Last week's AHL Player of the week was Bridgeport's own David Ullstrom. The 2008 4th rounder had gone over a month without a goal and then on Feb 16 started a goal scoring rampage, scoring once in a Shootout loss to Springfield and then 2 the next game and ended his week with a hat-trick. Ullstrom's 6 G week brought his totals to 12 G and 30PTS in his first season in the US, which isn't bad all things considered. This year at Bridgeport should be considered a mulligan. However the outburst should be admired and help showcase a sign of things to come.
Ullstrom is yet another example of the Islanders increasingly stronger 2008 draft that has produced: Josh Bailey, Travis Hamonic, Kevin Poulin and Matt Martin for the Islanders as well as Jyri Neimi and Jared Spurgeon for the Rangers and Minnesota Wild, respectively. The Isles have a ton of talent also developing from that Draft as it is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) in the Organization's history. The Isles picked up Aaron Ness and Corey Trivino in the second round, finishing their College careers, also Travis Hamonic was the 3rd selection of the 2nd Round; the 3rd round brought Niemi, Kirill Petrov and David Toews; 4th round selections were Matt Donovan and Ullstrom; 5th rounders were Kevin Poulin and Matt Martin; rounding out the draft class were Spurgeon and Justin DiBenedetto.
Ullstrom's been getting top line work most of the season, of late he's been paired with Justin DiBenedetto and Rhett Rahkshani makes for a nice young line to gel together now for future dividends.
File this under "Look further into this" in the future. There isn't much else to discuss about Ullstrom here. The AHL is a much different league than the Swedish Elite League. Ullstrom's numbers look a lot better for Bridgeport than they did for his hometown Jankoping 71s. the SEL is known as a defense first league, so the offense is great this year. Definitely one to follow and watch for the future. It'll be interesting to see if Ullstrom will crack the lineup in the bottom six next year. We'll certainly find out.
The obligatory lifetime Stats (again, remember the SEL is much different offensively than the NHL/AHL/etc):
This morning I read a post on SB Nation from Garik16 (@Garik16 on Twitter) describing Matt Martin as a terrible hockey player and using some advanced stats to explain why. Now I'm not a "sabermetrics" type guy (easier in baseball, hockey I don't get the advanced stats at all), but the post does bring up one point I do agree with: Matt Martin shouldn't be in the NHL.
The 6'2 192 lb hitting machine is a great energy line player, I love that he's scrappy, will fight, sticks up for his teammates and will hit anyone and everyone. What I also love about him is the fact that his last season at juniors two years ago was a revelation that Matt can also score and do so without a superstar talent to help him along. Below are Matt's lifetime stats via HockeyDB:
This 65 point campaign made Martin the third leading goal scorer for Sarnia just two seasons ago and the year Steve Stamkos was struggling in the NHL. now, am I arguing that Matt is a 35 goal scorer in the NHL, no, but he could become a better forward with more time at the AHL. In my post about Sarnia teammate and current Sound Tiger Justin DiBenedetto, I hypothesized that "DiBo" was finally catching up to the AHL after 100 games played, maybe Martin needs some more time there as he had some early season success (yes he has out produced his Bridgeport stats in the NHL this year, but he's also played 5 times as many games), but the thing he was getting more of at Bridgeport was ice time. Matt averages about 9 minutes a game, far more than fellow fighter Trevor Gillies, but Gillies has a set role (one he's probably not entirely happy with, but he does it well, and he should be rewarded some more ice time from time to time especially when the 4th line is the only line doing anything), where as Matt, 11 years younger than Gillies, can expand upon his role with confidence and seasoning. Matt's a bottom six forward right now not getting 10 minutes of ice time, but at Bridgeport he'd likely be in the top 6 and getting much more ice time and opportunity to play, develop and maybe go from "energy guy" to full fledged power forward, something the Isles desperately lack.
Enter Michael Haley, Haley's put together his best season thus far at Bridgeport collecting 22 points in 48 games and 134 PIM to boot. Last year he got his first two NHL games late in the season and didn't do much (small sample size, was on the fourth line and it was "garbage time" in the schedule). Haley has more goals this year (12) than almost his last three seasons combined (13). Haley at 5'11 and 198 provides basically the same size as Martin and the same feisty play and can likely handle Martin's role. Haley may also be able to provide some PK time with Colliton or Konopka or Comeau as well, which Matt currently doesn't. Haley's lifetime Stats:
While Haley's an abysmal -17 at Bridgeport, Martin's not much better on LI at -13 and was even in 7 games at Bridgeport (the Sound Tigers and Islanders have had their defenses absolutely eaten ALIVE this year with injuries, inconsistent play, and for B-Port callups). I think swapping Martin for Haley will be beneficial for Matt and a nice reward for Haley's good play this year at Bridgeport. More importantly, Martin needs ice time and Capuano has an idea how best to utilize Haley (I hope, he's left me wanting as an NHL coach, did well at the Bridge, but he's baffled me at best in Uniondale). Finally putting Martin in a top 6 configuration with two good playmaking Centers (either Hisey or Ullstrom) and possibly lining up with Rhaskshani will benefit him and the team in the long term better than having him toil with only 9 minutes a game and not developing as a player.
So the Isles should reward good play and breed confidence NOW to pay dividends in the future. At least that's my line of thinking there.
I've been thinking about this post since Tuesday nights Bridgeport loss and watching the game tweeted by the Sound Tiger's great Twitter feed. The 3-2 Shoot-out loss to the Providence Bruins continued an alarming trend I've noticed over the last few weeks: Bridgeport's offense has vaporized. Right now, no player on the Bridgeport roster has 25 points; though on the season Rhett Rhakshani has 32 points (he currently is with the Islanders out with a concussion, likely knocking him out of the AHL All-star Game, not to self: check on that) so it can't be all bad right; well no.
Bridgeport's current top scoring trio are Robin Figren, David Ullstrom and Micheal Haley. First the good news: Haley and Figren are having their best years in the AHL, Figren and Ullstrom are picks that are showing promise to be able to help the big squad at some point, and Ullstrom is making his '08 4th round selection look really nice. Now, the bad news (and it's a lot): Figren and Haley are the only two active double digit goal scorers (11 and 12, respectively), The Sound Tigers aren't shooting the puck, no other lines are really clicking, and the team is wasting HUGE Goaltending performances. It's a shame since the organization needs to focus on making winning a priority at every affiliate during this rebuild.
My biggest issue: the team isn't shooting the puck. Tuesday night the team had 17 shots against Providence, against Norfolk over the weekend: 28 on Saturday, 17 on Sunday. In their last three games Bridgeport has only scored 6 goals (losing 5-2, Koskinen's 6th straight loss, 3-2 and 3-2, respectively). Bridgeport's on a nasty 8 game slide where just about everything's gone wrong, but if you cant get shots on net, you're not going to score a lot of goals. It hasn't help that no one has stepped up for Bridgeport during this streak to carry the offense. Since a 3-2 win over Portland on New Years Eve (Kevin Poulin's last start for the team), the team has only scored 3 goals twice. for the most part the goalies have kept Bridgeport in every game except for a 5-3 loss on 1/5 and the 5-2 loss last Friday in Norwalk.
GM Garth Snow (why is the team's GM also the GM at Bridgeport; tough to get a feel for the day to day from Uniondale...the Isles need to hire a GM solely for Bridgeport to handle personnel moves) has been hard pressed to find offense for his struggling Bridgeport team from anywhere. Having recalled Josh Bailey, Jeremy Colliton and Rhett Rahkshani in recent weeks, Bridgeport has to rely heavily on two guys (Figren and Haley) who've never produced this much at the level and a Rookie. Now, I'm all for giving guys opportunities, but with the team struggling the way it is, it's tough to observe.
I'm reading post game reports, so being subjective about a select game is impossible, but the problem seems to be that the Sound Tigers do not have enough talent to overcome the lack of capable scoring up front. Draftees Tomas Marcinko and Justin DiBenedetto have put up bad numbers so far this year. In his second full season "DiBo" has 5 points in 23 games, 4 goals and only one helper, last year DiBo put up six goals and 8 assists in 67 games, so he's not on the best of paces. Marcinko has been better with 9 points including 7 assists, he now trails his rookie output by two points in 18 fewer games (he's played 40 games so far this year). Draftees fizzling doesn't bode well. Even players added through PTOs have had a rough go: Olivier LaBelle has 5 points in 27 games (on his second PTO) as an energy type forward; Jason Pitton, in his third go in the AHL THIS season has picked up a goal in 3 games, but I am not expecting much from him; C/D Dustin Friesen has 3 points in 17 for the Sound Tigers and lined up with D Brett Motherwell and F Jean Bourbeau as a line against Wilkes-Barre last week; the best PTO signing for the Sound Tigers has been Brandon Svendsen who has notched 12 points in 32 games; finally PTO signee and affiliate climber Brady Leisenring has no points through 4 matches this year (but has a total of 14 points through 18 games for Odessa, 4 games, and Kalamazoo, 14, this season.
Bridgeport BADLY needs a scorer, maybe giving C Justin Taylor (21 Points in 22 games including 14 goals) another look as he's responded well to his ice time with Kalamazoo. They could also look at K-Zoo vet Kory Karlander (38 Points) or any of the K-Wings top Scorers. They could also look to Odessa, but the current Roster isn't up to snuff and Bridgeport needs a GM of it's own to handle these decisions.
I know this sounds repetitive, but if you're building through the draft and can't easily rely on Free Agents, you NEED your affiliates to be strong and have your prospects confident that they can win just about anywhere.
Just a quick post for the Isles after tonight's loss to Vancouver (who should feel ashamed with the way they played tonight) and in light of the fact that the Islanders will have zero players in this years All-Star game, which I can agree with (When you lose 21 of 22 games IN A ROW, hard to find an all-star) as two other teams had snubs as well. Alas, this is a Blog devoted to the farm and prospects and we have all-stars down there!
Bridgeport:
The Sound Tigers offer us two all-star selections in the Eastern Conference of the AHL. the first is Today's call-up Rhett Rahkshani. Rahkshani, the 22 year old Rookie from Huntington Beach, CA had been leading Rookies in scoring at the AHL. I like Rahkshani and hopefully his look with the Isles this time around will be extended (read: I expect him to be sent down next week for Jon Sim because that's what we do!). there's been plenty of ink about Rhakshani from other blogs and fans know him. He's an exciting player, and have no idea what to expect of him going forward. a more detailed post on Rhett later. The Sound Tigers Captain, Defenseman Mark Wotton will also play for the East and will Captain their squad. Wotton's in his late 30s and no mean a prospect, but he plays the role of Doug Weight for the Sound Tigers with the HUGE exception of being on the ice more often than not this year (Wotton missed time with an injury, but is back for the Tigers).
Kalamazoo (ECHL)
Kalamazoo will be represented in the ECHL all-star game by rookie defensemen Steve Tarasuk. For more on Tarasuk see my post "In Rebuilds I trust....Begrudgingly." Congratulations to the rookie! (and lady killer, or soon to be)
Odessa (CHL)
This Guy. Enough said there. The CHL does an interesting format of one team taking on a team of All-Stars from the rest of the league, they announce 6 starters (Our man at Odessa is one of the starters) and 12 reserves and a few goalies. Congratulations Mr. Thinel on your 5th all-star selection and here's to hoping a PTO is on the way at some point, Bridgeport or LI CAN'T keep skipping over you....
Update (1/15):
The CHL All-Star game was played the Rapid Rush in typical all-star defense optional affair as the All-Stars beat the Rush 11-6. the game featured two hat tricks and a pair of players notching 5 helpers, one of those players was Sebastien Thinel. My growing (nearly full blown) obsession with Thinel continues as he just continues to produce at the CHL...Dear Bridgeport: Give this guy a PTO all ready!
Will investigate on the SEL and KHL for a potential all-star selection for Kirill Petrov or Anders Nilsson, but I don't know if those leagues use an All-Star game.
Also the Junior leagues and Isles prospects there have no All-star games this season, as for College prospects, you'll have to wait until All-American selections are made.
Fairly lazy post, but just a quick highlighting and congratulations to the Isles prospects involved in their respective all-star games!
Late Saturday night Garth Snow pulled the trigger on his second trade of the week sending 41 year old Dwayne Roloson to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Defensive prospect Ty Wishart, a 2006 San Jose Sharks first round selection (more "defensemen develop slower:" his first round selection was sandwiched by Devan Setoguchi in '05 and Logan Couture in '07, both contributing for San Jose). The general consensus on Twitter is this is Wishart is still developing and could become a solid top 4 for the future for the Islanders (joining Travis Hamonic and Andrew MacDonald right now and Calvin De Haan and Mark Streit either this year or next; if Wishart's on the Island next year it's as a bottom pair D-man likely pairing with Mark Eaton IF
everyone is healthy).
Wishart, 22 from Comox, British Columbia, stands 6'4 and 222 lbs and currently has 4 goals and 14 assists at AHL Norfolk to go with a +13; he'll join Bridgeport instantly the highest points holder for the Defense and tied for second on the SoundTigers (we have a pretty bad Bridgeport team this year) with David Ullstrom, both are miles behind Rhett Rahkshani who has 31 points thus far. His +13 would also lead the SoundTigers by quite a lot. His Scouting Report from Bolts Prospects looks encouraging, though the Weakness mentioned is pretty hard to swallow: D-men with perceived softness are NOT a fun thought. (Image by Getty Images and copied from SoundTigers Press Release)
Wishart's stat's for his career thus far brought to you by HockeyDB:
Initially I considered this trade as worse than the Chris Osgood for Justin Papineau swap years ago. Right now I'm not so sure. I mean if we had received Wishart last year for say Marty Biron (and Mike Smith was broken then and Antero Niitymakii hadn't been so brilliant), I would have been ecstatic especially considering the breakout season that Wishart enjoyed last year (see above). However, in a weak Goalie market with a number of teams looking to upgrade for a playoff run I feel Garth could've secured more than one D prospect. Yes, Rollie the goalie is 41; yes we don't know if he's going to retire; yes, Rollie was going to be traded; but what doesn't make sense to me is why early January when the team is playing well and Rollie could return his stats closer to where he was before Jack Capuano let the Ranger feast upon him earlier this week. No one knows if this is the absolute best that Garth could have gotten or if he and Lightning GM Steve Yzerman settled on Wishart after Garth demanded Carter Ashton or a first round pick (having watched a few Canada world junior games, I absolutely love Carter's style of play and how he and prospect Casey Cizikas worked together on the forecheck and PK) or something crazy for Roloson.
As mentioned above, there's a lot to like about Ty Wishart, he seems to have put everything together, he instantly becomes a big body who can score at Bridgeport (after Dylan Reese the call up opportunities get murky between Mark Katic, Anton Klementyev, Dustin Kohn or Wes O'Neill all having NHL experience, but none demanding a call-up with their play). could be become the top four D man that some people think he will be (which would make for an entirely "home grown" top 4); I have no idea, but I do have reservations. Granted, Wishart was pushed out by a HUGE number of D prospects in the Tampa system (according to Bolt Prospect's top 25 Prospects: Wishart ranked 8th with the 10-17 spots occupied by D) but are we getting a Skilled Offensive D man who plays a great all around game or a guy that's even handed on D, can score a bit and refuses to throw his body around (he's no major defensive liability, but you HAVE to play physical in the Atlantic) leaving you constantly wanting? This may be silly to some, if he's skilled, scores and isn't like a certain member of out D corps, then life is gravy.
My concerns are that Tampa, who certainly had high hopes for Wishart in acquiring him, continually passed over him: after a disastrous '08-'09 campaign, Wishart's first pro season; Tampa Bay decided to bulk up on the D adding Mattias Ohland, Pavel Kubina, Kurtis Foster and grabbing Victor Hedman as consolation for the Isles grabbing John Tavares. As the '09-'10 campaign didn't produce a winner either, Tampa didn't move any veteran Defenseman for picks or pieces and give Wishart a shot during his eventual 32 point campaign. Other Defensive prospects received game call-ups over the big D-man. Now it's easy to argue that the old GM wanted to move Wishart slowly along and build confidence, but he almost certainly wasn't going to get a ticket to the NHL with Tampa...and a team willing to give up a top or once top prospect (even with a goalie like Roloson coming back) should give you pause.
Shortly after the trade, Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune mentioned on Twitter that two other prospects had pushed passed Wishart on the Depth chart. This leads me to wonder has he peaked or was it time for a change of scenery? One final thought here: Wishart is on the last year of an Entry level deal and will be an RFA come July 1, if he continues his production and joins the blue-line, hopefully he'll earn his keep and pick up a 1 way deal, I don't know though.
Time will tell, I'm glad that Garth got more than low picks. I have my doubts about Wishart, I certainly hope I'm wrong.
Okay, first off, these titles will need some serious help, but I will explain out this one easily: going into this season Garth Snow made a ton of long term moves that may help the team out in a few short seasons. Obviously drafting Nino Niederreiter, Brock Nelson and Kirill Kabanov added three very talented Forwards to a growing cache of prospects, but Garth added a skilled Defenseman in Tony DeHart (a 5th year exemption player for the OHL Oshowa Generals with first round pick and currently re-injured-at-the-WJHC Calvin de Haan), Forward Jason Clark and goalie Cody Rosen (more on Islanders netminding another time).
Garth had a good draft, as usual, he's drafted incredibly well since taking over as GM. If Kabanov gets his head screwed on right, Garth instantly looks like a genius, more so than Bob Murray does for grabbing Cam Fowler 12th overall. However, it's not the draft that Garth put together that's most impressive, it was the additions to the overall talent pool that are most striking.
Yes, Bridgeport is a very young squad this year and playing only slightly better than their major league affiliate, but the focus of this piece is a level lower and the East Coast Hockey League and the depth and talent pool brought in to the Kalamazoo K-Wings that has a chance to shine on Long Island in a few seasons with proper development. A few of these last names will sound familiar due to more famous older brothers (the Islanders have a habit of grabbing younger brothers, yet never got a Staal, sad, missed out on Marc by three picks in 2005).
A look at the Defensemen, in order: Wes O'Neill, Mitch Versteeg, Steve Tarasuk, Corey Syvret
First up is Wes O'Neill: (photo used from Swedish Islanders Wordpress blog) O'Neill was actually an Islanders 4th round draft pick in 2004, the 6'4 215lb D man spent college at Notre Dame and found his way into the Avalanche system making 5 NHL appearances in the past two seasons. O'Neill began the year at Kalamazoo, but is now at Bridgeport having scored 5 points in 17 games while playing to a +6 rating. O'Neill fits a shutdown D sort of profile throughout his career never taking too many penalties, and not being an all out offensive D-Man. In the wake of yesterday's James Wisniewski trade, O'Neill looks like a candidate for a call up if Dustin Kohn or Dylan Reese are felled by injury and someone is needed from Bridgeport.
Not to be confused with older brother Kris, Mitch is a physical D Man who knows what he's doing with the Puck, his point totals are meager this year (his second in the ECHL, but first as an Islanders farm hand, was brought in in July with other undrafted/"minor League" free agents along with team mates Tarasuk, Syvret, and Justin Taylor) with 6 points in 22 games for the K-Wings, last year Versteeg collected 20 in 68 games while also appearing in three games for the Worcester Sharks in the AHL. Mitch just turned 22, so plenty of time to round into form, he's only a -4 so far, so it's not like he's clueless on D.
Typically age 20 D men in the Major Junior leagues are expected to produce and Tarasuk did way more than that in his age 20 for the London Knights in '09-'10, Tarasuk only tripled his point production jumping from 20 in 08-09 to 67 (19 goals, 48 assists after previously recording no more than 3 goals in any season). Playing with Nazem Kadri certainly helped. Tarasuk picked up another 10 points in the playoffs for London. Unlike many of his London team-mates however, Tarasuk went un-drafted, though did appear in a few playoff games for former Islanders ECHL affiliate the Utah Grizzlies for their play off run producing no points in 2 games played. This year in his first year of pro hockey and he's put up 11 points, 2 goals and 9 assists, in 24 games to go with 15 PIM and a -7...but if he can become the puck moving D-Man that he was last season at London, Garth has found an un-drafted STEAL.
If the adage is that Defensemen develop slower than Forwards then Corey Syvret's going to need all the Time the Islanders will give him. The 21 year old Syvret (who rooms with former OHL rival Tarasuk) is pointless through 20 games this year, collecting 14 PIM and is a -8 on the season. Syvret tallied 30 points last year for Geulph and got into 4 games with the Rochester Americans picking up an assist. However, Florida GM Dave Tallon didn't want to roll the dice on the former 6th rounder and let him go allowing Garth to pounce on the 6'2 195 lb Defenseman. While he's yet to score any points, in a story about Tarasuk and Syvret a few weeks ago in Kalamazoo mentioned coach Nick Bootland's praise for Syvret in learning the system and adjusting to the league.
I have to admit, I started looking at Taylor's numbers in rookie camp and was absolutely FLOORED by the production I saw. Now, it's entirely possible that the Washington Capitals and Taylor couldn't come to an agreement after the 2007 6th rounders production went through the roof (18 points in his draft year shot up to 55 in '07-'08, somewhat like Matt Martin) but Taylor kept improving adding 67 and 62 point campaigns to a resume; I can only assume his agent demanded first round money/bonuses and George McPhee laughed him out of his office or hung up immediately. Taylor never signed with the Capitals and was considering going to college before he got a call from the Islanders to come to Rookie camp with a shot at opening the season at Bridgeport (I will find and post the link later); Taylor won a roster spot with the Sound Tigers and got into 6 games, sensing he needed ice time for his development he was sent down to Kalamazoo and has more or less set the place ablaze. in 13 games Taylor has racked up 7 goals, 5 assists, 41 PIM, and a -3 rating. Taylor plays Center which is stacked with the Isles AND Bridgeport, but at 21 and producing, his time will surely come.
And now a fight including a number of Islanders prospects! (a Sarnia Sting-London Knights game from a few years ago, more on DiBo and Katic later)
While Garth Snow never made the BIG trade or signed the BIG guys this past summer, he added 5 guys to his minor league depth who will likely help in the long term more than one Paul Martin could have (still would have LIKED to get Martin or Anton Volchenkov or Zbynek Michalek, etc) but if these guys pan out, they'll certainly make us realize Garth's plan.
