[TheScorpion]

The New York Islanders, for the past few months a team struggling to find a direction, have embraced a new one after striking out in free agency. The team made significant offers to Andrej Sekera, Mathieu Perreault, and Kris Versteeg, but narrowly missed out on each of them, forcing the team to go a different direction in acquiring new faces.

"It's been a year of change," GM TheScorpion said Saturday. "I've turned over the roster significantly since I got here, trying to squeeze the best value I could out of the players I inherited.

"My goal was always to surround my stars up front with terrific supporting pieces, and I feel that I've done just that with the acquisitions of Thomas Vanek, Radim Vrbata, Frans Nielsen, Mike Fisher, Conor Sheary, Michael Grabner, and Leo Komarov." However, the GM admits that he's made a crucial mistake.

"When I first arrived, I was blessed with a roster featuring stars up front like David Krejci, Corey Perry, and Jakub Voracek. However, I saw the stats of these players declining in the NHL, and I decided to trade them to grab some of these complimentary pieces. However, in doing so, I took on some poor contracts like Lee Stempniak and Paul Martin, which forced me to let go of even more assets to rid myself of them."

In other news, the Islanders announced Monday that they had fired their Director of Player Personnel, Mike Millbury. At the press conference for his firing, TheScorpion indicated that his management philosophies had moved to a different direction.

"In earlier months, I was under the impression that in this league, quality pales to quantity; however, this is obviously not the case. As such, we always seemed to fall on the losing end of the deals. However, we began to test a new philosophy in our deal acquiring Craig Anderson, and we are going to keep with that going forward following the success of that trade."

So, what sorts of deals can we look for in Brooklyn in the future?

"We have plenty of great complimentary players," said TheScorpion. "Our depth is among the best in the league. We will be looking to continue to add to that in Free Agency, of course, but in trades, that isn't happening. Our 1sts and 2nds will only be used on question marks if they're used at the draft. In trades? We're all-in on acquiring guys we know can contribute substantially.

"Our eyes and ears are open."