Hockey Trade Rumors

Just two points out of the playoffs, and with a respectable minus-2 goal differential, the New York Islanders are nevertheless seen as one of the league’s most logical sellers on deadline day. They are a young team, a team with a tight budget, and a team with a bunch of pending unrestricted free agents, so that’s understandable. Two players in particular – defencemen Mark Streit and Lubomir Visnovsky – have been the subject of frequent trade rumours.

What are the Islanders plans for that duo? Newsday’s Arthur Staple provided some illumination on Saturday night.

Staple reports that the Islanders have had preliminary talks concerning a contract extension with Streit, who also serves as team captain. For his part, Streit expressed optimism about the state of the team and evinced his desire to stay with the Islanders:

The fact is I like it here. We have a really good team. I’ve been here five years and I have a really good role, I love the room and I can tell the improvement is here the last few years. It’s maybe 5 percent we’re missing to break through. Overall, I’d like to stay.

The Edmonton Oilers have long been one of the teams rumoured to be interested in Streit, likely in no small part due to the familiarity head coach Ralph Krueger has with the player. Krueger spent most of the last decade as Switzerland’s head coach at the World Championships and Olympics, and Streit has played just under 100 games over his career for those teams.

http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/