This time of the year can get insanely crazy and the fact that the comings, goings and rumors have continued to surface at a breakneck pace, only prove it more so.

Last week, Eklund of HockeyBuzz.com reported that the Maple Leafs, who have some extra cash this summer,  are eyeing Islanders leading goal scorer , Jason Blake, with the Predators showing some interest as well. In all honesty, I believe that the Islanders should sign Blake and while asking for a five-year deal at 34 is a bit unorthodox, the $18 million he’s asking for isn’t outrageous by any stretch of the imagination.

Let’s face it, this team hasn’t done things the easy way for quite some time now. Between signing Yashin for as much money as they did and signing DP for 15-years, they’ve made it obvious that they do things their own way. Nevertheless, when a 40-goal scorer who has been consistently getting better for the past five seasons only asks for a little over three million smackers a season and has shown a willingness to stay loyal to the team, I don’t see why you don’t just give the guy what he wants. With the physical condition Blake is in and the work ethic he has, I think he can play another five seasons and score at least 25 goals in all of them, making the deal a pretty damn good one if you ask me.

All season long, the guy was hustling his tail off and was putting the puck in the net, regardless of who he was playing with. Sure, his little tiff at the trading deadline was annoying and his attitude in the locker room and with the press has been questionable at times, that doesn’t take anything away from his play on the ice. Simply put, this guy was an emotional leader on the ice for the team and stood up for himself, regardless of who was sending him down.

When someone asks me what the Islanders stand for, someone like Jason Blake, Trent Hunter, Brendan Witt or Richard Park immediately come to mind. Guys that will do whatever it takes on the ice to put their team in a situation to win. With that being said, as long as Yashin is still on the team and with the Smyth negotiations still at a standstill, the Isles need to keep at least one of the two, [or preferably both, if that is even possible at this point] or else it’s going to be a long season next year.

As well on the hot stove, former Islanders first-round pick Petteri Nokalainen has reportedly started negotiating a contract with Luleå (SEL). If he signs there, it is supposedly to fill the spot of former NHL standout and Legion of Doom member Mikael Renberg. With his knee injury slowing him down last season with the Isles and his numbers at Bridgeport not being that spectacular, maybe the young Finn needs a change of scenery.

In addition, the Islanders signed sixth-round pick Andrew McDonald and free-agent Sean Bentivoglio to contracts and signed an affiliation deal with the Grizzlies…again. Both McDonald and Bentivoglio look to add some depth at Bridgeport, but I think McDonald may have a chance to see some ice-time at the NHL level if someone gets injured. Looking at his stats, it seems like the guy is a pretty solid two-way defenseman, scoring 58 points last season in the QMJHL. Maybe he can turn a few heads the same way that Bruno Gervais and Chris Campoli have, which would make replacing Sean Hill that much easier and will give us some young depth at defense, which is always a good thing.

At any rate, it looks like things are only going to get more interesting as this offseason rolls on.

Holy crap.

After a week of reading message board posts about various Islander rumors and hearsay, I think my head’s about to explode. Dissecting all of them now would be crazy, so for the time being, I’m just going to pick two of the more recent ones and give my take on them.

The first one I heard was that Ryan Smyth is headed to Calgary, but that’s only if the Flames don’t nab Devils center Scott Gomez first. I don’t know how you guys feel about this, but I think that stats aside, Gomez and Smyth are completely different types of players and there’s no way that Calgary is planning to pick up one in case they can’t get another. I’d like to believe it’s only one they have their eyes on.

Gomez is a pure offensive talent, while Smyth does a little bit of everything and is a great presence in the locker room; picking up either one of these guys would signal a huge change for that organization, so I think that the Flames are going to think this through heavily before they make a move.

The fact that this rumor [or at least Smyth being a part of it] was squashed the other day when Smyth’s agent told Newsday that he hadn’t received any offers from anyone else yet and that Smyth reportedly said was going to take his time before he made a commitment with anybody, makes me think that the Flames are after Gomez. At any rate, I’m hoping, like all of you guys that Smyth stays in Long Island. Unfortunately, the only thing that we can really do about it is wait and see what happens.

From what I’ve been told by a few of the writers I work with, Smyth isn’t really a big fan of Alexei “I don’t deserve the C” Yashin and that the general consensus is that if Yashin stays, Smyth is gone. With that being said, if this is true, the chances of the Isles keeping Smyth seem to range from slim to none. Hopefully, Snow can work some magic and get these guys on the same page. Otherwise, the trade that got Smyth here may come back and bite the Islanders in the arse.

The second rumor I heard was that Randy Robitaille has decided to play next season in Russia. This makes absolutely no sense to me.

Why would Robitaille go to Russia after stringing together three decent seasons in the NHL with three different teams? I might sound a bit crazy, but I think Robitaille would make a decent third line center on just about any team in the NHL. Add in the fact that he’s a left handed shot and I think he could be a valuable commodity for any team looking to improve their last two lines and powerplay as well. Sure, he is a bit inconsistent at times and I’ve seen Cloris Leachman take the body more than he does, he could still find a home on another team in the NHL.

Why he would decide to go to Russia now of all times [it would have made sense after his first stint with the Isles] is beyond me, but I guess where going to see what happens with that one as well.

What do you guys think of all of this?

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be giving you guys my take on what the Islanders should do with the bevy of free agents they’ll have on their team after the season is officially over.

Here we go:

Tom Poti.

I don’t know how you guys feel about him, but I think he was easily the Islanders best defenseman last season and was extremely under-appreciated and didn’t get nearly as much praise as he should have. However, at the same time, he wasn’t booed every single time he touched the puck when he was on the Rangers. That I think might have been what Poti wanted all along, just to be able to play his game and in the end, his game really benefited from it. Make no mistakes about the guy, Tom Poti was everything the Islanders could have ever asked for this season.

Basically combining the solid defensive play he showed the NHL during his last year with the Rangers and being the consistent offensive defenseman many scouts thought he was eventually going to be during his days in college, Poti was excellent on both sides of puck. In all honesty, he reminds me a lot of Adrian Aucoin [at least when he was on the Isles] because not only can he eat up minutes, but he’s not scared to block shots and take the body when he has to. The only thing I think I’d really change about Poti’s game is that I’d make him take some more shots from the point. He’s got way too good of a shot to be passing to Marc-Andre Bergeron ALL the time.

Poti shooting a bit more would also make Bergeron less on a target on the powerplay and penalty-killing units would have to worry about both of their shots and not just Bergeron’s. At any rate, Poti, if signed, could continue to be a huge contributor to the team.

The only question is, do we keep him?

With Sean Hill’s Islanders career most likely over, I think Poti has to stay. I love Bruno Gervais and Chris Campoli, but I don’t think their ready to be 25-minute a game defenseman yet. In addition, Poti is more adept on the power play than both of them and as we saw in the Islanders playoff series against Buffalo, they don’t have many options at the point when they’re on the man advantage. Radek Martinek coming back healthy and strong will help, but having Poti around as both a leader and a mentor to Gervais, Campoli and whoever else might be around next season will be extremely important for the Islanders and their defense core.

Keep ‘em.

If you guys haven’t heard the news yet, here it is:

Wade Dubielewicz has signed a one-way contract for the 2007-2008 season.

I know it’s not Ryan Smyth or Jason Blake, but Dubie has earned the right to remain on the Islanders and it’s great that the organization did the right thing here and rewarded “Yoda” for playing his heart out during the last week of the season. Again, while the Islanders will have bigger fish to fry [no fish sticks pun there, I just like the cliché] trying to hold on to Smyth, Blake, Poti and a few other players from going elsewhere this offseason, signing Dubie was a must.

For one, the guy has spent his whole entire professional career in the organization and has always played well whenever he has been called upon. I don’t know how you guys feel about this, but I come from the school of thought that you have to help people that really go above and beyond the call of duty and stick their necks out for you and in the case of Dubie, he’s been nothing short of stellar for the Islanders and without him, I dare say they may have not made the playoffs.

Another reason why I love this deal is because Mike Dunham managed to wear out his welcome pretty fast and proved down the stretch, despite some solid games earlier in the season, that he was no longer capable of backing up DP. At times, it just seemed like he didn’t have the killer instinct and composure the Islanders [or any other team in the NHL for that matter] need out of their backup goaltender.

I mean, lets be honest here, it takes a special type of player to be able to play 15 games a season and know that regardless of how great you play, that’s all you’re going to get. Dunham wasn’t that guy. Dubie on the other hand, deserves this opportunity and I believe is more than capable of providing DiPietro with a breather every few games and can even provide the team with a boost emotionally in the process.

The only season why Dunham was signed last year is because I believe Islanders management felt that DP still had some growing up to do. Now however, DP has proven this season that he doesn’t need an experienced veteran to back him up and he can take hold of this team and be responsible for his actions of the ice [all concussions aside]. With that being said, I think DP’s dominance this year was as much a reason in Dubie’s contract signing as was his own stellar play over the last week of the season.

Despite that, it always feels great to see a hard-working guy get rewarded for his hard work. Today, one of the hardest-working players in professional hockey just got the biggest reward in his life and just shook off the label “career minor-leaguer.”

Congrats Dubie!

Now with the goaltending situation under control, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens next.

On my way to school today, I decided to take my Islanders media guide with me and after skimming through it on the bus, I can honestly say that there were a few lines in there that really touched me and made me think about the state of this great sport more than I have in years.

One quote in particular, by Mike Lupica, after the Islanders lost to the Rangers in the playoffs in 1979 [four years before I was born] really made me think about how far this sport has deviated from what made it so great and thrust me to the keyboard faster than Rosie O’Donnell to a nearby White Castle at lunchtime.

After that series in ‘79, Lupica wrote, “New York has been spoiled. They will never forget these hockey teams.”

Sadly almost 30 years later, Lupica was wrong, but I’d almost do anything in my power to make him right on this one.

After the Rangers won the Cup in ’94 and after two strikes in 95 and 2004, this sport has paled in comparison to what it used to be. When I first started watching hockey, it didn’t matter who was playing. The passion, grit and energy that was hockey in the early 90’s and before was absolutely astonishing to me and glued my young Rickey Schroeder- looking self to the television . As I’ve mentioned before in previous columns, I would watch Rangers, Devils and Islanders games as a youngster because I loved the game so much and just wanted to see guys out there competing. That’s how amazing the sport was to me then.

Nowadays, despite seeing all three local teams make the playoffs for the first time since ’94, I feel that the game has changed drastically and the things that made it so great may be gone forever. Gone forever are the personalities like Clark Gillies and Bob Probert, tough guys who could put the puck in the net as often as they dropped the gloves, to only be replaced by uber-talented youngsters like Sidney Crosby, Dany Heatley and Evgeni Malkin. It’s not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just not the same.

I know I’m deviating from my point here, but 30 years after that amazing playoff series that Lupica spoke about, are there any remnants of that kind of play left in the game today? Sadly, I’d have to say there aren’t nearly enough.

However, I’d be out of my mind to say that I still don’t love the game, it’s just in a different way.

Like a long, loving relationship, over a long period of time, things change and the reason why you originally fell in love with someone may not be present anymore; despite that however, the person can name a myriad of other reasons why they stay connected with that person and still harbor feelings for them, making the relationship stand the test of time and provide memories that make life itself worth living.

While hockey doesn’t feature the same type of hitting, grit and toughness that made me a lifelong fan 15 years ago, the speed added to the game over the past few years are exciting and great to watch in their own way and have continued to spark my interest and keep me watching.

But that’s just me. Like the thousands of marriage that end up in divorce every year, hockey fans will continue to watch something else if their needs aren’t met and they aren’t satisfied. Let’s face it, not everyone is a hardcore fan or capable of being in a loving, long-lasting relationship and it’s those people that have the ability to change the way the world looks at things.

Right now, the NHL needs to find a way to keep the hardcore fan involved with the game and bring in the casual one, without altering the game to the point where it’s barely recognizable anymore.

Otherwise, the rich and nostalgic history this sport has will be gone forever.

It’s already started.

Now it’s time to stop it.

Failing to advance past the first round of the playoffs the last four times they reached the postseason, the New York Islanders have some serious questions to answer this offseason. While the general outlook on the team isn’t nearly as bad as it was in the beginning of the season, the Islanders have some very important decisions to make that could eventually wind up costing the team another run at the playoffs if they’re not careful.

However, the biggest question of all is what to do with team captain Alexei Yashin.

Failing to meet the expectations of the organization after a solid first season on the island, Yashin should not be wearing the “C” on his sweater anymore for a bevy of reasons. While who eventually wears the “C” next season is anyone’s guess right now, it’s obvious that Yashin does not fit what Islanders head coach Ted Nolan is trying to do with this team and is incapable of being the type of captain the team and fan base desperately needs right now.

Let’s face it; while Yashin is still capable of being a top 10 player in this league, it’s extremely doubtful that he ever will be again. For one, the guy has got to have the worst luck in the world, as ever since he’s been on the Islanders, he’s either gotten injured at the worst possible time or he’s found himself in the chateau de bow wow [that’s dog house for you non-French speakers] of every single coach that’s been there because of his uninspired play. On top of all of that, the Islanders have consistently played well when Yashin was out of the lineup, proving that he’s not and never was as instrumental as Mike Milbury and Charles Wang thought he was going to be, making the deal that got him here for Zdeno Chara, Bill Muckalt and eventually Jason Spezza look like one of the worst in the history of the team and all of hockey.

While the trade that got him here is questionable, having Yashin, who’s made it obvious that he’ll never meet expectations, at the top of the team food chain, makes the Islanders look even more dim-witted. After a season of slick-moves by Garth Snow to optimize the teams chances at making the offseason and great coaching by Nolan and his staff, the days of contemplating signing a sumo wrestler to play net for the team and hirings and firings within the organization seem to be over; however, the Isles need to take it even further.

Simply put, someone that totally embodies what Nolan and the rest of the organization wants to do with this team should be the Islanders captain; someone like Mike Sillinger, Trent Hunter and Brendan Witt, who would have skated through a wall during the season if their head coach would have asked. Those are the types of players that you build a successful team around, not underachieving goal-scorers that are all out of excuses.

Sure, it’s obvious that Yashin is still the most talented player on the team, but talent can only get you so far in the NHL. Just ask Alexander Daigle, Brad Dalgarno, Jamie Lundmark and the myriad of other high draft picks with all the talent in the world that never really panned out in this league and they’ll tell you the same thing.

Heart and soul is what any great hockey team needs in order to dominate and it all starts from the top. While Yashin can and most likely will continue to be a more than adequate, nearly point per game player the rest of his career, he is not the person that should be leading the Islanders out of the badland of NHL mediocrity.