Islanders Keep Busy

On top of the first signing of the day by the Islanders, Mark Eaton, the Islanders kept the cheque book open by giving new deals to defenseman Milan Jurcina and forwards P-A Parenteau and Zenon Konopka on Friday.  As you can see, the Islanders are really trying to add a lot of depth instead of marquee players early on in free agency, keeping with a small budget.

Jurcina signed a 1-year, $1 million deal with the club after an injury plagued year in both Columbus and New York, playing in only 44 games, scoring 1 goal and 6 assists.  He does have pretty good size and plays a solid defensive game, which would be a pretty good benefit to the Islanders.

Both Parenteau and Konopka signed 1-year deals worth $600,000, giving the team some more options in the 3rd and 4th lines.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
John Tavares	Mark Streit	Dwayne Roloson
Frans Nielsen	Jack Hillen	Rick DiPietro
Blake Comeau	Bruno Gervais
Josh Bailey	Mark Eaton
Trent Hunter	Andrew MacDonald
PA Parenteau	Milan Jurcina
Zenon Konopka	Brendan Witt
	Radek Martinek

Even with these three signings, the Islanders are still the lowest team among salary cap hits today, currently sitting with 17 players for $30.7 million, still $2.5 million short of the St. Louis Blues. The Islanders have also been in the rumour mill surrounding Ilya Kovalchuk, with some reports suggesting that the team would be offering $100 million over 10 years.