Credit goes to Newsday
The Islanders, a team who have seemed to put their dead last days behind them, have two goaltenders right now, that almost any other team wouldn’t mind having. Yes, it’s true, one of them is enjoying success, while the other can’t buy a win right now. Their numbers are by no stretch of the imagination particularly bad, the Isles just tend to score more when one goalie is in net, and not score when the other is.
Rick DiPietro… remember him? He was drafted first overall by the Isles, in a year which 2 out of the top three draft picks have been injured more than they’ve played. In 2000, Rick DiPietro headed up the draft class with players such as Dany Heatley and Marion Gaborik. While DP and Gabby are obviously the two oft-injured players in that group, it’s DP in particular that hasn’t really played much in the last few years. Oh, I should mention, the injury prone, 28 year old from Winthrop, MA is locked into a blockbuster contract for 15 years, $67.5 million. After playing just 5 games last year and having undergone surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee, DP is feeling up to task to start playing for his contract again, Garth Snow stated as per Katie Strang of Newsday, that DP’s target date to return to action is the middle of December.
What does this mean for that Islanders organization that seems so much better now than they were before? Well, I’m not even exactly sure, though there’s one thing I AM sure about, the Isles would be insane to carry three goaltenders, my guess is that Marty Biron will be dealt somewhere, since the Isles have 40 year old Dwayne Roloson under contract for the next 2 years. Now the Isles have played extremely well in front of Roloson and horribly in front of Biron, which explains why Biron only has two wins on the season. Marty’s also a guy who would benefit more from getting his starts on a daily basis, so Biron is the only one who really loses in this current arrangement.
Now, can we expect Rick DiPietro to be the same goalie he was before? Well, a lot of time has passed, and I’m leaning closer to ‘no’ than ‘yes.’ Can he still be effective? This time I lean closer to ‘yes.’ Is it going to take some time before he is at peak performance? This time I’m leaning to ‘absolutely.’ Have any questions really been answered? Not so much, but at least now we know when to expect him back.
Update: DP is expected to start in net for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Newsday reports, as part of a conditioning stint.
