THOSE wondering how the contract negotiations between Rick DiPietro and Garth Snow will be affected by their past relationship as goaltending partners shouldn’t bother wasting the energy on speculation. For the fact is – surprise, surprise – that former backup netminder and current GM Snow will have little, if any, input.
Slap Shots has learned that talks between the Islanders and Group II free agent DiPietro have not yet even begun, with Snow following orders from I, Me, My Charles Wang not to engage in a dialogue with the goaltender’s representatives until the owner returns at the end of the month from a lengthy summer vacation. (Neil Smith as well was not permitted to speak independently to DiPietro’s people.)
This edict means that the team and DiPietro will have approximately two weeks in which to complete a deal, given Wang’s policy that the Islanders will refuse to sign any of their own free agents if they are not under contract by the first day of training camp.
DiPietro, who suffered through an erratic 2005-06 but clearly is the Islanders’ most important player, has two years remaining before he becomes eligible for unrestricted free agency. A summer ago, DiPietro appeared on the verge of signing a 15-year, $60M contract that had been proposed by ownership before the deal collapsed. Sources with knowledge of the situation strongly suspect that Gary Bettman put the kibosh on the contract.
The Islanders are currently at approximately $38M on a $44M season cap, without a legitimate NHL goaltender on the roster. DiPietro earned $2.5M last year.
It is, of course, impossible to guess at what the Islanders are thinking, because the only man whose thinking counts for anything within the organization is away for the month. It is also unknown whether DiPietro, who will turn 25 during training camp, will want to commit long-term at this point to such an unconventional operation.
Apparently, he will have a two-week window in which to make his decision. Who knows whether GM Snow will be allowed to speak during that time?
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Bruins’ alumni, a group that incoming GM Peter Chiarelli and incoming head coach Dave Lewis had hoped to incorporate as a constructive force within the organization, is seething at the summer dismissal of Gerry Cheevers, who had one year remaining on his contract as a pro scout, sources report. Indeed, we’re told that Cheevers’ ouster played a part in Harry Sinden‘s decision to step down from his largely emeritus role as president a year earlier than anticipated.
But much as Slap Shots has always delighted in targeting the Jacobs ownership for ridicule, Cheevers has no one but himself to blame for his firing. For Cheevers (assisted by fellow alums and MENSA members Brad Park and Terry O’Reilly) was the fellow in charge of the Be A Bruin reality TV series out of which an invitation was about to be granted to Billy Tibbetts – yes, that Billy Tibbetts; the felonious Billy Tibbetts – to attend Boston’s camp.
“But Glen Sather actually signed Tibbetts to play for the Rangers,” Cheevers was heard to say when given his exit papers.
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We can’t conceive of the purpose of Jed Ortmeyer‘s agent insisting that the forward will be ready in time for training camp after having suffered a pulmonary embolism last week. Fact is, the 27-year-old Ranger winger, who had previously suffered an embolism as an undergraduate at Michigan, is unlikely to play at all this season.
Evgeni Malkin has every right to attempt to escape what is quite clearly an oppressive hockey establishment in Russia, but comparing him to people such as Alexander Mogilny and Petr Nedved who previously defected from communist regimes in the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia trivializes the courage it took for No. 89 and No. 93 – and those like them – to leave their homelands.
Rangers were close last summer to signing defenseman Nate Guenin, their 2002 third-rounder out of Ohio State, but chose to allow him to become a free agent on Aug. 15 because they believe his style isn’t suited for the new-era NHL. The Flyers, who signed the 23-year-old, 6-2, 210-pounder, obviously don’t agree.
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Finally, training camps open in September. See you then. Rest assured I wouldn’t be going away unless I had my goaltender signed.