--The Islanders officially are dealing with their first defection of the off-season. And it's someone who's been a staple with the franchise for more than two decades.

Chris Botta, the team's VP of Communications for the past several seasons and a team employee for more than 20 years, tendered his resignation on May 5 to pursue other opportunities.

Last season, Botta was instrumental in implementing the Islanders' innovative Blog Box, which enabled a group of fans to be credentialed and gain media access to cover Islanders games with links to their respective blogs provided on the team's official web site.

QUOTE TO NOTE
"I'm not looking to renegotiate and it wasn't brought up (to me). I won't go to them (about it). Definitely not. I want to fulfill my contract, hopefully do really well next season and hopefully they'll want to re-sign me. I'm going to coach somewhere." -- Ted Nolan, on the status of his contract, which is set to expire after the 2008-09 season.

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