Bailey Re-Signs on the Island

The Islanders were prepared to hold Josh Bailey out of training camp and the entire 2012 season, if he wasn't going to sign on the dotted line by Friday morning, but fortunately, for both the club and the player, Bailey did indeed sign on Thursday evening, agreeing to a 2-year deal, reportedly worth $2.1 million, which works out to be a $1.05 million cap hit per season.

Bailey was the last major restricted free agent to sign for the Islanders and he is definitely in their plans for moving their way into the playoff race for the 2012 season, likely as the number two centre for the coming year.  In the 2011 season, he finished with 11 goals and 17 assists in 70 games for the club, which had him ranked 219th among all forwards in scoring.

With the plans that are in place, I am expecting him to have somewhat of a breakout season, nearly doubling his output from the season before, projecting him at about 40 points, which is somewhat conservative.  With the right wingers, Bailey should have a better season than that, but there is a level of risk in taking him, as he hasn't proved himself worthy of a better projection as of yet.

Forwards		Defense		Goalies
John Tavares	75	Mark Streit	50	Al Montoya	45
Kyle Okposo	65	Travis Hamonic	40	Rick DiPietro	20
Matt Moulson	55	Andrew MacDonald	30
P.A. Parenteau	50	Mike Mottau	20
Blake Comeau	50	Milan Jurcina	15
Michael Grabner	45	Mark Eaton	10
Brian Rolston	45
Josh Bailey	40
Frans Nielsen	40
Marty Reasoner	30
Matt Martin	20
Nino Niederreiter	35	Calvin de Haan	25	Evgeni Nabokov	25
Trevor Gillies	5	Ty Wishart	15

Currently, I have the Islanders still underneath the cap floor with 11 forwards, six defensemen and two goalies on the roster at the moment, but I think with a few more additions, including a couple of forwards, a defenseman and Evgeni Nabokov, the Islanders will be much closer to going over. As of right now, with two buyouts, I have their projected annual cap number at only $43.6 million, which is $5 million short of their goal.  A number of good entry-level deals could work wonders to help this number out, including Nino Niederreiter, who has a deal with bonuses in excess of $2.8 million.