Top Shelf : Islanders Daily : 9/8/2013

The New York Islanders continue to cross the dates off their calendars leading up to this Thursday’s huge training camp opener at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

As a prelude to the main team coming in to officially ring in the 2013-14 season, the rookies have been taking the ice the past two days trying to earn a precious invite. Those camps will continue today at Nassau Coliseum through Tuesday.

With 31 players in rookie camp and 60 overall expected at the main camp, you can be sure that most of the players on the ice currently will get an invite, pending any training camp invites that is. With that being said, it has to be mentioned that there are not many open spots on the roster that need to be filled so unless a rookie tremendously outplays a veteran, the hill to the NHL mountain this season looks too steep for many.

In our first article linked below, you will find the Eyes On Isles report from yesterday’s session, as well as interviews with Scott Pellerin and the main core of tremendous talent that the organization is currently looking carry the torch in the future.

Let’s take a quick power skate around the league and see what transpired on Saturday:

• A decision is expected today on the future of Daniel Cleary, currently an unrestricted free agent from Detroit.
• Vaclav Prospal is still looking for a contract offer from an NHL team.
• Jonathan Toews is the leader in national jersey sales in the entire league.
• Jason Spezza is confident that he should be named the next captain of the Ottawa Senators.
• Brett Hull was officially welcomed into the Blues front office.
• St. Louis has also invited defenseman Ryan Whitney to training camp on a try-out.
• Marcus Johansson, fresh off signing a new two year contract, will start the season with Niklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin.
• In an effort to get slower, the Flyers have invited Hal Gill to camp.

As always, thanks for reading Eyes On Isles!

-Andy (@tazman19)

In Case You Missed It

• My report from day two of rookie camp with player interviews (EOI)
• Chris T takes a look at an interesting tweet from Art Staple yesterday (EOI)
• Sabres can learn a thing or two from the Isles fisherman design (LHH)
• Nice story on Calvin DeHaan from rookie camp (Islanders.com)
• Toby Smith gives his forecast on the impending JT captain announcement (Isles Talk)
• Stanley cup favorites, part one (Too many men on the site)

Two Minutes For Tweeting

• Radek has always been a real solid pro and save for injuries continuing to decimate him from time to time, gives maximum effort. I think this is more just about insurance than actually finding a place on the squad.

•  Pat is already getting into the swing of things with a first goal prediction. Tweet him back and let your opinion be heard!

• Oh my, that slogan is so awesome I might have to steal it from time to time. With permission of course. Wait, then it’s not really stealing, is it? ?

•  White Castle is not what you crave…………It’s Islanders hockey! The slogans are coming in fast and furious now, we might have to do a contest on who has the best one! haha