Islanders right wing Trent Hunter is looking for an increase over last season's $1 million salary, and he deserves it.

In addition to his impressive hitting (246 hits, 5th in the league), Hunter finished with a very respecatble 20 goals..and, a seldom-discussed fact, Trent had 3 of the Islanders 11 goals in the Buffalo series. No other player even had 2 goals.

It's often said how slow of a start Hunter had last season. That isn't entirely true. Was he as dominant in the 1st half as he was in the 2nd half of the season? No. But with 15 points up to the All-Star break, and 20 points over the balance of the season, I wouldn't exactly call the 1st half a throw-away. Once Hunter gelled with Sillinger and Hilbert, his value and presence were unmistakable.

When all of his contibutions are taken into account, he's more than worthy of a significant increase over last year...I'd be comfortable with at least a 50% increase to somewhere around $1.5M+.

The Islanders do need him one of their main power forward/impact players, and I'd be surprised if a fair deal wasn't worked out in the very near future.


By the way, "Bergenheim-Sillinger-Hunter" sounds pretty good to me...

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