Blue & white scrimmage will stream live

If you want to watch former Fighting Sioux forward Brock Nelson play tonight during the Blue and white scrimmage the New York Islanders are going to stream it live. There are a few other names that you might recognize as well; Scott Mayfield, Matt Donovan and Aaron Ness. Just to name a few.

Courtesy of the SoundTigers.com ---- The New York Islanders announced today that tickets for their intrasquad Blue & White Scrimmage on Thursday, June 28 at 6:30 p.m. at Islanders Iceworks are on sale now. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and warm-ups begin at 6 p.m.

The 2012 Blue & White Scrimmage at Islanders Iceworks has sold out of all available tickets for the game, raising over $5,000 for the Islanders Children’s Foundation. For fans not attending the event, IslandersTV will broadcast a live stream on NewYorkIslanders.com Thursday night, beginning with warm-ups at 6 p.m. for a 6:30 puck drop.

This year’s contest features prospects from this past weekend’s Draft, players from junior hockey, college/university, Europe and the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Blue team members include Kirill Kabanov, Scott Mayfield, Brock Nelson, Griffin Reinhart, Ryan Strome and Johan Sundstrom, while some of the top prospects suiting up in white jerseys this year are Casey Cizikas, Nino Niederreiter, John Persson, Mike Halmo and Ville Pokka.

The annual prospect scrimmage gives fans a glimpse of the Islanders future stars. This year’s contest features top prospects Ryan Strome (5th overall in 2011), Nino Niederreiter (5th overall in 2010), Brock Nelson (30th overall in 2010) and Johan Sundstrom (50th overall in 2011), among others. Also set to take the ice are several prospects who saw time with the Islanders last season, including Casey Cizikas, Calvin de Haan, Matt Donovan and Aaron Ness.

Terry Frei on the Matt Donovan signing.

I saw this newspaper article when perusing the Lets Go DU Blog and the Denver Post beat writer brings up some valid points. The first question that comes to mind is what is the rush to get these players into the AHL? It's not like they're throwing millions of dollars at these kids. As a Sioux fan you have to worry because forward Jason Gregoire is also part of the Islanders system as well and he had a bigger impact on his team than Donovan… As an NHL fan I have never been a fan of Garth Snow and this antics anyways, I always that thought he had a hair trigger guy but was also a cheater because he wore over sized pad and looked like the Marshmellow Staypuft Man.

Islanders D Matt Donovan

Donovan had just finished his sophomore season with the University of Denver Pioneers last week when he signed an entry-level deal and reported to the Islanders' American Hockey League affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

Officially, he'll be playing the stretch run of this season under an Amateur Tryout deal before the entry-level contract kicks in next season. That delays until fall the start of the clock on his progress toward such things as restricted free agency and gets him a few games under his belt for the Tigers, who aren't going to make the playoffs.

Donovan was a fourth-round Islanders choice in 2008, and if and when he makes it to the NHL, it will be historic: As it stands now, he would be the first player in the league who was born and raised in Oklahoma.

High-powered NCAA programs bill themselves as vehicles to reach the NHL and accept early signings as part of the process. But Donovan would have been better off to play through his junior season at DU before signing. That's what Matt Carle, a more highly regarded defenseman at the time and the winner of the Hobey Baker Award, did before signing with San Jose in 2006 and jumping straight to the Sharks.

Although Islanders GM Garth Snow is a product of NCAA hockey himself — he had a full four-season career at Maine as a goaltender — his regime has been impatient at times about the development of their prospects at the college level. This isn't some guy who was raised in Moose Jaw, came up through major junior himself and is conditioned to completely buy into the argument that the pro-style schedule and rules of major junior are better for NHL prospects.

You have to wonder if Garth Snow has forgotten his roots, he was a college guy and he didn’t grow up playing hockey in the CHL so he has to know the benefits of staying in college playing against stronger older players.