Biron has played well in his last two games, two wins, and those games may have been a showcase for interested teams. Roloson continues to have a solid season, despite his age, and it appears he gets better with each game.
With the Olympic Games going on for two weeks, the league will be in a freeze, but when the Olympic break is over with, expect trade season to pick up as the March 3 trade deadline approaches.
Going into last offseason, the New York Islanders wanted to solidify their goal-tending situation, as they knew Rick DiPietro would be out until, as it turned out to be, January 12. Last season, when DiPietro went down for the season after playing only five games, the Islanders were forced to play inexperienced goalies between the pipes, in Joey McDonald and Yann Danis. Both goaltenders certainly held their own, for the most part, but an upgrade was necessary.
Enter Dwayne Roloson and Martin Biron, two number one caliber goalies, to fill the shoes of the injured DiPietro. Both knew headed into the season that one of them would most likely be traded upon DiPietro's return, and the one shipped out of town would probably be the netminder playing worse at the time.
Well as the trade deadline approaches, it seems to be that the Islanders are shopping BOTH Biron and Roloson. Wait a minute, you might be saying, I thought the reason for signing Biron was to trade him for a mid level prospect or mid round pick at the deadline? Well originally you were correct, but apparently Garth Snow is set on stockpiling more draft picks, and rumor has it that Roloson could net another first round pick for the Isles.
If you are, by now, thoroughly confused, good. You see where I am now too. It appears the Isles are shopping Roloson, and several contenders are in on the 40-year-old, Islander's Point Blank's Chris Botta reports. But now get this, in a reverse of fate, this also might mean Martin Biron won't be dealt. What the hell, you may be thinking? What the hell is what I was thinking anyway.
Now I understand the importance of having as many draft picks as you can, especially first round picks, on a rebuilding team, but what does this tell your fan base when you trade the best goalie on the team? I am sure there are plenty of Islanders fans as confused as I am right now, and maybe in the near future Garth Snow can clear some of this up for us.
However, this would immediately catapult DiPietro back into the starters role. Is he ready for that yet? No one really has an answer. Biron has certainly showed, in his limited time, to be the most likely to lose a game, although to his credit, the team doesn't score for him very often.
Even as I write this I don't understand the logic of trading away Roloson. Whatever, I never understand most of the trades the Islanders make anyway, except the Ryan Smyth trade. I guess I have Mike Milbury to thank for that, a heated discussion for another time.
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