DiPietro Update

[GoalieGuild]

Yep. I've pretty much been saying this for about 3-4 months now...DiPietro aint playing this year.

http://www.islanderspointblank.com/

Still not on the ice, still not sure if he's even been cleared by the medical staff to start skating. He is rotting away...day by day, month by month.

Of course that's still all "unclear" due to the tight-lipped Isles front office...but come on...the kid is signed for another DECADE ... what's the point of trying to have him play this year? Let it go ... let him be ... give him a whole season to recover.

What a sad story this is turning out to be.

[NYR9394]

Damn. I cant say that i'd be all that surprised if he didnt suit up at all this year.


Somewhere Charles Wang has his contract in one hand and a gun in the other.

[Chicleteur]

Damn. I cant say that i'd be all that surprised if he didnt suit up at all this year.


Somewhere Charles Wang has his contract in one hand and a gun in the other.

HAHA! I like your comments about Wang! Poor Isles and more me as an owner in 2 leagues (please forgive me as I inherit those 2 teams...)

Hope he'll start the year on IR in Yahoo so that I can grab somebody else!

[lockedge]

Imagine having the talent to be an NHL starter, to have a long term contract with a team that trusts you to be their go-to guy and to help lead their youth revival, and having a sheer enjoyment of playing hockey that Dipietro has...
...and being stuck in a broken body waiting endlessly for it to heal.

It's hard to feel sorry for people making the kind of coin he's making, but I certainly feel sorry for him. I wouldn't have the heart to see my team play if I were in his skates. But I suppose I'm also not an NHL goalie, either.

[doulos]

You make a great point Lockedge. We look at all of this from purely a fantasy sports perspective and how he's screwing up our teams.

But this guy never asked to be injured all of the time, it's not really his fault. I am sure that given a choice he would far rather be out there playing and leading this young team over the next few years to a few more wins per season.

Justin is correct that this is turning out simply to be a sad story.

Reminds me of Blackburn.

[GoalieGuild]

You guys definitely bring home very pertinent points. It is often lost in the maze of statistics just how this affects a person's life.

You want to talk about frustration in someone's life? DiPietro is the poster boy of that.

For a US-born goalie to have his level of talent and then to crash with such serious injuries really makes me wonder if he was simply pushed too early in his career. He played a lot of vigorous games for the Islanders....and most of them were completely useless in the sense that he never went deep into the Playoffs.

And to his defense, I think just about anyone with a human brain and heart would have signed a long-term deal like he was offered. He probably feels the heat to get out there and perform - millions of people calling for his head with such a contract, yet injuries are circumstantial to EVERYONe, young and old, strong and weak.

I think DiPietro will make it back into some NHL games, but of course he'll never be the same goalie he was before getting injured.

Oddly enough, he was in Itech pads most of his career and then the five games he plays with those Vaughn Velocity 3 pads, he ends up ripping up his knee/hip even more.