KHL turns down Visnovsky extension, will report to Isles

[Guest]

Lubomir Visnovsky's agent sent a Tweet late on Tuesday that suggests that the defenceman will soon return to North America to honour his contract with the New York Islanders.

Player agent Neil Sheehy said via Twitter, "Lubomir Visnovsky said he looks forward to reporting to the NYI after tending to "personal reasons" which have kept him from reporting."

The status of the 36-year-old defenceman has been up in the air since he originally announced last week that he would be staying to play in the KHL in his native Slovakia for the rest of the season.

However, the KHL and NHL have an agreement on honouring contracts that prevents players with existing deals in one league from playing in the other.

If Visnovsky had stayed in Slovakia, he would have been violating that agreement. On Tuesday, Yahoo Sports reported that the KHL had turned down Visnovsky's request to extend his KHL contract to the end of the season.

And on Tuesday night, Visnovsky was held out of Slovan Bratislava's game against Lev Prague.

Visnovsky was traded from the Anaheim Ducks to the Islanders on June 22 last year, and originally didn't report to the team then, either. He cited a no-trade clause in his contract, but eventually an arbitrator ruled in favour of the Islanders.

Visnovsky is scheduled to make $3 million this season with a cap hit of $5.6 million. The veteran of 752 NHL contests has also played for the Kings and Oilers in addition to the Ducks.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=413665

Well, looks like the KHL isn't quite ready to fight that battle yet, at least not for Visnovsky.

[wr50l]

That poor guy has tried absolutely everything to get away from his tragic past but his captors continue to torment him. I feel sorry for Lubo, because he will be getting boo'd relentlessly by the 2,000 people who mistakenly also end up trapped in an Islanders facility on game night.

[Guest]

That poor guy has tried absolutely everything to get away from his tragic past but his captors continue to torment him. I feel sorry for Lubo, because he will be getting boo'd relentlessly by the 2,000 people who mistakenly also end up trapped in an Islanders facility on game night.

Those cap floor teams! I'm surprised they haven't tried trading for Tim Thomas yet.

[Ravin]

Islanders just cannot buy a break to get someone to play for their organization. Yet if you look at their team, it is really starting to come together. New York has been the quiet team in the rebuild. They don't get the glamour of 1st overall picks, but their drafting has been good. If you go back to 2009 when all this mess started, you got

2009
John Tavares - obvious star is obvious
Calvin de Haan - Should be a solid 2nd/3rd line guy (12th overall)
Mikko Koskinen - A possible goalie down the road (31st overall)

2010
Nino Niederreiter - 5th overall, hasn't done much when with the Islanders for 64 games (2G, 1A) but this year in the AHL as a 20 year old, he is a point per game player. Solid work in progress player right now.
Kirill Kabanov - 65th overall, but has some good hands. Was a major part of Shawinigton last season.

2011
Ryan Strome - He would be in the NHL right now if it wasn't for the lockout. Before the WJC he lead the entire CHL in points. He is a two point per game player, and will give the Islanders a legit 1-2 down the middle if they don't decide to play him on the wing with Tavares.
Johan Sundstrom - 50th overall, and is putting up great numbers in the AHL in his first season in North American.

2012
Griffin Reinhart - 4th overall and will be a franchise dman for the team.

So the depth is starting to get there, and when you look at the team who has Okposo and Moulson (scored 36 goals last year), and a lot of good young talent, the team will come around. They need to figure out the goalie situation because that is what is killing them. Hopefully Nabby can give them something stable in net for a season rather then the continued injury prone Ricky.

[killgod]

Why would any FA want to come to a dysfunctional franchise that's been unstable with where'd they be for years?

Hockey players hate moving their families. It'll all get better going forward now that there is some permanence to where they are going to play.

[Ravin]

Well they are not moving 'off the Island' so players should know that. Besides, Nassau sucks, so I would rather live in Brooklyn anyway to give me something to do when I'm not playing.

[wr50l]

Islanders just cannot buy a break to get someone to play for their organization. Yet if you look at their team, it is really starting to come together. New York has been the quiet team in the rebuild. They don't get the glamour of 1st overall picks, but their drafting has been good. If you go back to 2009 when all this mess started, you got

2009
John Tavares - obvious star is obvious
Calvin de Haan - Should be a solid 2nd/3rd line guy (12th overall)
Mikko Koskinen - A possible goalie down the road (31st overall)

2010
Nino Niederreiter - 5th overall, hasn't done much when with the Islanders for 64 games (2G, 1A) but this year in the AHL as a 20 year old, he is a point per game player. Solid work in progress player right now.
Kirill Kabanov - 65th overall, but has some good hands. Was a major part of Shawinigton last season.

2011
Ryan Strome - He would be in the NHL right now if it wasn't for the lockout. Before the WJC he lead the entire CHL in points. He is a two point per game player, and will give the Islanders a legit 1-2 down the middle if they don't decide to play him on the wing with Tavares.
Johan Sundstrom - 50th overall, and is putting up great numbers in the AHL in his first season in North American.

2012
Griffin Reinhart - 4th overall and will be a franchise dman for the team.

So the depth is starting to get there, and when you look at the team who has Okposo and Moulson (scored 36 goals last year), and a lot of good young talent, the team will come around. They need to figure out the goalie situation because that is what is killing them. Hopefully Nabby can give them something stable in net for a season rather then the continued injury prone Ricky.

It's pretty apparent that the organization is a fucking joke. You think it's impressive that they have slowly drafted a group of talented players? 4 years of top 5 picks and they are still bottom feeders; they have been drafting top 15 or even top 10 for a decade. There's nothing to commend their front office for even if they do eventually fluke themselves into a team that just misses the playoffs by a few points. They will never go deep into the post-season with Garth Snow directing the ship, and their best players like Tavares will wind up spending their careers as show-ponies like Rick Nash for as long as they are there.

A well-run organization would have turned things around by now and frankly the benchmark for blowing it up and rebuilding has been set by Championship winners Pittsburgh and Chicago.