NHL

The Islanders announced today the defense prospect, Ty Wishart has re-signed with the club on a one-year, two-way contract for the 2012-2013 season.

UNIONDALE, NY (July 18, 2012) – The New York Islanders announced today that Ty Wishart has agreed to terms on a one-year, two-way deal for the 2012-13 season.

Wishart, 24, scored 19 points (five goals, 14 assists) with the Islanders’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, during his fourth professional season. The Belleville, ON, native also appeared in one National Hockey League game last year with the Islanders.

These are the type of conversations that are considered circular. After the endless banter, speculation, denial and rejection it is hard to decipher fact from fiction. There is no beginning, no end. There is no resolution nor a right or a wrong answer. There is simply the one fact that Brooklyn remains an option that should be considered by the New York Islanders.

Some people think the team could pack up their possessions on a stick wrapped in an Islander bandana, show up and paint the Islanders logo on ice and call it a home. Then there are the reasonable thinkers, those that know there is more to this that needs to be hashed out before this move is even considered.

First off, Brooklyn is trendy. When people think about the “new” Brooklyn, they automatically think of Williamsburg complete with the hipster labels. These hipster labels come with the faux vegetarians, riding bikes, drinking over priced craft beer and dressing poor but having money.

When the puck drops in October ushering on another Islanders season, we all sit in anticipation of what may be. This hope makes us realize why we love this team all over again, every single year. For a fan base starving for winning on a consistent and familiar basis, the beginning of the season leaves us hopeful, sometimes without much reason. There have been years walking through the doors of the Old Barn realistically knowing that we were about to witness the tapping of a keg full of losing hockey. Call us delusional if you want but I prefer passionate.

In the mass of orange and blue, I reside. It has been that way since I was a young boy. I never really stood a chance really, simply because they were my first love. You'd think with first memories of a horrendous team through the mid to late nineties I would have turned and run far, far away. But I didn't. I stood by this team, just as I do now because I love them unconditionally although it hurts a lot of the time. I don't know exactly where I was hooked forever but I know I am. Maybe it was the slick hands and awesome hair of Ziggy Palffy. Or perhaps it was the hard hitting, hard nosed style of Darius Kasparaitis? Could it be the legitimate tears that filled my eyes as Michael Peca disappeared into the locker room in 2002 after that cheap shot from Darcy Tucker? It might have been the literal seismic wave that eclipsed all of Nassau County after Shawn Bates buried that penalty shot against Curtis Joseph. All of these moments and more, knit themselves into a thread that binds all of us together.

Marty Reasoner was signed to a two-year deal during last summer's off-season to replace the recently departed, Zenon Konopka. "Z" instilled toughness and leadership in the locker room and gave Islanders fans, as well as his teammates, a reason to stick up for themselves when getting the brunt of the NHL's toughest teams and officials. But due to some rumored internal issues, Konopka was let go to free agency and Reasoner was signed to be his replacement; a less threatening, but more productive fourth line center that could kill penalties.

To everyone's dismay, it did not take long for Reasoner to quickly become the scapegoat for most Islanders fans. He was constantly making defensive mistakes, out of position and didn't score his first goal of the season until March 29th against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He finished the year with five assists to go with that solo goal for at total of six points in 61 games played. He was also a whopping -25, the worst +/- score of his entire career.

Not exactly the type of defensive play you want from your penalty killing, depth forward, especially when he was a +2 with 32 points and 14 goals the season before.

So where does Reasoner stand now?