The New York Islanders snagged the fifteenth overall pick at the draft lottery on Saturday night.
If there’s one thing we know about Garth Snow, it’s that he’s unpredictable on draft night.
In what’s becoming a common occurrence, Snow will flip a pick or draft an outspoken prospect, leading to rave reviews from the scouting community.
The 2017 Draft should be no exception; the sting of the Isles’ near-miss of the playoffs is still in everybody’s mind. While the depleted (to an extent) farm system could use some new talent, so could the NHL team.
It’s going to be a referendum on Snow’s priorities: Is the maligned general manager going to put all his eggs in the basket, or will he continue the rebuild for an additional season?
If he chooses the later, it’s likely that he’ll pick Owen Sound Attack center Nicholas Suzuki, an undersized prospect with enough hockey IQ and skating prowess to make scouts drool.
NOTES
Linus Söderstrom, the team’s second-best goalie prospect, won the SHL championships with HV71 on Saturday. He and Ilya Sorokin could come overseas following the season.
Congrats to #Isles prospect @SoderstromLinus on winning the Swedish Hockey League Championship with @HV71 today! pic.twitter.com/ZDpWitVsBu
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) April 29, 2017
For the most part, the rest of the division has been pretty busy this past week. The Rangers, Penguins and Capitals are still in the mix for the Cup, while the Devils and Flyers both secured top-5 picks in the upcoming draft. Meanwhile, the Isles, Jackets and Hurricanes are all… golfing.
We’ve covered this topic ad nauseam, but we’ll do it one more time: Isles winger and public enemy number one Joshua Bailey may have had a career season, but he’s still an extremely flawed player, or at least that’s what Matt Di Giacomo writes.
The Islanders’ ECHL affiliate is now the Worcester (good luck pronouncing that) Railers. “We are excited to … bring professional hockey back to an already established hockey city,” Islanders President and General Manager Garth Snow said.
Islanders goalie Thomas Greiss and defenseman Dennis Seidenberg have been added to Germany’s roster for the World Hockey Championships. They’ll join Anders Lee (USA), Brock Nelson (USA) and Calvin de Haan (CAN) at the tournament.
