As they open their doors on Saturday, current Isle and former Tiger Coach Steve Stirling will be assisting in the development of the farm team’s players. Since his usual job is on hiatus, Stirling will be helping Tigers’ coach Greg Cronin with practices and acting as the “Eye in the Sky” for home games. Just before he made the trek up to Harbor Yards, Stirling spent over an hour speaking to the Islander Booster Club on Wednesday. During that meeting, he previewed the Sound Tigers.

“There are some good young talent in the organization,” Stirling explained, as he began his talk. Going up and down the roster, the second year NHL coach went through whom to look for on the Sound Tigers.

One of the stars of the team will be goaltender Wade Dubielewicz. The 25 year-old, out of the University of Denver, is in his second year with the Islander organization. Last season he had a 20-8-5 record with Bridgeport with a 1.38 GAA. Dubielewicz even got into two games with the big club and went 1-0-1 with 1.73 GAA in Uniondale.

“He is a talented kid and will get a chance to play a lot in the first month,” Stirling said of his goalie prospect. “With a good defense in front of him, we will really find out how good Dubie is.”

This “good defense” has a number of players that Islanders are high on. Bruno Gervais will be in his second season at Bridgeport, but he almost made Islanders out of last year’s training camp. “He is a talented young man, who, we think, will bring a lot in the future,” Stirling said of his defenseman. The Quebec native got hurt last season and the organization still considers him a rookie, but now the coach say that he is healthy.

Ryan Caldwell is another defensemen that the Islanders think has a bright future. The 20 year-old out of Ontario was a seventh round pick in 2000, but opted to go to the University of Denver. “He is a talented two-way defensemen, that I think you are going to like,” the coach said, adding that at Denver he was his school’s team leader.

One major surprise may be Chris Campoli. A seventh round pick; the Islanders are very high on him because he is a very good skater and defensemen. Stirling sung his praises saying, “He reminds me a little of Paul Coffey. If Coffey is an eight on a scale of ten then Campoli is probably a seven. He looks like he is a composed kid who can get up the ice and rush. He won’t leave his partner out to dry.”

Stirling also said to look for Cole Jarrett. The fifth round pick in 2001 was on the Sound Tigers last season and unfortunately got hurt right before the playoffs.

Some familiar names will be up front on the Sound Tiger this season. Justin Papineau, Justin Mapletoft and Eric Godard have all accepted assignments in the AHL. The coach explained that they had the choice of playing with Bridgeport or finding other work during the lockout. Added Stirling, “They chose to because they are young and want to continue their development.”

Also playing forward is Steve Regier. The rookie left winger out of Edmonton is high on the coach’s list. He may take a couple of years to develop but Stirling said that at 6’5” and 200 lbs, he has good hand for “big kid.”

The players will be also playing with some new rules for the first six weeks. They added automatic icing, touch-up offsides, new rules restricting the goalie handling the puck and the shootout. All are going to be under review to see how much they speed up play in the AHL.

So that’s the coach’s take. He said they might struggle early on, because they are so young, But this is about development and they will only get better as the year goes along. Without the NHL in the New York area, the Sound Tigers will give fans a place to see good exciting hockey a short drive or ferry ride away.