Rick DiPietro - The $67.5 million man posted 9/12/2006 2:05 a.m.

The New York Islanders signed goalie Rick DiPietro to a record 15-year $67.5 million deal.

What makes DiPietro so valuable? TheHockeyRating.com rated DiPietro 17th behind Calagary's Miikka Kiprusoff 1st place finish.

Rank Player Team Gm. SA GA GAA W L T SV SV% SO Rating

1	MIIKKA KIPRUSOFF	CGY	74	1951	151	2.07	42	20	11	1800	.923	10	77.67
17	RICK DIPIETRO	NYI	63	1797	180	3.02	30	24	5	1617	.900	1	35.80

How can a franchise, in these days of a salary cap, justify spending $67.5 million on any player, let alone a goalie whose GAA is 3.02 and garnered only one shutout all season!?
What value does this place on players such as Kiprusoff, Jagr, Thornton, Pronger, Forsberg, Sakic, Brodeur, etc?

Trevor Seeney
TheHockeyRating.com

This is just another example of anti-Islander bias. I’m tired of hearing of people using statistics and performance to put down this team. When coming up with the ratings have you considered that the Islanders have the coolest uniforms in the league? Also, parking at the Nassau Coliseum is probably the best in the Northeast. There are certainly a lot of open spaces. And don’t pick on DiPeitro just because he makes a lot of money. He is a great tipper. All the waiters and waitress around town are very, very happy with him.

These are exactly the intangibles that should be factored in to the rating system. After all, as an Islander fan, if performance is the only factor, I guess we wouldn’t have much to hope for, would we?

Signed,

Izzie from the Island
A True Blue Islander

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