Right Pick for the New York Islanders?

For the course of his junior career, John Tavares was considered to be the consensus number one pick of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. Throughout his career he's exemplified a great scoring touch, a great sense of improving year-after-year. His questionable skating ability was always a concern for NHL teams, but the way he scored was never an issue, because that's how teams win. Goals are hard to come by, and the more goals you can get, the better a draft pick is considered because of his goal scoring abilities.

This year on (date) at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, the New York Islanders did not even consider trading the number one pick overall because they had John Tavares' name already embroidered on an Islanders jersey. Now, considered to be number one, he was selected number one. But was it really the right pick for the Islanders?

Lets take a look at how the Islanders stack up as of now with who they have under contract on the offense.

Offense: Kyle Okposo, Trent Hunter, Sean Bergenheim, Frans Nielson, Doug Weight, Richard Park, Jon Sim, Josh Bailey, Tim Jackman, Jeff Tambellini

Defense: Mark Streit, Andy Sutton, Bruno Gervais, Freddy Meyer, Radek Martinek, Brendan Witt

Goalie: Rick DiPietro and Dwayne Roloson

Right now they have extraordinary skill up front. The young talent, along with the veteran presence makes the Islanders a team to look at going into the future. The talent hasn't fully developed yet, and these young prospects are under a good system, good management, and good coaches to develop into stars on the Island.

The defense isn't so great, but there are valuable assets on the free agency market that can fill those holes. Even without filling holes through free agency, the Islanders have a serviceable top 6 core. They're mean, they hit, they can skate and some can score. Obviously not having top caliber defensemen like Victor Hedman hurts their blue line, but the Islanders are developing, and they have a lot of cap space under the salary cap.

With only approximately $35 million under the NHL salary cap, the Isles have a lot of wiggle room. They are rebuilding, and there's no need to purchase like crazy. Including the recent signing of Dwayne Roloson, it looks to me they have a pretty decent roster at this stage.

Things are looking for Charles Wang, and the New York Islanders. Maybe this is the turn around.