Meet Kirill Petrov...

If you read Newsday today, you would have thought that Mike Milbury was fired from his job for no reason, and that Garth Snow became GM of the Islanders by sleeping with Charles Wang. Articles by Greg Logan today and yesterday questioned Snow (somewhat rightfully), and the readers who sent in "daily rants" seemed like an angry mob looking for blood.

Let's get one thing straight. Garth Snow traded down 4 spots to take Josh Bailey. Mike Milbury would definitely have drafted Nikita Filatov or Luke Schenn in the 5th spot, and then would have immediately traded him to the Penguins for Adam Hall and a 2009 6th round pick.

By the way, Josh Bailey is the second best player the Islanders got in the 2008 draft. The first best is Kirill Petrov, taken 73rd in the draft. Remember last year when the Rangers took Alex Cherepanov at 17th when he probably could have gone 3rd or 4th overall? He slid so far because teams were wary of him being able to transfer from Russia within a few years. (Yes, teams also worried about his work ethic.)

With Petrov, he might never come here. Ever. He makes a boatload of money in Russia and is completely content playing there. However, if you take into account raw talent and skill, he was Top 10 in the draft, probably around 8th. If he does ever come from Russia, the Islanders have an incredible talent on their hands. The only reason they were able to draft Petrov was because they stockpiled so many picks (13, the most of any team in the '08 draft) that they were able to "waste" one on a prospect who might never see a North American rink.

Without further ado, the highlight video...

Now, as a logical, smart, street-wise Ranger fan, I hope he never comes here. Oh, and we talk about Mike Milbury way too much on this blog.

Islander Draft Thoughts & Site News

Real quick, just wanted to state that we have our own domain now! You can now access The Rivalry at http://www.nyhockeyrivalry.com/. The changeover is, to our knowledge, complete; however, if you have a bookmark at the old Blogspot address, it'll redirect you to the new domain. We also added a Google search that will let you search this site as well as the Web in general. The site isn't totally indexed yet, so it doesn't really work right now, but in time you'll be able to search the site as opposed to searching through our million tags. We just made our hundredth post, and the site is running as smoothly as ever heading into free agency. Hooray for us.

Anyway. Getting to the Islanders' performance at this weekend's Draft. The reason why I don't follow the draft or read the Central Scouting reports is because the truth about any draft is that it takes years to see who really "won". As such, there is no sense getting all worked up about things that are in no way certain. So the Islanders passed on Nikita Filatov for Josh Bailey. Does it really mean anything now? In three years, we can worry about it. I get that Islander fans have been burned in the past and don't want to go down that road again, but there comes a time when you have to have faith in your GM. Now would be a good time to trust in Garth Snow. We're not dealing with grinders and one-year contracts here. Snow hasn't screwed up a draft yet; until he does, he should get the benefit of the doubt.

I, for one, think Snow had the right idea. Get as many picks as possible in a deep draft, then see what happens. If Josh Bailey was really their guy from the beginning, that's wonderful; even if he wasn't, the Islanders were smart to take this approach. Besides, if they hadn't acquired all of the extra picks, the Islanders wouldn't have been able to take a flier on Kirill Petrov. And while Islander fans will point out ad nauseum that Josh Bailey was only the 14th highest-ranked skater in North America, Petrov was actually the second-highest ranked skater in Europe. Not bad. Figure that at least one of these guys will be solid players in the NHL, and if they both make it big, all the better for the Islanders.

Again, it doesn't pay to kill a team for their draft moves right after the draft. So let's allow time to see how right (or wrong) Snow was for trading down. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. Besides, if the Islanders have a lousy 2008-09 season, they'll have a shot at John Tavares - and that's one guy the Islanders won't pass up.