NHL Trade Deadline: New York Islanders Stand Pat As D-Day Comes and Goes

The NHL's trade deadline has officially passed, and unsurprisingly, the New York Islanders were hardly involved in the frenzy.

The biggest story of the day was Rob Schremp being claimed off waivers by the Atlanta Thrashers.

As was pointed out to me, for the second straight time, Schremp will not be able to wear No. 44 because Freddy Meyer does this time for Atlanta, which is exactly what happened last season when both were on the Isles.

The only area in which New York actually may miss Rob is in the shootout, where he's been one of the more consistent participants of recent memory, a career 8-for-15 in the skills competition.

Otherwise, Schremp was very inconsistent and was a healthy scratch several times this year.

As far as trades are concerned, there were several teams inquiring with Isles GM Garth Snow about possible deals for Radek Martinek and Zenon Konopka.

There were rumors aplenty that suggested Konopka had been dealt to Anaheim for a second-round pick, as if such a deal were actually realistic. Had the Isles pulled that one off, it would have been the steal of the day, no doubt.

Thankfully, Garth never dealt Konopka, because such a move would have been a major letdown, both in that locker room and among Islander fans. Zenon has been the most outspoken and committed player to wear the Isles' crest in ages.

Regarding Martinek, there just simply was not much of a market for him, and the Isles were asking too high a price for the skilled but fragile defenseman.

When you consider which blueliners were dealt today (Bryan Allen and Rostislav Klesla, to name a couple), Radek just didn't stack up, and teams that were going to pay New York's asking price wanted to get better returns.

My guess is that after watching Brian Burke get better value for Francois Beauchemin (who is yet to even reach the 20-point plateau) than New York got for James Wisniewski, who is on pace for at least 40 points, Snow did not want to lower the asking price only to witness a repeat of that situation. 

At the end of the day, the decision not to budge was not the worst thing for the Islanders and their fans. This team has been playing its best hockey in quite some time, and aside from Schremp, the roster remains intact.

Comments are welcome.