Selecting Joshua Bailey with their first pick was a nice move. He’s not Filatov, but 96 points in the rough-and-tumble OHL is nothing to sneeze at. I say let him play now. Get him up with the big club as soon as possible and let him learn on the job ….

Kirill Petrov in the third round was a steal, but the big Russian will be hard to get to the NHL because he’s locked up over there for two years and will probably be paid a king’s ransom to stay in his league. The Russian super league is throwing around mad cash. I guess we’re in wait-and-see mode with him and will remain that way for a while ….

As for the free agents they have signed, I love the Mark Streit move. He’ll quarterback the power play and get 15-18 minutes a night in the second or third defense pairing. I don’t expect 62 points again, like he amassed with Montreal in 2007-08 because the Habs are a vastly superior offensive club compared to the Islanders. That said, though, when you get a chance to get a defenseman in his prime (He’s 30) who had as many assists as your club’s leading scorer had points (Mike Comrie with 49), you do it. Streit will be good for years and should fit into the rebuilding process perfectly ….

Doug Weight. OK. He’s 37 and had 25 points last year. Look beyond the numbers, though. He, along with Bill Guerin and Pavol Demitra, was largely responsible for St. Louis’ rebirth. He’s moved on since then, but you can’t discount the value of veteran leadership. Plus, he will be the Islanders’ man behind the net on the power play. Don’t let last year get you down. This guy has averaged 60 points a season for his long career, has won a Stanley Cup and what he’ll bring to the locker room is immeasurable ….

I would have liked to have seen the Isles go after Michael Ryder or Kristian Huselius, but we knew going in Snow wasn’t going to do much out of fear of taking away roster spots and ice time from youngsters. Oddly, Demitra is still out there, as is Miro Satan. Maybe one of the Slovakian snipers ends up on Long Island. But don’t count on it. The Isles must be way under the cap, so if Ted Nolan gets through to the troops and they start off well, they may be in a position to add firepower come the trade deadline.

Don’t read too much into what I’m writing. This team has many, many problems, mostly on the offensive end. Bit I ldo ike their defense pairings. Brendan Witt, Radek Martinek, Andy Sutton, Chris Campoli, Streit …. not bad. I expect the Islanders to be good defensively and in net, provided Rick DiPietro stays healthy.

The problems, though, will be glaring. They won’t score anywhere near enough. My hope is Kyle Okposo develops into the sniper many expect him to be. Getting 20 minutes a night will only help.

The Islanders have the veterans to bring the youngsters along. Guerin, Weight, Witt, Sutton, Richard Park, Mike Sillinger, Jon Sim … It’s not as bad as it seems. Nolan must start the season with Okposo, Blake Comeau, Bailey, Frans Nielsen, Jeremy Colliton and Jeff Tambellini among the final 20 for this rebuilding to begin in earnest. If not, you will have a ton of 35-something guys out there with diminishing skills.

I’ll be back after the holiday with a lot more. Enjoy the 4th everyone ….

Sykora is exactly that type of player. Yeah, he’s bounced around, playing on five teams during his 13-year career, but he won a championship, with New Jersey in 1999-2000 and got to the finals with Anaheim in 2003. He’s now turning into the ultimate playoff rent-a-player. For whatever reason he didn’t look like the greatest investment in the Eastern Conference finals or first four games of the Stanley Cup finals, registering just a goal and an assist. However, he changed all that in the third overtime on Monday.

If you were watching Game 5 as intensely as I was, you may have seen Sykora tell NBC’s Pierre McGuire on the bench during the first OT that he was going to score the winner. That stuck in my mind the rest of the game. I ran to my car after I got out of work to catch the third period and when the legendary Sam Rosen did his famed “it’s a power-play goal!” call midway through the third extra session, I just knew Sykora had scored.

After a split-second delay, probably because Rosen was trying to figure it out himself, he screamed Sykora’s name. Immediately I said, “Damn man!”

Sykora reminds me of Butch Goring, not so much physically — Goring was more of a miniature bull, while Sykora is more smurf-like than anything — but definitely mentally. He just knows where to be on the ice at all times and scores big goals.

Of his 300 or so NHL goals — counting playoffs, about one-third have come in the final five minutes of games. He has 32 goals and 68 points in his playoff career.

Overtime heroics are nothing new for Sykora, who ended the fourth-longest NHL playoff game in a fifth extra session on April 24, 2003, during Anaheim’s run to the Stanley Cup finals. That team was coached by current Detroit bench boss Mike Babcock.

“We have a great thing going right now. We just wanted to win this game,” Sykora told The Associated Press in the early morning hours following the Game 5 win. “We didn’t really look ahead. Now we’re going back home. We’ve got nothing to lose. We know what we have to do and hopefully we can bring it back here to Detroit.”

The one knock on his game is he’s a total finesse player. He doesn’t like physicality, and his 6-foot, 176-pound frame isn’t really built to withstand the rigors of bone-crunching NHL playoff action. Yet, Sykora consistently finds his spots on the ice and delivers in the clutch.

The Devils made a mistake trading him back in 2002 because New Jersey is always in a position to contend for the Cup. Had the Devils been rebuilding, I could understand moving him, for Sykora is not a player you build a franchise around, but he’s certainly one that you turn to in the postseason.

If the Penguins are smart, and they usually are when it comes to building teams, they’d keep Sykora around so that he can continue to provide that veteran presence and clutch mindset to players like Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal going forward. Sykora will only be 32 when next season gets underway and probably has three more good years left of around 30 goals, 60 points and playoff headaches for the opposition.

I’d take him on the Island in a second. Even if his production tailed off he’d be worth it for any team because of all the intangibles he brings to the ice on a nightly basis, the types of things the Islanders haven’t seen in 15 years.

Charles Wang, he of the billions of dollars and no hockey sense, said recently the team is going to aggressively continue to work to develop young talent and fix this thing by building through the draft. Oh boy. Joy.

Minus Marian Hossa, this offseason’s stock of unrestricted free agents is the least exciting in years. And you can bet good money on the fact that Hossa isn’t coming to Long Island.

That leaves Wang and GM Garth Snow with the fifth pick in the draft and a prayer. The only thing that is certain is Kyle Okposo will be a very good player in the NHL. He may not score 50 goals, but 40 is possible and a point-per-game is doable. Considering the fact that Mike Comrie led the Isles in scoring this year with 49 points and I think Islanders fan would sign on the dotted line for just about anything as an upgrade.

It’s too early to delve into the free agents that will be available, but it’s not too early to look at the current roster and decide who you want to bring back. I was pretty much convinced that Miro Satan, Josef Vasicek and Ruslan Fedotenko should go, but now I’m not so sure. Believe me, I wish there was another way, but if Wang and Snow are determined to stick with the Jeff Tambellinis, Frans Nielsens, Sean Bergenheims, Steve Regiers and Matthew Spillers of the world, they better keep around someone or two who knows how to skate and put on his helmet properly.

I’m not saying the aforementioned youngsters won’t develop into serviceable NHL players, but this idea that a team that finished last in the league in goal scoring will suddenly be better next season with the same young guys going weeks at a time without putting a puck in the net (Tambellini), is very shortsighted.

There’s got to be a way to infuse some offense into this team, and the players to do it have to have worn sweaters from different clubs in 2007-08. I have faith the Islanders can win 3-2 games, but not 40-43 of them as would be needed to make the playoffs. I mean, seriously, when was the last time they enjoyed a laugher? I cannot remember.

If they bring this team back with no signicant upgrades and dump some of the veterans you are looking at a disaster next season. If they keep some or all of their decent veterans they still won’t be good enough to make the playoffs. If you get creative and throw some money around, you have a better shot of being decent, but who exactly can they rob/lure to get players to Long Island?

As it stands, minus the buyout of $2.02 million to Alexei Yashin, the Islanders again figure to be well below the salary cap next season. Rick DiPietro and Comrie will be making around $4 million per and are the highest paid players on the team. Satan makes around that number now, but will want some kind of raise to come back. But, put it in perspective: Satan, Fedotenko and Vasicek combined for 48 goals in 2007-08. That’s some pretty sad commentary when you think about the fact that Isles management is considering getting rid of them and NOT signing (be it because of a small pool of free agents, no snipers available, etc.) anyone even remotely significant to fill their voids, as small as they may be.

Bill Guerin deserves a medal because at 38 or however old he is he still managed to score 23 goals on this team. If he had some help he would have scored close to 40. Okposo could be the guy to play with him, though the youngster looked real good with reliable veteran Richard Park. Mike Sillinger’s season-ending injury hurt, but he’s also approaching 40. Trent Hunter actually got a five-year extension for $10 million, which is great because he does so many things, but is awful because he scored just 12 goals this season.

Yeah, the problems with this club are endless, and the specter of coach Ted Nolan bolting after next season or being fired before it even begins looms large. DiPietro is suddenly always hurt and his reliability is seriously in question.

I think when healthy, the Isles have three good defense pairings, but they have to re-sign Radek Martinek and pray he doesn’t get hurt (again), and they are almost forced to bring back Freddy Meyer or Bryan Berard, though I would opt for the former if given the choice, and let Aaron Johnson fill the other slot. Also, a lot can be said for Andy Sutton’s impact. Before he got knocked out for the season, the Islanders were in the midst of a six-game winning streak, were 28-25-7 and right in the East race. After he went down with a torn hamstring, they went 7-13-2. He was just one of a slew of injuries, but Sutton was getting better every game and his loss was one they never recovered from.

This whole thing is pretty much a train wreck. The only solace you can take in this organization is Okposo’s development and the hope that the politicians in Nassau County will push through the redevelopment of the Hempstead hub and allow for the Coliseum to be renovated.

Until we get some good news, this is an organization that will continue to shadow box with mediocrity. The other shoe always seems to drop. There’s really no reason to think it won’t happen again — sooner rather than later.

The problem the front office has with him appears to be over a roll-of-the-dice move a few weeks back when he started Wade Dubielewicz in both ends of a home-and-home with the Rangers. Rick DiPietro, he of his quickly developing “Tin Man” alter ego, was on the mend from the injury which eventually sidelined him for the season, but was deemed healthy enough to play. Nolan chose to go with the hot hand. Dubie had beaten the Rangers in the first game.

OK, so the Isles lose the second game 3-1. Of course it’s Nolan’s fault because Dubie didn’t score three goals.

WHATEVER.

Nolan is the best coach this franchise has had since Al Arbour retired the first time. Give the guy a break. Garth Snow and Charles Wang let everyone walk this past offseason, some justifiably so. But if there’s a finger to be pointed at someone for the team’s failures this season it should be directed at those two because the guys they signed — all fairness to Bill Guerin … a true warrior — were a downgrade from what they had. Say what you want about guys like Viktor Kozlov and Tom Poti, even Alexei Yashin on some levels. I’m not saying they should have kept Yashin. No chance, but at least TRY to get something better. Those three may not have been the greatest players for the Isles, but they sure were better than any combination you want to put together of Josef Vasicek, Ruslan Fedotenko and Sean Bergenheim, to name a few.

No, Isles management was high on something to think a team composed of career third-line players (minus Guerin and Mike Comrie. They are good, but better as supporting parts) could make the playoffs.

Snow tried to sign Ryan Smyth. He threw a ton of cash at him, but Smyth went to Colorado. That accidental non-move was the best move Snow made the entire offseason because “Cryin’ Ryan” has been a bust in Colorado. But the bottom line is once Snow backed up the truck after the 2006-07 season he didn’t come close to restocking with anything resembling an NHL-caliber offense. He didn’t rebound from losing his “all in” hand with Smyth.

None of this is Nolan’s fault and neither is the team’s struggles this season. In fact, a case can be made that he went above and beyond the call of duty with the rejects he did have. Add in the fact that 12 guys from the original 25-man roster are currently out with injuries, including their top four defensemen and franchise goalie, and the last thing anyone should say is Nolan failed this team or the Long Island community.

Nolan deserves a three- or four-year extension at middle-of-the-road NHL coach compensation at worst.

And as for you Mr. Snow, I stood up for you huge last offseason when everyone was making those “backup goalie-turned-GM” jokes. I may turn around and lead the verbal assault calling for your ouster if you don’t give Nolan an extension and find him and the fans some guys who can actually score, forget 40 goals, try, say, 20 goals.

The idea that the New York press is even hinting that Nolan could be gone is a crime. And I blame you for it.

Cut the crap and get with it. Give Nolan a vote of confidence, a new deal and move toward free agency with everything in order. Nolan will win a Cup as a coach before he leaves this earth.

It better be behind the Islanders’ bench.

He had similar surgery at the end of last season for an injury to his left hip.

I still love DP’s contract because he will be a bargain down the road, but the last thing you need is a franchise goalie who misses big chunks of time with leg injuries. Hopefully, he’ll come back strong in time for training camp and both of his hips will be better than they were before the surgeries.

I know Ted Nolan is a fine coach and he puts his players through a rigorous training camp, but something has to be done about their conditioning on a year-round basis because half the team is currently collecting disability.

The Islanders and Rangers close the regular season with a home-and-home set. At this point, Garth Snow should do what he can to get the following players on a red-eye to Long Island:

“Dr. Hook” Tim McCracken, Clarence “Screaming Buffalo” Swamptown, Ogie Oglethorpe, Dave “Killer” Carlson, Barclay Donaldson, Tommy Hanrahan and any of the three Hanson brothers.

I say this because the Rangers are going to kick the Islanders  all over two rinks within 48 hours. Might as well put on the foil and get something out of it.

“Officer, I knew Eddie Shore and Toe Blake …”

I’d put the clip in here for you to see, but I’m still working out HTML kinks. Just trust me when I say when the shot bounded by stunned Toronto netminder Vesa Toskala I knew the game was over. Because one goal is all the Isles score these days, if they’re lucky. Sooner or later, even without Mats Sundin and Nik Antropov, I figured the Leafs would find a way to get two past Wade Dubielewicz, who by the way has lost a lot of the bloom off his rose.

Rick DiPietro didn’t play due to an MRI on his hip. This news of course can only be bad. At this point Ted Nolan should consider shutting him down for the rest of the regular season.

The one “bright” spot, if there was one aside from the blooper-reel goal, was the debut of highly touted Kyle Okposo. He got 14:45 of ice time and looked at least like he knows how to skate. The first thing I noticed, though, about him is he looks like all of the Islanders out there on the ice. He’s sort of smallish and blended in quite well with the rest of the mighty mites. Yeah, Okposo will fill out and will be great. It’s just I was hoping the guy would get onto the scoresheet in his first game. If he had he would have exactly one more point than Miro Satan has gotten over his last 15 games.

Okposo buzzed the net a few times, and a bounce here or there may have had a goal or two. Toskala stopped him in the first period with a kick save on a low wrister from just to the left of the faceoff dot. It was a good shot and it showed this guy isn’t afraid to unload in the offensive zone.

If I’m Nolan I just march Okposo out there a lot over the final eight games. Give him more power-play time as well.

Injuries have destroyed this team. Five of their first six defenseman didn’t play Tuesday and offensively they are just lost.

Okposo is really the only reason to watch, so if you get a chance to check him out, do so.

I heard you can get a great deal on Gorton’s Fisherman jerseys. I’d act now.

Nobody knows for sure what kind of impact 19-year-old Kyle Okposo will have in the NHL, but, at least for now, he will give the Islanders watchability for the rest of this disappointing campaign.

Okposo is the type of blue chip prospect the Islanders have had just twice in recent memory if you don’t count the magic Bill Torrey worked in the 1970s. Only Pat LaFontaine and Rick DiPietro garnered as much attention and hype as what will surround Okposo when he steps on the Nassau Coliseum ice for the first time Tuesday against Toronto.

“This guy has a tremendous amount of skill,” coach Ted Nolan told IslandersTV.

Compared quite favorably to Calgary’s Jarome Iginla due to his Nigerian heritage and sniper-like prowess, Okposo will give this franchise a shot in the arm regardless of how he performs Tuesday and throughout the remaining nine games. Make no mistake, the transition from D-I to the AHL is often a wake-up call for even the best of prospects, but Okposo is basically jumping from a year-plus in college to 29 games in the minors to the grand stage. That’s a quick jump for anyone, but for an Islander prospect that’s Star Trek-like beaming. Nolan was quite measured in his comments on what Okposo’s capabilities, at least in the interim, will be, but you couldn’t help but notice a bit of a sparkle in the coach’s eye.

“That’s one thing I try not to do. If you compare Kyle to Iginla … Iginla’s a pretty special player and if Kyle turns out to be similar to him that will be pretty good. I think the bottom line is we have to appreciate Kyle for who Kyle is … to compare him to Iginla or (Joe) Sakic is kind of unfair because if he doesn’t meet those expectations early people are going to be disappointed.

“I’d rather go on the cautious side and say he’s gonna be a great player. Right now, to be fair, he’s a young kid. He has to find his niche in this league and once he does people will be saying he’s Kyle Okposo, not anyone else.”

Okposo (pronounced “OH-poso”) will witness the Isles-Rangers series twice as part of a remaining schedule that features mostly Atlantic Division rivals. And since the Isles are basically done for this season, a chance to create a roadmap going forward is in Okposo’s hands. All indications are despite his relative lack of bulk — 6-foot, 195 pounds — Okposo has the goods to be a force for years. A cannon of a right-handed shot, quick hands and skates and leadership qualities not often found in someone so young are just a few of his attributes, characteristics that could sell out his jersey in minutes.

The seventh overall pick in the 2006 draft, Okposo registered 40 points in 40 games as a freshman at the University of Minnesota. He then quit school and signed with the Islanders in January and went on to put up 24 points during his 29-game stay with Bridgeport. Initial reports of his hefty skills have been corroborated by several of his minor league teammates, who now also find themselves up with the big club because the Islanders have been destroyed by injuries.

Ben Walter, now a 4th-liner with the Isles, told Newsday Okposo is the real deal. His transition to the NHL will have its bumps and bruises but there’s no question he should be around for a long, long time. What struck Walter and several others about the U-19 Team USA star is his playmaking skills, which, considering he’s a wing and not a center, are unusually good. It may take some time for Okposo to become a true, proven 40-goal scorer, but he seems to grasp the team-first concept which Nolan has employed since he arrived on Long Island at the start of the 2006-07 season.

“If he’s one-on-one with a guy, he’s going to try and make a move to beat him, and he can put the puck in the net,” Walter said. “He definitely knows how to score. I’d say he’s a bit of (a playmaker and scorer), but he definitely loves to score goals.”

Obviously any comparison to Iginla without playing a single NHL game is kind of unfair. But since we’re living in the future here I kind of think more about LaFontaine than Iginla because Okposo seems to share more qualities with the former Islander great and Hall-of-Famer than he does Calgary’s greatest player. First off, Okposo is American, second, LaFontaine was every bit the passer that he was the scorer and, third, LaFontaine wasn’t the biggest guy on the ice but could skate like the wind and had a bull’s-eye on his back wherever he went.

Regardless of Okposo’s lack of experience, he brings an intangible this franchise desperately needs. He has star power without anyone knowing the slightest thing about him personally. In laymans terms, he’s an enigma wrapped in a puzzle with the potential to be the next truly great NHL sniper. Rarely have the Islanders drafted or brought up anyone even remotely close to the potential this guy has this quickly.

Nolan basically said straight out that rather than put Okposo on a line with other Bridgeport call-ups like Walter or Jeff Tambellini, he will match him up with a “responsible” NHL veteran like Richard Park, someone who knows his role and is quite cautious and deliberate on the ice when it comes to his responsibilities.

Best case scenario: Okposo doesn’t get hurt and opens enough eyes in the short term to warrant a clean slate come next training camp. I think at this point barring an unforseen flop he’ll be with the Islanders to start ‘08-’09. And if Garth Snow makes good on his veiled promise to spend money and infuse offense into this club in the offseason, Okposo won’t have to deal with the pressure of having to be the go-to guy next season. He’ll be able to quietly just play his game and get accustomed to the rigors of an 82-game schedule.

Right now and to start next season Okposo should be looked at as just another part of the machine. Everyone screamed for DiPietro to be called up after he was drafted No. 1 overall a few years ago. The Islanders, smartly, waited for him to mature a bit. Now the jury may still be out on how much DP has truly matured, but, physically, he’s much more complete of a goalie than he was when he was drafted. With just nine games to play and then an entire offseason of bulking up and conditioning, Okposo will come into camp as someone ready to make a serious contribution as opposed to now when he’s nothing more than an attendance-draw for a team with nothing to play for.

But who really knows? Maybe Pat Iginla or Jarome LaFontaine will show up and get us all giddy heading into our April tee-times.

They also cannot afford stupidity and disrespect.

The guys you count on every night to lead by example must do just that. They must be good soldiers in the face of adversity and, more importantly, they need to be held accountable for their poor play and accept the criticisms that come from being thought of as leaders.

Rick DiPietro, as great as he can be on any given night, has a tendency to forget that.

Following the blowout loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday he was a bit snippy with reporters when asked about Ted Nolan’s comments about him continuing to be reckless outside the crease. When asked if he had any comment on Nolan’s criticisms about his irresponsbile puck-handling, DiPietro said, “No. Whatever.”

Then in the third period the next night against Florida he let Karlis Skrastins’ pee-wee slapper from the blueline get by in eventual 4-2 loss.

Listen Ricky … I know you’re frustrated. I know you want to win and want to make the playoffs, but the last thing this organization needs is you tweaking your coach to the press in a time of despair. Those two words you uttered showed a sarcasm and detachment from reality that will trickle down to the younger guys and piss off the older ones.

You were supposed to say, “Ted’s right. I’m a jackass. I think I’m a playmaking center sometimes out on the ice, but I know the best chance for us to win and make the playoffs is for me to stay in the damn net and allow my teammates to do their jobs. It will never happen again. I promise.”

A litte self-deprecation and contrition wouldn’t hurt. Would it?

I am one of the few Islanders fans I know that actually feels his 15-year contract is a steal. The idea that this guy will be paid $4.5 million per until 2021-22 or something like that really appeals to me. Why? Because he will one day be a Vezina Trophy-caliber player. Better yet, he’ll be a bargain, too.

He has all the game to be a world class netminder. No question about it. It’s just sometimes he’s basically a bonehead out there. He wanders from the net, gets caught out of position and often looks foolish scrambling back only to be blinded by the glow of the lamp. If this guy would just stay in the net and work on his angles, he’d have a Brodeur-like GAA. The Islanders, when healthy, are one of the better defensive teams in the NHL. They have to be because their offense is from hunger. DiPietro, however, seems to forget this on a weekly basis.

Until we can pry Alex Ovechkin from Washington or Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier come out of mothballs, for all of our sakes, just stay in the damn net and act like a leader.

I’ve been a fan of this organization since 1980. I was 9 then so you could say I was an impressionable youth, but whatever it was about the Long Island crest it worked. I have lived and died with this team for almost three decades and, frankly, am a little tired of the Islanders being looked at as the third team in the greater NYC area. That said, there’s been progress. We have the goaltending to take us forward. We certainly have the coach. And it looks like this owner is the real deal. Now, if we can only get the stadium …

 While the 2007-08 season hasn’t gone all that well according to the fans’ lofty standards, it has been a bit surprising considering all of the player turnover following last season’s playoff loss to Buffalo. Nearly every “expert” picked the Islanders to finish last in the Eastern Conference, so the fact that they have competed for a playoff spot well into March says something, mostly about how effective a leader and disciplanarian Ted Nolan is. This guy should be locked up for years. Imagine what he’d do with talent?

 Anyway, that’s it for now. I’ll be checking in several times per week and I’ll do my best to get you as much offseason news and opinion as I can.

 Talk to you soon.

 Jeff