Where Do The Islanders Go From Here

I tweeted something to the affect of “It doesn’t get any worse than that” referring of course to a goal that no one saw and it was awarded to the Colorado Avalanche after they had just beat the New York Islanders by a final of 5-3. Thomas Vanek threw his stick in the direction of the puck, so it’s awarded to the opposing team. No one realized it until later on that the final score had changed. That was quite possibly the lowest point for the Islanders this year. Now what? What do fans look forward to for the rest of this season? Continue Reading....

Vanek To LA Talk Intensifies

Hearing trade talks between the Kings and Islanders have intensified. Also told NYI want to move Vanek by tmrw's roster freeze. Match?
— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) February 6, 2014

Furthering @TheFourthPeriod latest on Kings/Isles intensified talks, could be reason we haven't seen Gagner deal close
— Dennis Bernstein (@DennisTFP) February 6, 2014

My Take: As of now, Vanek is playing tonight so is he being moved tonight? Not likely. I feel tomorrow will come and go with nothing going on. It really does depend on which team wants to pull the trigger and when. Most general managers would like to wait until after the Olympics because there is that fear of players with big trade potential like Vanek could get injured during the Olympics, which is why the Islanders would like to move Vanek now. The money situation doesn't really matter because they are just above the cap floor anyways. Also read that Grabner is also available and could help the Kings. Stay tuned.

Interest In Vanek & MacDonald Heating Up!

From Bob McKenzie of TSN

The Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins are amongst those teams that would be interested in getting a scoring winger, a rental at the deadline. Pittsburgh has some cap issues, but Vanek's exactly what the doctor's ordered for a lot of contending teams.

My take: I'll look into who's available from the Kings in a bit, but if Pittsburgh really wants to trade again (last time the Isles did, the Pens won the Cup: Hello Bill Geurin) I would hope Simon Despres is in the mix and of course another first rounder. The Isles may want to trade Vanek before Friday so they don't have his contract throughout the duration of the Olympics. More to come.

Also from McKenzie is that there are teams very interested in Islanders defenseman Andrew MacDonald. I have read on multiple occasions that the St. Louis Blues were interested in A-mac, but at this point, with his very reasonable $500,000+ contract, I don't expect him to be traded until the trade deadline in March.

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