Comings and Goings on the Island

As the free agency period continues, and as every other team- especially the Rangers- collect the available players in the pool, the Isles have made somewhat less flashy signings, and have lost more players.

First, the additions:

From Montreal, defenseman Mark Streit has signed a five-year. $20.5 million deal with the Islanders. Although not the most powerful player defensively, he does possess the prowess on the PP that the Isles had hoped to receive from Bryan Berard (however, while BB didn't exactly carry through on that promise, he did provide some sick checks). Last year with Montreal, he scored 13 goals and tallied 49 assists, a total of 62 points (tied with Brian Campbell, who signed with Chicago for eight years).

link-http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/hockey/islanders/blog/

The Islanders also signed center Doug Weight to a one-year, $1.75 million deal. At 37 years of age, perhaps it goes against the proposed "youth movement" that compelled Garth Snow to let go of goaltender Wade Dubielewicz, but his veteran presence will provide guidance to the younger players, without a doubt. Plus he has experience in the Stanley Cup Finals, having won the Cup with Carolina in 2006. link-http://nyipointblank.blogspot.com/2008/07/weight-is-over.html

As for the goings, both Ruslan Fedotenko and Miroslav Satan, two considerably older players, have both signed one-year deals with Pittsburgh, who has lost Marian Hossa and Jarkko Ruutu, among other players. Fedotenko, although promising in the beginning of the 2007-08 season, had not been producing much nearer to the end of it, and while Satan had long been a shootout specialist, his own scoring streaks were of little help to the Isles when it came to the playoff push. Here's to them both faring well with the Penguins.

Other notes: Other than Wade Dubielewicz, Jaromir Jagr has also signed in Russia, with Avangard Omsk for two years at a whopping $17.5 million per year, as per ESPN, but the Rangers have very little to complain about, as they have added Markus Naslund to their ever-burgeoning All-Star lineup as well as defenseman Dmitri Kalinin... enforcer Eric Godard has also signed with Pittsburgh, as per TSN... Georges Laraque has signed a 3 year, $4.5M deal with the Habs according to ESPN.