Islanders and Rangers are draft savvy

In the first half of the 2000s, the NHL draft wasn't exactly a welcome event around these parts. The Islanders and Rangers did not make very good use of their first-round picks - provided they didn't trade them away - and it was no coincidence that neither team took steps forward to become an elite club during that pre-lockout time.

Both teams take draft day and the months of work that go into it far more seriously now. Under assistant general manager Ryan Jankowski and GM Garth Snow, the Islanders are making the most of their high picks. Kyle Okposo (No. 7, 2006, scouted and drafted by 40-day GM Neil Smith), Josh Bailey (No. 9, 2008) and, of course, John Tavares (No. 1, 2009) are three forwards the Isles hope to build around.

This June's No. 5 pick will be added to that crop. The Islanders will have a chance to grab one of the four or five elite defensemen who are ranked in the 3-10 spots on most scout rankings - Snow had hoped to have last June's No. 12 pick, Calvin de Haan, ready to at least compete for a job in the 2010-11 training camp, but shoulder surgery has pushed those plans back.

But the crop of defensemen - Windsor's Cam Fowler, Kingston's Erik Gudbranson, Moncton's Brandon Gormley, Edmonton's Mark Pysyk and the U.S. national team's Derek Forbort - could yield one who's ready to step in right away and try to be a teenage NHL defenseman, the hardest transition for any amateur to make.

For the Rangers, things turned right around the same time that the Isles drafted Okposo. Gordie Clark, who ran the Islanders drafts for most of Mike Milbury's tenure and produced all that good, young talent that Milbury dealt away, came on board with Glen Sather and took over the Rangers' draft in 2006.

The Rangers have been a playoff team and had low first-round picks, but all of their first-rounders with Clark and Jeff Gorten at the helm are or were real prospects - the tragic death of 2007 first-rounder Alexei Cherepanov notwithstanding.

Bobby Sanguinetti (No. 21, 2006) has a shot to be a fifth or sixth defenseman next season; Michael Del Zotto (No. 20, 2008) should be on the All-Rookie team that's announced soon and Chris Kreider (No. 19, 2009) turned heads with a gold medal at the World Junior Championships and an NCAA hockey title at Boston College. Another season for the big center in college and he could be at Madison Square Garden by 2011-12.

It's early to try and guess who the Rangers like with the No. 10 pick, with their organizational meetings not until the end of April.

Dynamic Swiss-born winger Nino Niederreiter, Russian-born center Alexander Burmistrov or any of the above-mentioned defensemen would fit right in.

The key, now, is that both organizations have a better handle on whom to take and how to grow their prospects than they did five years ago.

Sutton makes big impact

Former Islander Andy Sutton lowered the boom on Penguins defenseman Jordan Leopold on Friday night in Game 2 of the Senators-Pens series, delivering a clean hit that laid out Leopold and sent the Penguins defenseman to the dressing room with a concussion.

The head-shots debate has raged into the playoffs, and there have been a couple of big hits that were borderline and might have drawn suspensions in the regular season, or will next season under the stricter guidelines.

However, higher intensity is always a hallmark of the NHL postseason: bigger goals, bigger saves, bigger hits. Penguins fans are crying foul about Sutton not even being penalized on the play; considering headhunter Matt Cooke is one of their own players, perhaps this would be a good time to pipe down.