Islanders Prospect Mark Katic

By Adam Cohen

A third round draft pick in 2007, Katic is your prototypical offensive-defenseman. The draft ranking services all noted his excellent skating ability, on-ice vision and hockey sense. One service even went as far to say, "Katic simply possesses the best skating stride in the entire draft." Amassing 159 points in 227 games with Sarnia, Katic is an offensive threat every time he steps onto the ice. However, one weakness in his game is that he sometimes tries to do too much offensively and can get caught in a bad position. His skating ability helps out here, but still leaves him vulnerable to advancing forwards in transition.

After watching Katic through two summer camp seasons, I agree with the draft reports that were written in 2007. Katic's skating rivals no other defensive prospect the Islanders have currently. His ability to transition his stride is smooth and effective; this allows him to change directions without losing much speed. During scrimmages, he is often leading the attack and did get caught on occasion, but his skating almost always enabled him to get back into position. The question still remains, will the faster, more agile players in the NHL limit Katic's offensive chances due to the fact that he will have to play more positional, or will his speed and skating be good enough to allow him to use his full range of abilities?

Below you'll find a brief interview I did with Katic at last season's rookie camp.

How have the practices gone for you this week?

Katic: "Because of the new coach, I am a little nervous. The practices have been fast, and it's been fun so far."

What are your first impressions of Scott Gordon?

Katic: "He's teaching us a lot of things that we can bring back to our Junior clubs."

One of things that have impressed me about your game is that you are always scanning the ice when you are defending against advancing forwards, more so than any other defenseman I have watched in camp. Can you tell me a little about that?

Katic: "You have to see where the other players are, so if you intercept the pass you know where to put the puck right away. So I try to read the ice and see what everyone else is doing."

Away from the rink, what was your favorite thing that you had a chance to experience while at camp?

Katic: "Probably paintball because I had never done that before. It was fun to be able to shoot the guys on the other team."

Based on comments from some fans in Sarnia, they felt that your coach was not allowing you to jump into the play as much as they thought he should have. Do you agree with their assessment, or is there more to it than they knew?

Katic: "I don't think that was the case at all. My coach was trying to teach me the pro game which is make the pass then jump into the play. It took me a little longer to adjust to that. He says that is how the pros do it; they make the [first] pass and then jump into the hole. He was trying to teach me how to do that, and I thought he taught me very well. I am trying to that a little more now."

In the Junior leagues is the emphasis more on developing players for the pros, or is more on winning?

Katic: "For the younger players, the emphasis is on development, but the older players there want to win. It's a business, and all the players I know want to win. I want to win. There is development, but at the same time we all want to win."

Last season Katic had Brendan Witt for a roommate. He said, "It was a little nerve wracking at first, but once you realize he's a human being just like everybody else, it's a lot easier and a lot of fun to ask him questions about things."

Islanders Prospect Matt Martin

By Adam Cohen
Here's a story I did at rookie camp last season.

Matt Martin, already a fan favorite on Long Island, was drafted by the Islanders in the 5th round of the 2008 draft. The 6' 2", 192lb Windsor native got the chance of a lifetime that season to play on a line with number 1 draft pick Steven Stamkos. By providing toughness to the line, he allowed both Stamkos and Justin DiBenedetto the room they needed to put up big points for Sarnia. In addition, he made life miserable for rival Josh Bailey's Windsor Spitfires during the 1st round of the 2008 OHL playoffs.

I asked Martin about Sarnia's team this season. "We have a lot of good young players that work hard," he said. With the lack of forwards available during the pre-season, a lot line shuffling occurred. Because of this, Matt is unsure whom he will be playing on a line with this season. Assuming they both are back, Martin is expecting to at least be on the powerplay with DiBenedetto and Jamie Arniel.

At the end of the last scrimmage at rookie camp this summer, Martin was working with AHL heavyweight, and newly signed, Joel Rechlicz. Rechlicz, being a left handed fighter, was giving him tips on how to best approach a fight with a lefty and someone with a height advantage over him. The tips were put to good use fairly quickly as Martin went with Richard Greenop of Windsor in pre-season game the day before he flew out to Long Island for Rookie camp. Martin said his father was also a hockey fighter and does boxes with him.

I asked Martin to describe a little about what life is like for someone going through the Canadian Junior Leagues. The families they get put with, called billets, are required to have a desk in their room. They basically watch over the guys to make sure they attend school and keep their grades up. Much like a student athlete here in the States falling grades can cause you to be barred from playing. Mostly they are pretty free to live their lives, making them grow up faster than they might normally do. He found that there was a direct correlation to his on-ice performance and his grades in school.

Stepping out onto the ice in July with Kyle Okposo and Blake Comeau, Martin was impressed with their skills, and how hard they work to get where there are today. At rookie camp, he was looking forward to seeing the rest of the current Islanders and getting advice from them. While they do interviews back in Sarnia, he was not prepared for the intense amount of media on Long Island. With ITV going 24/7, Martin was impressed with the connection to the fans. He also got a lot out of an anatomy talk, learning how all the different parts of the body work together. It put a new perspective on his training to get his body to work more efficiently.

Martin is looking forward to getting back into the swing of the season, and expects nothing less than the best for his season. We wish him the same, and look forward to the day he wears Orange and Blue,

Islanders' Prospect Travis Hamonic

By Adam

Travis Hamonic is a just turned 18 kid from the Winnipeg area who grew up on a farm in a small town of about 300-400. Travis started skating real young like all good Canadian boys around the age of 2. "Ever since I was a little kid, all I wanted to do was play in the NHL," he said. Around the age of 12 or 13 is when he started thinking about going into the Canadian Junior program. He considered all his options, including coming to the US to pursue a college hockey career, but ultimately decided to stick with the Junior route after discussing it with his family.

The Moose Jaw Warriors of the WHL came calling and thus he picked up and moved away. Fortunately for Hamonic, Moose Jaw is a mere 6 hours away from his hometown unlike some of the towns in the WHL which can be more than 30 hours away. Also, Moose Jaw is a farming community much like his hometown which allowed for a smoother transition for Hamonic.

After compiling 25 points (5 goals, 20 assists) and a plus-3 rating over 83 games, the Islanders selected the (at the time) 17 year old defenseman in the second round. Islanders scout Eric Cairns had this to say about Travis at the draft, "Travis is your prototypical shutdown defenseman. He keeps it simple makes it hard on the other team's forwards. He's the type of guy you don't notice and that's a good thing."

On his first pro camp experience, Hamonic said camp was everything he expected and more. It is nice to have an opportunity to get familiar with the organization that drafted him. Seeing what the guys who are already in the pro leagues work on and how they practice was what he consider most beneficial about the camp in July. By talking with them and seeing what they do, he learned what he can do when he goes back to Moose Jaw to continue to improve for the future.

I asked Hamonic what he thinks he needs to work on during the next season. He said, "You can always improve on everything; there's always a lot of work you can do." But specifically he wants to try to become a more offensive presence on the blueline by jumping to the rush more often. He wants to do this because, "I am pretty solid defensively."

After getting to meet Bryan Trottier and Ken Morrow, he a tremendous amount of respect for what they accomplished in their hockey careers. It inspired him to hope that he could help the Islanders create something similar in the future.

For the upcoming season in Moose Jaw, Hamonic expects to be one of the leaders on the team. They have a lot of young guys coming up, and he hopes they will follow the examples he sets out for them.This was Travis' first trip to New York, and he was very surprised by the amount of beach area there was here. He it would be a change he could get used to being from a farming community. I let him know that if he went out East, he could find a lot agriculture there. He was very interested in that. His favorite thing they got to do was going to the Yankees game. Much to my surprise Travis listed the Yankees as his favorite baseball team.
(Interview done on 9/10/2008)