Snow and Staff Come Through on Day Two

By virtually all accounts, the second day of the 2008 NHL Draft was a smashing success for Garth Snow, Ryan Jankowski, and the scouting staff of the New York Islanders. Souls have been soothed indeed. Yes, Okposo Net, there is a silver lining. Hope can now take a summer vacation.

That being said, let's not assume that Snow and company just drafted an entire All-Star team. Saturday's events deserve the same kind of disclaimer that was attached to Friday's activities. And Saturday's successes do not erase what happened the day prior, even though they are inextricably linked.

On the one hand, Saturday's haul could not have been complete without the moves made Friday night. On the other hand, the team valued Josh Bailey significantly higher than anyone else and didn't buy into the consensus evaluation of Nikita Filatov.

Players who can do what Filatov may be able to do are rare commodities. One can only hope that Bailey is just as rare of a gem.

New York Islander Fan Central points out that the youth movement is already well underway with the likes of Campoli, Gervais, Bergenheim, Tambellini, Joensuu, et al., already in the organization (and there are a good dozen more worthy of mention). Can't you argue, then, that the Islanders were already fairly well stocked with prospects? At least well enough that they could have had a wonderful draft, and a deep talent pool, without sacrificing a chance on Filatov?

Of course, the organization's answer is that Filatov was not the answer; Bailey is. And that will be quite interesting to watch over the next several years.

Islanders fans can hope that the drafting of Kirill Petrov makes any such comparisons moot. However, it is difficult to ignore that based on limited information, Petrov is more of a gamble than Filatov would have been.

In the end, the draft strategy the Islanders employed resembles throwing as many picks at the board as possible and seeing which ones stick. That's not bad when, on paper, so many of them look sticky.