Post by New York Islanders on Jul 2, 2022 17:36:01 GMT -6
After the big disappointment from missing the playoffs the New York Islanders today announuced that they will part from no less than nine players going into the offseason. General manager Lennart Westman today announced that by a combination of own choice and management decisions forwards Paul Stastny, Jason Spezza and Michael Mersch, defenders Ryan Pullock, Erik Gustafsson, Anton Stralman, Zachary Laslie and Jaycob Megna as well as netminder Thomas Greiss will not be signing new contracts with the Islander organization at this time. Instead they will all be unrestricted free agents. In a press release the GM thanks the players for their services and wish them the best of luck with their future carreers.
Many questions have been risen about how the Islanders will manage to fill the holes in the pro roster with ”as little as five million in cap space to replace the free agents with”. Finding replacements with a limited budget will of course be a tough challenge but the statement made by the self-appointed ”experts” does not reflect the actual situation at all.
”To begin with, Stastny was merely brought in as a short term replacement as our captain was injured, so there will be no need to fill that spot”, GM Westman explains. ”Further more, adjusting our roster to players and of course adding the cap space made available with the departures the true number for cap space available is $10 575 000.”
As winger Keiffer Bellows (above) most likely will be brought up from the farm and D-man Ben Harpur might get a shot at it as well there will still be an average salary of about three million each to spend on two defenders and a back up goalie, and that could very well be enough to keep the Islanders in the playoff run next season. Still, some of the remaining players need to step up for the team to make it to the postseason next year.
”I’d say just about every player need to up their game compared to this year”, Westman says. ”Forwards like Nelson, Lee and Beauvilier as well as Varlamov can perform on a much higher level than last season and I expect them to be the role models they have the potential to be this year. But even players like Miller, Fiala, Forsberg need to show that they understand that there is very little, or nothing about last year to be happy about. Even harder work and better performance overall is needed and expected.”
GM Westman’s many trades last year, and the fact that the team has no future picks of rank for the next couple of years is another subject commented on by the self-appointed ”experts”, as they expect the management to go into rebuild mode this or at the latest next season. Speculations that are waived off by GM Westman.
”We will always, and I do mean always, be looking to make adjustments/improvements, and we have a team and enough assets to work with to keep this team in the race for much longer than they think. And as we will get even stronger in the offseason I feel confident we will make our fans and owners more content with the results the upcoming season” Westman concludes.
Many questions have been risen about how the Islanders will manage to fill the holes in the pro roster with ”as little as five million in cap space to replace the free agents with”. Finding replacements with a limited budget will of course be a tough challenge but the statement made by the self-appointed ”experts” does not reflect the actual situation at all.
”To begin with, Stastny was merely brought in as a short term replacement as our captain was injured, so there will be no need to fill that spot”, GM Westman explains. ”Further more, adjusting our roster to players and of course adding the cap space made available with the departures the true number for cap space available is $10 575 000.”
As winger Keiffer Bellows (above) most likely will be brought up from the farm and D-man Ben Harpur might get a shot at it as well there will still be an average salary of about three million each to spend on two defenders and a back up goalie, and that could very well be enough to keep the Islanders in the playoff run next season. Still, some of the remaining players need to step up for the team to make it to the postseason next year.
”I’d say just about every player need to up their game compared to this year”, Westman says. ”Forwards like Nelson, Lee and Beauvilier as well as Varlamov can perform on a much higher level than last season and I expect them to be the role models they have the potential to be this year. But even players like Miller, Fiala, Forsberg need to show that they understand that there is very little, or nothing about last year to be happy about. Even harder work and better performance overall is needed and expected.”
GM Westman’s many trades last year, and the fact that the team has no future picks of rank for the next couple of years is another subject commented on by the self-appointed ”experts”, as they expect the management to go into rebuild mode this or at the latest next season. Speculations that are waived off by GM Westman.
”We will always, and I do mean always, be looking to make adjustments/improvements, and we have a team and enough assets to work with to keep this team in the race for much longer than they think. And as we will get even stronger in the offseason I feel confident we will make our fans and owners more content with the results the upcoming season” Westman concludes.
