The Story of Alexei
Posted 6:31 PM ET | Comments 0
The day of June 7, 2007 will be a day Islander fans will remember for a long time. The day they bought out the contract of their captain Alexei Yashin. Back in 2001 Alexei signed the ridiculous $87.5-million contract for about 10 years. In 1999 Yashin sat out the entire year because of contract problems, then in 2001 on draft day, the big trade happened. Ottawa traded their star player to the New York Islanders in exchange for their 1st round pick (Jason Spezza), Zdeno Chara, and Bill Muckalt. Looking back on the deal now, obviously it was a massive overpayment. The First Year Alexei played with the Isles he put up some pretty solid numbers, 32 goals and 75 points. That was pretty much expected and also Alexei and Captain Michael Peca led the Isles to their first postseason in over 7 years. After his first season with the Isles, the numbers started to decrease. The next year he put up 26 goals and 65 points, which again is a pretty decent year. The next year Alexei only put up 15 goals but only in 47 games. Last season he put up 28 goals, which is pretty good for Alexei. Everybody thought that this year under Ted Nolan’s style of play, Alexei would excel. From the beginning of the season to his injury, he did just that. He finished the year with 18 goals, in only 58 games. The injury completely killed his season, in my opinion he could have easily scored 20 goals if he had played the full season. Then the playoffs came and this pretty much determined his fate, in 5 games against the Sabres Alexei put up 0 goals and 0 assists. What kind of captain is that? It wasn't only that that pretty much determined what would happen with Yashin. When Steve Stirling was fired from the Isles a lot of questions concerned Yashin. Rumors were that Steve and he did not get along so great. I've never liked the way Yashin played but, I could never question how great he was off the ice. He was the most respectful athlete I've ever met. If he ever signed with another team and came back to the Coliseum, I bet I would be one of the only ones cheering for him. That is why I wish Alexei the best throughout his career and sadly my prediction for next year is that he leaves the NHL and goes back to Russia. Good Luck Alexei and thanks for being an Islander! Also I would like to thank everybody for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.
Nick
Nick