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There are rumors that Ottawa Senators Captain Brady Kachuk may want out of town.
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We'll discuss what he would bring to the New York Islanders, what it would cost to get
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him and whether or not it's a smart move.
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All that coming up next on today's Lockdown Islanders Podcast.
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Your Lockdown Islanders, your daily podcast on the New York Islanders, part of the Lockdown
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Podcast Network, your team every day.
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Gilmarten here, welcome everybody to the Thursday edition of the Lockdown Islanders Podcast,
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part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day, I want to thank everyone
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who makes Lockdown Islanders, your first listen every day, don't forget to subscribe
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on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode.
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We have a busy show, today we'll talk about the Brady Kachuk rumors, how he would change
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the islanders, what it would cost to get him and whether it's worth exploring, we'll
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also have some big news about Ilya Sorokin and Marcus Hogberg and we'll continue our
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player by player analysis of the islanders with Tony DiAngelo.
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Let's start with Brady Kachuk, captain of the Ottawa Senators.
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Islander fans may remember well that in the last two meetings between the Senators and
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the Islanders, it was Brady Kachuk, who basically
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requested, and I'll put that in air quotes, of Islanders captain Anders Lee to have a fight
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right off the drop of the puck and in both games they did and obviously Brady Kachuk brings
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certain things to the table that the islanders would lack.
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Let's start with the obvious, goal scored in only 60 games this past season, Kachuk scored
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22 goals, keep in mind, missing 22 games, he scored enough goals that would have placed
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him tied for third on the islanders with Emil Heinemann, Heinemann played all 82 games.
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The only players ahead of him would have been Shafer, who also played all 82 games and
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had one more goal and Bohorvat.
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Keep in mind that Kachuk is a consistent goal score.
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I wouldn't quite call him a sniper, but he put together back to back to back 30 goal
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seasons from 2021-2022 through 2023-2024.
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In 2024-2025, he missed 10 games and finished with 29 goals and then this year, as we said,
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22 goals in 60 games, essentially he would have come out with around the same 29 goals
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He is also a more physical presence, something the islanders also lack.
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Went over 100 penalty minutes, five times already in his career, probably would have reached
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that this year again, had he played more games.
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Six-wise, 162 hits in 60 games, that's 2.5 plus hits a game and again, the previous year
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when he was a little healthier, 228 hits, the year before that, 294 hits, he doesn't take
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He was also very good this year in the face-off.57.6% on face-offs.
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He gives you a different attitude and I think that's important for the New York Islanders.
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The islanders have become, in recent years, a team that is way too easy to play against
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and Brady Kachuk, for any criticism you may have about him, certainly doesn't let you
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off easy when you're playing against his team and that in and of itself would be a big
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So, if he really wants out of Ottawa, what does it take to get him to the island and what
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The rumors, and again, I don't know how accurate the rumors are, but the rumors are, it would
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be a franchise changing one for one, maybe with a few modifications, but overall, it would
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be the balance of the deal would be Brady Kachuk to the islanders, Matt Barzal to the
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So what are the obstacles?
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Well, let's start with the obvious.
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Matt Barzal can only be traded to nine teams.
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I do not know if the Ottawa Senators are one of them.
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It's very possible Barzi would have to agree to that trade.
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Brady Kachuk has a full, no movement clause, whether he'd be willing to come to Long Island
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and play with Matthew Schaefer, and Elias Sarokin, and play for Peter De Boer.
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He would have to approve any deal.
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Here's something that's a little surprising, but I think is another thing in the islanders
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Brady Kachuk is younger than Matt Barzal by two, three years.
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Brady Kachuk is 26, he'll turn 27 in September.
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His cap hit is also lower, Brady Kachuk makes $8.2, a little more than $8.2 million a year.
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That is his cap hit for the next two seasons that he is under contract.
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Many becomes a UFA in the summer of 2029.
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Compare that to Matt Barzal, 28, making $9.15 million under contract until 2031.
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So a few more years of Barzi at a slightly higher rate.
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So if you make this swap, one for one, the islanders would be getting younger, more physical,
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get more goal scoring, and a little bit of cap relief.
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Not a lot, but you're saving a little less than a million dollars under the cap.
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You're losing, however, in any such deal.
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Speed skating the passing ability that Matt Barzal brings to the table.
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And you're also, and believe me, islander fans may differ on their opinion about this.
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But you're changing the culture of the locker room.
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Matt Barzal, for all those critics who say the islanders have a country club atmosphere,
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Matt Barzal is one of the faces of the country club.
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You move on from Matt Barzal and bring in Brady Kachuk, you're changing the culture of the
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And I think that would be a positive.
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I think the culture in the locker room needs some refreshment for a lack of a nicer way
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But ultimately, ultimately, I think it would make sense for the islanders to at least explore.
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There's a lot of obstacles to making this happen.
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Both players would be at the top of that list as today, after we agree to it.
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And again, like the islanders ten and no record in overtime, for example, has a lot to do
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with Barzal, Horvat and Schaefer.
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Those were the big three in overtime who skated so well and worked well together.
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And that was always a plus.
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And another thing I have to add, as far as Brady Kachuk goes.
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And another reason why I would be more in favor of doing this trade if it's even possible.
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The power play 2021, 2022, Brady Kachuk, nine power play goals, eight power play assists,
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2022, 2023, 11 power play goals, 18 power play assists, 2023, 2024, 12 power play goals,
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10 power play assists.
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The numbers just keep going.
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Now, this year, a little less, only five power play goals, 15 power play assists.
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So we still contributing on the power play.
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Islander fans, I don't have to tell you how much work our power play needs at this point.
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We went from what, 31st or 30th a year ago, all the way up to 30th this year at 16.5%.
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Could the addition of Brady Kachuk get the islanders from, let's even just say 30th to 23rd
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or 22nd, another year of Matthew Schaefer, a little more mature, a little more experienced,
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that could help move the needle a little bit, a healthy Kyle Palmerie could move the needle
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a little bit, maybe just maybe you get the power play from really, really bad to average,
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maybe a little below average.
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We'll see, but to me, this deal is at least worth exploring and every dayers will recall
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I have mentioned, I am skeptical about trading Matthew Barsall, but I have gone on the record
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as saying and I still believe this, if you're going to trade Matthew Barsall, you better
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get one heck of a return back the other way.
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Well Brady Kachuk would be one heck of a return.
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He is a legitimate 30 goal scorer, he's good on face offs, he helps your power play,
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he provides leadership, that would be yet a fourth former or current captain if Anders
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Lee comes back on this roster, it would be Kachuk Lee Shen and Horvath.
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Again, don't know if that's going to happen, if you ever get Kachuk, if Lee comes back
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to unknowns, but he adds leadership, he adds physicality and he adds goal scoring and
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helps on the power play and he's younger and a little less expensive than Matt Barsall
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and he changes the culture.
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And my mind makes you tougher to play against.
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In my mind, that checks all the boxes, where if I'm going to trade Matt Barsall, a player
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like Brady Kachuk would be one of the guys I would trade him for.
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Again, it's a long shot, there's a lot of obvious obstacles that would need to be overcome
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But in my mind, it is worth exploring.
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What say you Islander fans, we have our poll question up on YouTube, so let us know
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Would you be interested in exploring that trade?
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We have got a lot more to get to on today's show, we've got news about two goalies in
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the Islander's organization, Ilja Sirokin and Marcus Hogberg will also be grading Tony
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D'Angelo and four are Islander's birthday of the day, a very popular rugged defenseman
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from Saskatoon Saskatchewan, who was with the Islanders from the late 80s into the late
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90s, finished up with the New York Rangers briefly at the end of his career.
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Let's see if you can guess who this is.
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All that coming up on today's Locked On Islander's podcast.
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16:11
News about two goalies in the Islanders organization, or at least they, well, they technically
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still are both in the Islanders organization, at least for a little while longer.
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Just for Ilya Serokin, for the second time in his career, he is nominated as a Visinotropi
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He finished second a few years back.
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Now he is one of three finalists and the other two finalists, by the way, in this Jeremy
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Smeiman and Andre Vasilevsky, I would say Vasilevsky is the favorite, basically Serokin
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himself downplayed his chances of winning it after his and the team's late season collapse
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and failure to make the playoffs.
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He finished the season with a 906A percentage of 268 goals against average, led all goalies
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in shutouts with seven and high danger saves with 452 high danger save percentage 864.
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And you know, here is a guy who in games where the team gave up 30 or more shots.
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He was 15 and five.
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So that is impressive.
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The shutout total now he leaves the Islanders in all time shutouts, passing Chico Resh in
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Remember, this is voted on by the NHL general managers.
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So general managers around the league, recognizing the excellence of Ilya Serokin and he is one
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of the three Visinotropi finalists.
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You will find out whether or not he wins the award at the NHL awards, which generally
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happen over the off season right before the draft.
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So we'll see how it all plays out, but good luck to Ilya Serokin, he is for the second
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time in his career, regarded as one of the top three goalies in the national hockey league.
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And when you see, here's the thing, I don't think he's going to win it because the light
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thing had a better season as a team.
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The numbers are a little better, maybe for Vasilevsky and or Swayman, but the lack of
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support that Serokin had to deal with, giving up so many high danger chances and just being
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stuck with that kind of a situation, game in and game out, not easy.
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And I think the GMs recognize that.
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Now the other piece of gold-tending news is that, well, Marcus Hodgberg will no longer
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be with the New York Islanders organization next summer.
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He has signed a new contract with link coping HC of the SHL back in Sweden.
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I hope I'm even coming close to pronouncing that right in my apologies to any Swedish
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speakers out there.
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I do not have a good Swedish accent, but anyway, Hodgberg signing a three-year deal to head
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back to Sweden and play there.
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He spent the last two seasons with the Islanders, most of the time with Bridgeport, some of
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the time as the Islanders back up this past year, 12, 13, and 6 in 31 games for Bridgeport
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a 292 goals against an 898 save percentage.
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He played in both playoff games, only gave up three goals in 35 shots even though Bridge
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port lost both of those playoff games.
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But I wish Marcus Hodgberg all the luck in the world.
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I think, you know, I hope he does well back in Sweden.
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He stepped forward for the Islanders not so much this year, but the previous season,
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when Semi and Varlamov was injured, he was there as a very solid insurance policy.
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That's his role in the NHL.
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He is a fringe back-up slash solid AHL goalie and maybe in Sweden.
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He will get the opportunity to play more in a higher league and just do his thing back
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in his home country.
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So best of luck to Marcus Hodgberg, but he will not be back in a New York Islanders
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uniform in 2026, 2027.
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Now, obviously, we don't know whether or not David Riddick will be back.
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Big save Dave, an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, unless Matthew
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Dorsch signs him to a new contract and we do not know the status of Semi and Varlamov.
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He played two games late in the season at Bridgeport, could not play in the playoffs.
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Is he going to be ready to go in the fall in training camp?
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And if he is, can he stay healthy?
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The Islanders, I'll say it this way, they cannot enter training camp with just Ilya
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Serokin and Semi and Varlamov as NHL caliber goalings.
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Whether or not, you know, who they bring in remains to be seen, but they've got to bring
22:16
We'll see what happens.
22:19
More to get to on today's show, we'll continue our player by player analysis of the Islanders
22:24
with Tony D'Angelo, we'll give him his grade for the season and talk about his potential
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role at these back next year, plus we'll have our Islanders birthday of the day.
22:35
All that and more coming up next.
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We continue with our player by player analysis of the New York Islanders.
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We're going to talk Tony DiAngelo today yesterday.
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We talk David Riddick the day before Anders Lee.
23:50
We've been doing this now for this is the second week and we'll keep going until we analyze
23:56
all the players on the New York Islanders and basically, you know, we'll analyze their
24:03
A grade is based on a combination of expectations and performance.
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Then we'll talk about their potential role if they come back next year.
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Tony DiAngelo played in 76 games for the Islanders.
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He had five goals, 35 points.
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He was a minus five plus minus had 43 penalty minutes.
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One goal on the power play six assists on the power play had 148 shots.
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So essentially a little, a hair less than two shots on goal per game, average 19 minutes
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and eight seconds of ice time per game.
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That was down four minutes per game from the previous season to words, Matthew Schaefer.
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I think that made the difference there and he blocked 70 shots, roughly one a game.
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He had a 35 hits, 20 takeaways, 96 giveaways and here's the thing about Tony DiAngelo.
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He is a good passer.
25:12
He is a solid second power play point man who can quarterback the power play.
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His defense is not great.
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But what he does do fairly well is skate the puck out of the zone or pass the puck out
25:32
of the zone when it comes to picking up his man in the defensive zone or get back in time.
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Not consistent and I'm being nice when I say not consistent.
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But here's the bottom line about Tony DiAngelo.
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Number one, when he missed a few games late in the season, the islanders definitely noticed
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It was a problem for this team.
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And I think that spoke volumes that DiAngelo, he's been good in the locker room, good
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off the ice, the alleged issues that have followed him at some of his earlier NHL stops
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did not appear to be an issue on Long Island, which is great.
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He's a right shot defenseman.
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They are harder to come by and he was cheap $1.75 million contract.
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He is now an unrestricted free agent.
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As far as I'm concerned, I would bring back Tony DiAngelo on a one, maybe a two year
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I go to two to two and a half million dollars somewhere in that range.
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Maybe go to two and a half if it's a one year deal, two and a quarter if it's a two year
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A A V. And I would bring him back because he is a good second offensive defenseman on
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a team and they missed him.
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You got to live with his defensive shortcomings.
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I would say that it's better than 50, 50 that he's back, maybe 60, 40 and my grade for
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Tony DiAngelo this year is a solid B. I think his offense was B plus to a minus range.
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Again, it's a mixture of expectations and performance.
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So what were the expectations?
27:36
He got to keep that in mind.
27:38
His defensive play was maybe a C. But I mean, to me, the fact that they missed him as much
27:45
as they did when he was out of the lineup leads me to give him that B grade and hope that
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Matthew Darsch finds a way to bring back Tony DiAngelo for next season.
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We'll see if he does and we'll keep you up to date on that and all things Islanders
28:03
all off season long.
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And now for our Islanders birthday of the day and, well, today is the 58th birthday
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of former Islanders defenseman Rich Pilon from Saskatoon Saskatchewan 6 feet, 216 pounds,
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a seventh round pick by the Islanders in 1986 after three great seasons in the Western
28:27
Hockey League with the Prince Albert Raiders.
28:31
Pilon was a tough guy.
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He dropped the gloves as a rookie.
28:37
I think his stats illustrate a lot 14 assists in 62 games.
28:43
No goals 242 penalty minutes.
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He had more than that in 97 98 when he had 291 penalty minutes after joining the Islanders
28:55
in 88 89 he was with the team all the way through the 99 2000 season was claimed on waivers
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by the Rangers played with them for two seasons and then briefly had eight games with the
29:07
blues to close out his NHL career in 631 career NHL games.
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Rich Pilon had eight goals and 77 points, but 1,745 penalty minutes.
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He played in 15 playoff games.
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All of them with the Islanders during their 93 run to the conference final.
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He had no points, but 50 penalty minutes in those Stanley Cup playoff games.
29:37
One of his better games as an Islander, how about December 26, 1991, a boxing day match
29:43
up between the Islanders and the Devils, Chris Terrari, the goalie for New Jersey, Glenn
29:49
Healey, the goalie for the Islanders.
29:54
And well, basically it was a three to two Devils lead after two periods, Peter Stasney
30:02
made it four to two in favor of New Jersey early in the third, but that's when our Islanders
30:08
birthday of the day.
30:09
Rich Pilon scored his first goal of the season and Dave McElwayne got the only assist
30:17
late goals by Rob Demio, short-handed and Derek King with one second left, caused this
30:24
game to end in a five, five tie for Rich Pilon.
30:29
He had a goal on his only shot and it was important because without it you do not get
30:36
Rich Pilon, tough guy, great teammate, physical hockey player, he is our Islanders birthday
30:47
Don't forget to check out the every day or club you'll get ad free episodes and access
30:51
to a group chat with me and other hardcore Islander fans who listen to Locked On Islanders,
30:56
tap the link in the show notes or go to Locked On Islanders.supercast.com for more information.
31:07
I'm Gil Martin, I've been covering the New York Islanders for two decades and I wrote
31:10
the book Ice Wars on the history of the Islanders rivalry with the Rangers from 1972 till
31:16
the modern era, so glad you could join us today to talk a little Islanders hockey.
31:22
If you have a question, a comment, maybe a topic you'd like us to discuss on a future
31:28
episode, just email us at Locked On Islanders at gmail.com, if you leave your first name
31:34
and where you're from, we're happy to mention you on the show when we discuss whatever's
31:40
You can follow the show on x at Locked On Isles, you can follow me Gil Martin on x at Ice
31:45
Wars, N-Y-R-V-S-N-Y-I, we'll keep you up to date on all things Islanders all year long
31:51
and it's always great to talk Islanders hockey with you, game time or anytime.
31:57
Every day as we are back tomorrow, we will continue our player by player analysis of the Islanders
32:04
with Scott Mayfield and we will also dip into the mailbag and have the latest Islanders
32:12
news notes and happenings.
32:15
Until then, have a great day everybody, stay safe and of course, let's go Islanders.