Nope, that’s not referencing Toronto Blue Jay’s DH Frank Thomas, but for many Islander fans, July 1 really feels like a kick in the proverbial gut.

July 1 is free agent day, and the rumours were flying.  Excitement was in the air at Islanders Iceworks during the Islanders Prospect Camp.  But as the day progressed for Isles fans, the news got dimmer and dimmer…very…slowly…

Lets take a look at who has been lost…

~Jason Blake - Toronto (5 yrs./$20 mil)
~Viktor Kozlov - Washington (2 yrs./$5 mil)
~Richard Zednik - Florida (2 yrs./$3 mil)
~Tom Poti - Washington (4 yrs./$14 mil)

and finally… Ryan Smyth - Colorado (5 yrs./$31.25 mil)

Now, I totally can live with the loss of Zednik (who wasn’t even qualified) and Kozlov.  They won’t be missed much by me.  Poti’s loss hurts, but IMO, he’s not worth $3.5 million a year.  He needed another year to prove that worth.  The loss of Blake was obviously expected, and I wasn’t surprised to see the five years out there.   The Smyth loss though, that hurt the most.  I knew Colorado was the obvious suitor that was trying to lure Smytty away, so that wasn’t surprising.  The fact that surprises me is that Smytty took LESS money to go to Colorado, as opposed to stay here on Long Island.  One would think where Smyth was traded from Edmonton because he wasn’t being offered enough money, that would go to the team that offered him more.  We always knew to expect the unexpected with the ISlanders, and this one certainly came as a shocker for sure.

But now, the Isles have some serious issues to address.  They just lost this season their top three scorers (Smyth [granted w/ EDM], Yashin, Blake), their most reliable defenseman (Poti), and another 20-goal scorer (Kozlov).   When you look around the league, I see the Flyers getting Briere for a ridiculous 8-year deal, the Rangers inking Drury and Gomez, Kariya (who was strongly rumoured as a potential backup to Smyth) going with St. Louis, and all the Isles have to show for it is Jon Sim.  Not a very impressive opening IMO.

Garth and Co. better be making waves instead of splashes now, because the pool is draining…