MVN - Most Valuable Network

…and Weighty Issues

[Update 20:30: Ha, as Uncle Jr. pointed out in comments, Weight has signed — and for not much! Sounds like a great deal: I’ll happily take Weight at under $2 mil + whatever bonuses he achieves (as long as they’re not as cursory as “tying laces.” Frankly, after his last contract and current salary rates, I didn’t think that was possible. Very pleased, even though it quickly made this post moot. Ah, the Internets.]

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…And all sorts of bad headline puns.

I woke up on July 1 with the usual can’t-help-myself excitement about the opening of the free-agent period. As disgusting as it all is economically speaking, you can’t help be fascinated by the sideshow. That morning I knew the Isles needed a puck-moving D-man and another center, but for the life of me I couldn’t imagine where they’d get either.

The D-man, they’ve taken care of.

But no sooner did a center’s name occur to me than I saw his very name mentioned on a blog by a guy who should know: former Islanders PR guru and Blogfather Chris Botta. The center in question was Doug Weight, who played with Isles captain Bill Guerin in Edmonton, St. Louis, and Team USA.

If anyone currently on the Island could influence Weight to live out his twilight years here, it’s his friend Guerin, who has reportedly taken quite a liking to the place himself.

But I am concerned. There are two reasons Weight would fit well here, and several reasons why his addition could be a problem.

First, the good news: Weight is a center and puck-handler who should help the powerplay, and who should be a good presence in the room for all the youngsters the Islanders are trying to groom. He’s also tremendous in the community (and apparently in the locker room, too). After he won the Cup as a rental in Carolina, he brought it back to St. Louis and let all the mite youngsters in the hockey program he helped sponsor have their photos taken with it. We’re talking his one (or just over one) day with the Cup — what every hockey kid dreams of — and he chose to share it with hundreds of kids at an ice rink, and patients at a hospital, among others.

Now, the bad news: Weight makes a lot of money ($3.5 million last year) and would probably want similar money to come to Long Island, for 2-3 years, like the Isles committed to Guerin last year. Except, on the ice, he’s not worth it. His on-ice performance has not matched his contract or his responsibility since, well, since he was first signed by St. Louis (for more money) to replace Pierre Turgeon. The Edmonton Doug Weight never arrived in St. Louis. That version is gone.

Part of this is not his fault: His game is dependent on speed, but hip and abdominal injuries — to say nothing of his shoulder injury in the 2006 Stanley Cup Final with Carolina — have sapped that asset considerably. I say this as a Blues fan (yes, I’m a bigamist, so sue me) who watched him arrive in St. Louis to much fanfare and saw him never live up to the bill, on ice at least.

Even when he was first shipped out by the Blues as a rental in 2006, people were stunned they brought him back. Not that he didn’t help Carolina as a winger/3rd center in the “skilled veteran” role, but by that point he seemed to have lost the ability to be a top-two center on a playoff team, so Blues fans didn’t expect him back.

Admittedly, he’s not always had ideal wingers to play with — but do you think he’ll get better ones on the Island? Last year, when the Blues initially tried him with Paul Kariya, they found a better combo with Keith Tkachuk as Kariya’s center.

Weight’s season never got off the ground, his minutes were minimized by the coaching staff, and he was eventually approached not once, but twice, about waiving his no-trade clause. They made it clear if he didn’t waive it, he still wouldn’t see prime ice time. So he was flipped to Anaheim well before the deadline — no salary dump, this. And Anaheim only took him because they had to deal Andy MacDonald to navigate the whole Niedermayer/salary cap fiasco. Of course Weight, ever the class act, never even publicly discussed the rough treatment he received from the team he’d faithfully returned to.

Despite his off-ice and character assets, the Blues — who finished one spot behind the Islanders last season — did not see Weight as fit to carry a major role on the team any longer. In Anaheim, he didn’t receive or grab a significant role either, and now they’re letting him walk. If signed by the Isles, that is who our #2 or #1A center will be (barring another signing).

Again, I’m not saying Weight’s addition to the Isles would be a bad thing — in fact, I see some potential positives in powerplay skill and mentoring. But if he’s signed for big money ($3 million or more in my book, despite the zany market), I doubt he’ll meet the expectations that come with that money. He’s going to look slow some nights. He’s going to look ineffective many times, despite dazzling stickhandling. Impatient, long-frustrated fans will get on him. He may spend some time being benched (unless Nolan protects him as a sacred veteran). He’s going to be a guy who makes you think, at times, “Hell, I’d rather see Comeau out there at minimum wage, if this is all we’re getting.” He might make you wish they would have just re-signed Josef Vasicek.

Just saying: Know what you’re buying.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 5:07 pm and is filed under Garth Snow, offseason. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.