James Mirtle points out that the Islanders have locked up a goaltender for the next eternity that hasn't really proven anything - his career stats and win record do nothing to inspire confidence anyone in besides, apparently, Charles Wang...
2005-06 saw the 24 year old struggle, and he posted a far worse goals-against average (3.02) and save percentage (.900) compared to his prelockout efforts. In his career — all 137 starts of it — DiPietro has a 58-62-8 record with a 2.85 goals-against average and .900 save percentage.The deal also made Chris! from Covered in Oil temporarily frothing-at-the-mouth crazy with incredulity:
JESUS CHRIST, ARE YOU GUYS INSANE? ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MINDS?? DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT YOUR YOUNG, STILL UNPROVEN GOALIE IS GOING TO CONTINUE TO BE YOUR BEST OPTION IN NET FOR THE NEXT DECADE AND A HALF? HOW LONG HAS THAT GAS PIPE BEEN LEAKING OVER CHARLES WANG'S DESK? AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY HASN'T IT KILLED HIM YET???It must be a slow leak, Chris. Frankly, I hope Wang persists for years to come. I find his ineptitdue grandly entertaining.
Colby Cosh has been gathering reactions for himself from the Hf boards. He points out a couple of amusing comments from the anonymous posters, including this one from a cynically optimistic Islander fan - "I finally own the jersey of a player that won't get traded. Why am I not happier?"
Ingmar Bergman uses his photo-altering skills to look into his crystal ball and determine what the future holds for Rick. (*Reader Beware - disturbing images).
Finally, TSN.ca has a story from the Canadian Press that details a number of NHL GM's reactions to the deal. One of the more interesting comments comes from an unnamed managed near the end of the piece:
''How's (Dipietro) going to react to all this?,'' wondered one GM. ''He's never going to have another negotiation in his career, how motivated will he be? If this Rick DiPietro isn't a completely passionate athlete, he's going to sleep. He has to, that's just human nature.''Good point. Unless Dipietro is Tiger Woods (hint - he's not) and winning matters more to him than comfort, one can reasonably expect his performance to drop off...simply because he knows, come rain or shine, win or lose, that he's GUARANTEED 67 MILLION DOLLARS. As Guy Incognito points out above, it's pretty much human nature.
So, come to think of it, I guess the one true benefit the Islanders may reap from this deal is the first overall draft pick next summer. In fact, I bet Rick is shopping for the best golf clubs money can buy right now.
