

So just where will Mogilny draw into the line-up?

Hagman has firmly found his feet on the top line (7 goals in his last 3 games) so the Hagman-Sakic-Hossa unit is unlikely to be broken up.

Rookie Timofei Shishkanov has played above his level on the 2^nd line, with 13 points on the season. However it seems most likely that Mogilny will take his spot, and skate with Mike Peca and Ladislav Nagy.

This will see Shishkanov move down to the 3^rd line, with Patrick Poulin and Sean Bates. As the dominoes fall, Mike York will then move down to 4^th line duty, as the speedy wings has struggled with only 1 goal in 18 games.

The question remains, with the acquisition of Mogilny, did Long stuff up the Islander chemistry that had seen the team jump to a 15-2-1 start? This remains to be seen, but if the Isles struggle, the GM will no doubt make a move to get the club back on track.

Ice Chips

The trade of Mogilny was not the only trade talk the islanders were involved in Saturday. There were rumours about a couple of trades involving the team’s blueline, but nothing was confirmed at the time this story went to press