Possible rematch between NCAA hockey and the New York Islanders?
Most years, the National Hockey League’s entry draft is a time for hope and celebration. However, if you’re the coach of the University of Minnesota, the University of North Dakota, Denver University or Boston University, you’re most likely on the phone right now with the NCAA in order to protect your recruits.
Why you ask? Two words. Kyle Okposo. For college hockey fans, you only have to think back to last season at the shocking departure of Okposo in the middle of the collegiate season to turn pro. While detractors of the University of Minnesota had a field day with that turn of events, once they got over the fits of laughter started thinking, “which player on my team could pull the same stunt?” To add insult to injury, Islanders general manager Garth Snow not only publicly criticized the University of Minnesota, but more notably Gopher head coach Don Lucia about player development.
For the Islanders who clearly do not trust the collegiate hockey system it seems terribly hypocritical that they would select not just one, but four young men bound for college hockey programs. In the second round alone, the Islanders selected two collegiate recruits: Corey Trivino (Boston University) and Aaron Ness (University of Minnesota). In the third round, it was David Toews (University of North Dakota). Then, to make it just that much more painful, the Islanders selected Matt Donovan (Denver University).
It is my hope that coaches Don Lucia (Minnesota), George Gwozdecky (Denver University), Dave Hakstol (North Dakota), and Jack Parker (Boston University) were flooding the offices of Western Collegiate Hockey Association Commissioner Bruce McLeod and National Collegiate Athletic Association President Myles Brand with phone calls and e-mails. The coaches of the D-I college hockey programs have spent much time recruiting these players, and would like to see their hard work pay off. It’s bad enough that you might have a player just a season or two before they turn pro, but now the coaches have to worry if the National Hockey League will lure their players away mid-season.
Terry Frei of the Denver Post addressed this very same topic in February when Denver player Brock Trotter up and left his collegiate team to sign with the Montreal Canadiens mid-season. Frei pointed out an interesting coincidence in that Canadiens owner George Gillett, Jr. just happens to live in Vail. Makes you wonder how much contact Trotter had with the Canadiens prior to signing his pro contract. Plus, when a writer in a major paper in the town of a rival school is supporting the University of Minnesota, you have to realize that there are big problems on the horizon.
While the NHL is working furiously on a new transfer agreement with the IIHF they’re blatantly ignoring the plight of the collegiate programs. The NCAA needs to step up to the NHL and state that there needs to be a transfer agreement of sorts in place. The fairest solution would be, that if a college player leaves mid-season, the club that signs him would have to pay the school in question back all scholarship money awarded to that player. To take things a step further, collegiate players should have to commit to play at least two years with their college choice. If the player and professional team renege on that agreement, scholarship money should also be paid back.
With all the bad press that Garth Snow received last year by the papers covering teams in the WCHA, it almost makes you wonder if this is Snow’s attempt at spiteful payback. I used to like the Islanders. Perhaps it was more out of pity than anything else. They have a dump of an arena that is affectionately known as the ‘Mausoleum’ and they’re a team that hasn’t done much of anything lately. All of this makes me think that Snow is drowning in his job as general manager. It’s a rather large leap to go from struggling back-up goaltender to floundering general manager.
But you know what they say about karma. Have fun Garth not adding a stripe to the shoulder patch on the Islander’s jersey.
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11 Responses to “Possible rematch between NCAA hockey and the New York Islanders?”
June 24th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Wow. Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good Snow job.
The Islander’s GM Garth Snow didn’t say a word until the college coach made a comment. This is unlike the way your story reads which makes it seem as if Garth was on the offensive.
As for college players perhaps if you took off the blinders you would see other college players bound for the NY Islanders. These players are: Rakhshani (Denver), Weslosky (St. Cloud), Rogers (Harvard), Day (Colgate), Guthrie& Mason (Clarkson). That is 6 players plus the 4 from this year for a total of 10. Not bad for a group of college kids when you consider there are about 40 prospects total in the system for the Islanders.
To further prove your tainted opinion what does the Nassau Coliseum or the stripes on our jersey have anything to do with you argument? Nothing except to prove the point that you can write unresearched blather.
And OBTW, wouldn’t you love to have at least 1 of those 4 stripes we wear on our jersey?
June 24th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Okposo made his own decision to leave Minnesota, and why would Snow stop him considering he was a top 10 pick whom the Isles felt was not developing. It happens, players don’t click with certain coaches and for whatever reason Okposo wanted out. The Islanders have numerous college prospects as pointed out in the earlier comment and even have Aaron Ness headed to Minnesota. Seeing as your posting with links to the Wild and probably are a U Minnesota fan don’t let your blinders lump the the
Isles into hating college hockey because it’s so far from the truth.
June 24th, 2008 at 10:57 am
While I, certainly, share your concern about what is going on in college hockey right now, in regards to Trotter and Okposo, I do not agree with your assesment of the Okposo situation. I agree that Lucia is one of the best college coaches in the nation, but it is unbelieveable that you choose to write:
“… To add insult to injury, Islanders general manager Garth Snow not only publicly criticized the University of Minnesota, but more notably Gopher head coach Don Lucia about player development…”
The fact, plain and simple, is that Lucia WAS impeding Okposo’s developement. He had a star winger turned into a center to offset the loss of talent, through graduation, from last year’s Gopher team and it backfired immensely. Okposo looked lost at the new position, which he had never previously played, and his numbers while at the “U” show that. Now, fast forward to today and Okposo is back playing RW with the Islanders’ farm team, the Bridgeport Soundtigers” and is flourishing with 10 points (2 gaols 8 assists) in 11 games played and is a plus 2. Furthermore, it can not be said that the Isles rushed him to a league, the NHL, he was not ready for as they have made more than a few callups since he arrived and he was never one of them. The simple fact is that he is back to the player he CAN BE, when he is used properly, which is at RW. If the Isles had wanted a center they never would have drafted Okposo, a RW, in the first place.
So, in effect, the Gophers were doing what was best for their program as opposed to what was best for the player. Now, that is EXACTLY what the Islanders did. They protected their investment of a first round pick and made sure he developed into what he was drafted as, a scoring WINGER. They can hardly be faulted for that.
Furthermore, I am a college hockey fanatic, I am even taking my 7 year old on our annual trip to see the BU games against Maine next weekend and attended the Red Hot Hockey weekend in NYC at Thanksgiving, and agree that the college game needs to be protected as well. I followed Okposo very closely and while I respect Lucia tremendously, I feel he should be mentioned in the same breath as Jack Parker of BU, I do not believe he did the right thing here and when his experiment was, obviously, not working he stubbornly stuck to it. The fact is that Okposo is scoring at, slightly, more than a point per game in a more advanced league so it stands to reason that he is more comfortable at his natural position, as the score sheet clearly shows. Also, to his credit, Okposo never complained, or challenged his coach publicly. he simply went about his business and played to the best of his ability in a difficult situation. I guess we will have to agree to disagree, but thiss is a situation that I feel that the facts show that Lucia, in this case, was wrong and the NHL MUST protect thier investments in the kids. I don’t know what the answer is, I like your idea of instituting a rule where if they play one game they can not go pro til that season is over, but we’ll see what the NCAA and the NHL can work out. The college game MUST be protected or it will wither and die….
Take your potshots at the Islanders all you want, it makes you look like you are bitter and hold the grudge, not Garth, as you claim.
June 24th, 2008 at 11:06 am
One more thing.
You wrote:
“It’s a rather large leap to go from struggling back-up goaltender to floundering general manager.”
I respond:
This so called struggling goalie and floundering GM you are talking about happened to “leap large” into an MBA degree during his years playing.hockey.
Yet another unresearched comment from a wannbe journalist from the Gopher State.
***A Blast from the past****
Finals
——
North Stars 3 at Islanders 6
North Stars 3 at Islanders 6
Islanders 7 at North Stars 5
Islanders 2 at North Stars 4
North Stars 1 at Islanders 5
(Islanders win Stanley Cup: 4-1)
June 24th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Don’t forget Garth was a NCAA Champion goalie at Maine in 1993, as well…he does know a LITTLE about the college game as well
June 24th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story, eh?
Garth never made any public comments until Minnesota’s coach opened his mouth to the media.
June 25th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Thanks for the comments. Was Garth Snow GM of the Islanders when they beat the North Stars? He was maybe in Elementary School when that happened so the relevancy of that is rather dubious at best.
The Gophers were not impeding the development of Kyle Okposo; he was getting top line ice time and more or less all of the power play time he wanted he just wasn’t converting his chances the way he did during his freshman year. Things were a bit tougher for him offensively and he realized the Gophers had just a few offensive weapons so teams could spend more time focusing their defensive attention on him and he decided to leave. His parents were not happy with his decision to leave early; but why would he want to leave mid-season.
Perhaps because Garth Snow talked him into it? The defections of Kyle Okposo and Brock Trotter had reverberations all across NCAA hockey; as coaches looked at their teams and wondered who might jump ship early as well. Fortunately it was just a small splash with these two and that was about it.
Garth Snow has accomplished very little as General Manager and while he may have played college hockey so did Don Lucia. Okposo left partly for his own reasons but I have little doubt Snow pushed him over the edge and asked him to join the organization after he got done competing at the WJC’s.
As for your arena, she’s right its a dump. Her first Wild game actually was at the “Mausoleum” back in 2000. Islanders fans know it, the management does but they continue to play in it, often times before crowds numbering around 12,000 or less. When you actually fill your arena on a nightly basis let us know ok?
I don’t care what Okposo did in Bridgeport, why didn’t he make the organization right out of the gate. We had heard rumors Okposo wanted to go pro before the season started but the Islanders told him no. Then suddenly mid-season he leaves and the Islanders whine about his development? Apparently his development wasn’t too “stunted” with the way he played with Brigdeport. But hey, believe what you must. Okposo’s name was dragged through the mud here just as much as Snow. Neither will recieve a warm reception when they return to the State of Hockey.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:25 am
The whole crux of the argument is that the isles do not trust college hockey but if there was any research done it would have found the isles will have twelve prospects play division one college hockey this season.
June 25th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I thought the Isles would pass on Ness because of his future @ U of Minnesota. Obviously Snow is over the situation. To say Isles do not trust the all NCAA hockey is a poor statement. Isles regularly draft college player as it slows the financial commitment timeline…Free player development is certainly part of the equation. Okposo was an isolated incedent.
Snow may have also felt pressure as he watched Peter Mueller-drafted after Okposo perform well in the NHL.
June 25th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Well, I doubt NCAA teams trust the Islanders and that really was the crux of the article. Okposo wasn’t an isolated incident; you forget Brock Trotter. While that wasn’t to the benefit of the Islanders it happened rather close to the same time period. I don’t care what the Islanders intended or not. You may have a lot of college prospects in your system but it would be naive to think that the coaches of these players didn’t ask their players if they intended on defecting mid-season as well.
Peter Mueller was originally committed to the University of Minnesota too, but decided to go play for Everett instead. Either way, you won’t regret drafting Ness. Immense talent and skill. He can dangle, plays good defense, not really physical but is a great skater too. Just know, we’ll be suspicious whether you think its warranted or not.
June 27th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
We will never see an agreement between the NCAA and the NHL…two words the CHL…If there was an agreement between the NCAA and the NHL saying you have to spend x amount of years in college…all those high profile recruits will go north of the border. Colleges are having a hard time to keep these recruits to begin with. If you force a player to play a certain amount of years they (recruits) won’t play college hockey.
The Okposo situation rarely happens…a player leaving in the middle of the season.
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