Next week, I’ll be doing a full preview of the New York Islanders over at Puck Prospectus, followed up by looks at their Atlantic Division foes throughout the month. You’ll want to take a peek over there for 2009-10 previews of all 30 NHL teams by our great staff, throughout September.
As a bit of a teaser, let’s look at the Isles’ biggest ESTR contributors last season:
| Name | Pos | ESTOI | ESOR | ESDR | ESTR |
| Brett Skinner | D | 118 | +0.96 | +0.91 | +1.87 |
| Joe Callahan | D | 241 | +0.41 | +1.16 | +1.56 |
| Andy Sutton | D | 384 | +0.67 | +0.23 | +0.91 |
| Dean McAmmond | LW | 589 | +0.39 | +0.32 | +0.71 |
| Mark Streit | D | 1300 | +0.82 | -0.13 | +0.69 |
It’s not surprising to see D Mark Streit’s Norris Trophy caliber season there among the top five Islanders, but there is/was perhaps some promise in seeing three other names from the defense corps – albeit taking ESTR’s with a grain of salt due to with smallish sample sizes: Andy Sutton is signed through this season, Brett Skinner remains a UFA, while Joe Callahan was scooped up by the Sharks.
The only forward in the top five -and trust me, the rest of the team’s ESTR plummet negative quickly past these few guys- is LW Dean McAmmond, currently unsigned as a UFA. Dean McAmmond, anyone?