BY MARK SPECTOR
sportsnet.ca
UNIONDALE — It can’t be easy being Youtube sensation Rob Schremp these days, as reality sets in with a thud every time he goes “home” to the hotel across the parking lot from the decrepit Nassau County Coliseum.
The New York Islanders claimed Schremp off waivers from the Edmonton Oilers just over a month ago. But while it took the Oilers five years to finally give up on Project Schremp, it has not taken the Isles even five weeks.
The Oilers are in town Monday night, and while Isles coach Scott Gordon will make the obvious move and start ex-Oiler Dwayne Roloson in goal, Schremp remains a healthy scratch for the fifth straight game.
“He’s not going to play (centre) over John (Tavares),” began Gordon. “He’s not going to play over Josh (Bailey). He’s not going to play in a checking role — I don’t think that’s any secret.”
So Schremp, who was a first-round draft pick in 2004 and has played just 13 NHL games — without an NHL goal — simply doesn’t play, for now.
“Basically I have told him, ‘We tried you at wing and I didn’t feel comfortable with (you) on the wing.’ And I don’t think he felt comfortable,” Gordon said. “Right now, he just has to bide his time and know that when he goes in he’s going in to play centre not wing.
“It’s may be a bit frustrating, because he’s kind of in the same situation he was when he was in Edmonton.”
Should the Isles assign Schremp to the minors, Edmonton would have first claim on him. The Oilers wouldn’t exercise that right, and it is a fair question to ask whether anyone else would either for the highly-skilled, slow-footed Schremp.
