"Alexei Yashin would be a solid secondary offensive option for an Islanders team on the rise.

Did you chuckle when you heard the New York Islanders were in negotiations with Alexei Yashin to return to the NHL? Or perhaps you laughed out loud?

Yashin? Back in the NHL? With the team that bought him out?

Go ahead and laugh all you want because regardless of what happens with Yashin, the Islanders have poised themselves to take a significant step foreword next season.

Having missed the playoffs the past four seasons and in five of the past six years, there is certainly no guarantee the Islanders will make it into the post-season in 2011-12. However, based on their solid play in the second half of last season coupled with the fact they have a fine group of young and developing players, it shouldn't be considered entirely farfetched.

After going a team record 15 games without a win through late November, the team changed coaches bringing in jack Capuano to replace Scott Gordon and the new bench boss seemed to have the ear of the players.

Some people laughed when controversial owner Charles Wang named his backup goalie, Garth Snow, as the team's general manager in 2006, but to Snow's credit, he has done a nice job rebuilding a franchise that, if the truth were told, not many players want to be a part of. We all know about the Islanders arena woes and the fact they play in the worst building in the NHL and had the lowest average attendance at just over 11,000 per game."