Islanders Trade Rights To Mark Streit To Flyers

The Islanders made a very wise move today. Garth Snow shipped the rights to team Captain Mark Streit to the Philadelphia Flyers for a 4th Round pick in 2014,  and prospect Shane Harper.

After negotiations on a new deal broke down over money, Streit wanting upwards of $6M a season, the Isles looking to give him a Lubomir Visnovsky-like deal of 2 years/$9.5 M a trade had to be in the works. Knowing that he wasn’t budging, and neither was Streit, Garth pulled the trigger and sent Streit to Philly.

Many people may say they could have gotten more. If they could have gotten more, they would have. I am sure Snow canvassed the GM’s for weeks. Just because we heard talks broke down recently, doesn’t mean that it happened recently. In reality, talks between Streit’s agent and Snow really broke down around the trade deadline. I am sure they tried to bridge the gap numerous times, but at some point it becomes obvious that it’s just not going to happen.

What about trading him to a division rival? Let’s be honest here, Mark Streit is on the downside of his career. He will turn 36 in December. This is not Major League Baseball where division teams play each other 19 times. The Islanders and Flyers will meet, at most, 4 times next season. They didn’t just trade away Zdeno Chara. They traded a stay-at-home defenseman who can easily be replaced on the Isles blue line. It’s understandable not wanting to get rid of a guy who came here when things were pretty bleak, but trading him to the Flyers is really no different than trading him anywhere else.  Streit is a solid player, but he’s not a game breaker, and it’s not like he was going to stay if they didn’t trade him. They got the very most they could for a player who was leaving. It just happened to be to a division rival. So be it.

The Islanders also received a prospect in the deal, Shane Harper. So, who is Shane Harper? Nobody. Don’t worry about it. Seriously. He is a career minor-leaguer whose best season was in the WHL in 2009-10. He had 42 Goals, 32 Assists and was a +36. Exciting right? Cool your jets. When he got to the AHL, he has amassed a total of 19 goals over 138 games. He split last year between the AHL and the ECHL.  In his 48 games at Adirondack last year he totaled 10 pts, and was a -17.  Ya know who this reminds me of? Ty Wishart.

Look, you never know what can happen. It happens all the time. A guy gets traded and he is in a different system and he flourishes. I don’t expect that to happen, but who knows? Garth Snow has been very good at getting something out of players we have never heard of before: Matt Moulson, Michael Grabner, even P.A. Parenteau (even though we heard of him from the New York Rangers)

Let’s focus on the 4th round pick. The list of later round picks who have succeeded is endless:

•  Dominik Hasek-10th Round
•  Pavel Bure-6th Round
•  Doug Gilmour – 7th Round
•  Sergei Fedorov – 4th Round
•  Peter Bondra – 8th Round
•  Brett Hull – 6th Round
•  Evgeni Nabokov-9th Round

Anything can happen, but when you get something for nothing, it’s a good day. We thank Mark Streit for his 5 years here and we are glad that he can leave the Isles in a better position than when he came. He was a very nice players, and a good team guy. But, sometimes the time comes to part ways with a player and inject a new voice into the locker room. This opens up a spot for Matt Donovan or Aaron Ness to step in.

It also opens the door for a new captain. Most people would be very surprised if come opening night the man with the C on his chest was not John Tavares. He is clearly the leader of this team, and he should soon have the designation to prove it.

-EB