New York Islanders March Madness Storyline Voting Round One

Tavares Contract vs. Brett Yormark Comments

I fully expected this vote to be a total rout. Like 100-0 type of landslide. So to see 11% of fans out there feel like the Yormark comments mean more than Tavares’ extension is quite interesting.

What Yormark said wasn’t terrible in the context of his relationship with this fan base. Saying that the borough never embraced the team is exactly what we all expected Yormark to say. Even though it was his job to sell the New York Islanders to the borough of Brooklyn. And he failed spectacularly.

Calling the team “rent-to-own” was a low blow. But, again, did we expect anything less from Brett Yormark? Again, he had one job, “sell the New York Islanders to Brooklyn” and he failed. Massively.

Where the importance might come from is that the Islanders relationship with Yormark is far from over. While it’s going to take some time before the New York Islanders, they still have to build the arena. And in the meantime, they’re going to split time between the Barclay’s Center and the NVMC in Nassau, for three years. Both of which are run and operated by Yormark.

Regardless, the Tavares contract is still, easily, the biggest storyline of this season so far. It’s hung over this franchise the second they could start negotiating with their captain on July 1. The longer he goes without signing, and the closer he gets to free agency, the more people lose hope of him staying.

Why is his signature important? He’s the fifth highest scoring player in franchise history. He’s the leader of the franchise. The reason the Islanders have ever got past the first round since 1993. And the only reason the Isles have made the playoffs three times since he was drafted in 2009.

Without him who knows what happens to this team.
It’s still an issue

Sign-and-trade proposals are now all the rage