The 15-year contract signing of Rick Dipietro last week was just one of the bad decisions that were made last week. (Source: Getty Images)

To be honest when I first heard about Survivor’s plan to divide people into four tribes by race (Caucasians, African-Americans, Latin-Americans, and Asian-Americans) I thought I was listening to a pitch of something that would have aired on Chappelle’s Show.  If Dave Chappelle was still on the air wouldn’t a sendoff on Survivor’s premise be a natural thing for him to do? All you’d have to do is take the ‘Mad Real World’ idea and just spin it further. The black tribe would consist of Tron, TyRee (Charlie Murphy), Dylan from Making the Band and Tyrone Biggums. And then during the course of the game, there would be a twist that would see one of the Caucasian tribe mates (Chad) join up with the African-American tribe.

While we’re on the topic of Dave Chappelle skits that could have been made, wouldn’t it have been great to see Chappelle tackle “Pimp My Ride”? More specifically it would have been fun to see him follow up on what happens to people after Xzbit and his crew are done with their car. For one thing how in the world do these people afford the insurance on these cars? These are the same people who couldn’t afford to fix problems with their cars like holes in their floor boards, mirrors attached by elastics, cars that don’t have the ability to reverse and now they’re expected to insure a car that has a big screen TV in the trunk, a pottery wheel under the seat, a coffee maker & goldfish bowl in the armrest and tens of thousands of dollars in electronics.

When you really think about it, should we have been so surprised with the Dipietro signing? Remember all the jokes that were made when Charles Wang handed over the GM reigns to Garth Snow, who has zero years of managerial experience? This is what was expected to happen, right?

Let me put it a different way.

When you watch a Spike Lee movie, are you really surprised that the film runs a little long? When you listen to a Coldplay album are you shocked to hear piano play? Are you really thrown for a loop when a team names Aaron Brooks as their starting QB and then proceeds to self-destruct? It’s the same thing with appointing Garth Snow as general manager; you expect that he will make some poor decisions.

This decision by all accounts was in fact the owner’s; as recently as last year Charles Wang and then GM Mike Milbury were trying to get Rick Dipietro to sign a 10+ year contract extension. It doesn’t take a Harvard grad to piece this picture together - Snow was simply a pawn/figurehead on this contract signing. You gotta think that part of the reason why Neil Smith only lasted 40 days on the job was because of his reluctance to go along with Wang’s harebrain ideas.  

I get that the Islanders are big fans of Rick Dipietro. They obviously proved that when they traded away Roberto Luongo and passed over Dany Heatley and Marian Gaborik in order to draft the American goaltender in the first place. But for anyone outside of the Islanders organization it’s hard to understand why the team is so fiercely loyal to a goalie that has progressed slowly and has posted less than stellar stats. Last year Dipietro’s GAA ranked 32^nd in the league and his save percentage was tied for 25^th.  I would argue that the only goalies in the past 20 years that would have been deserving of 15-year contracts are Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur. By this point in their careers both had already won Stanley Cups. Dipietro has yet to win a playoff series.

Why 15 years? Why couldn’t the Isles have shown their loyalty to Dipietro with a five or seven year contract? At this rate it looks as though the 15-year contract will likely span across 3-4 different collective bargaining agreements. How is anyone supposed to foresee the economic landscape of the NHL one CBA from now let alone 2 or 3? It’s a mind boggling and preposterous contract in the age of a salary cap that severely penalizes and restricts the future of a team that makes foolish contract decisions.

There are only two players in the NHL that would currently warrant a very long contract extension - Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin. Outside of those two guys there’s not a single player in the league that you can confidently project their career for the next fifteen years.