Rick DiPietro's 15-year gift

The NY Islanders have a storied history of laughably incompetent personnel decisions, ranging from giving up Todd Bertuzzi and Roberto Luongo to trading for Alexei Yashin to promoting their back-up goaltender to General Manager. Most of the deals involve giving up quality people for nothing or giving too much to the wrong guy. Apparently the organization has decided to move in a different direction and instead retain the right guy, but for far far too long.

New York Islanders owner Charles Wang acknowledged Tuesday that his decision to give goaltender Rick DiPietro a 15-year contract worth $67.5 million "absolutely is a risk." But it's his money, and he's convinced the fans will get their money's worth if DiPietro is the face of the franchise for the long term.

The worst part of this deal is that even if DiPietro is able to string together 7-8 good seasons, they're still stuck with a virtually untradeable contract for almost another decade, and I find it hard to believe that he'll be worth $4.5 at age 40. What's the suggestion here? DiPietro just wouldn't have accepted a similar deal for 10 years? Or even 14 years? I guess Wang knows, as do we all, that units of 5 are just that much more impressive. I envy Wang and access to the media. So few of the world's worst thinkers have the reach to let the rest of us know how ridiculous they may be.

Isles place 15-year bet on DiPietro [buffalonews.com]

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