I heard rumors about Aaron Ness leaving the Minnesota program to sign with the New York Islanders going around today, and kind of wrote it off as just another rumor, but I got home tonight, looked it up, and it turns out the guy behind the story is super-credible Chris Botta. So it sounds like there's something to it. Of course, whether or not I agree with the article is another story.
Everyone can agree that Aaron Ness hasn't done all that much with Minnesota, but there's no way signing on to play professional hockey solves his problems. If anything, it will make Ness' problems--namely his lack of physical strength--stand out even more. It's not like Ness doesn't understand how to play the game. He's one of the smartest players I've seen come up through the ranks. But he's reached a point where everybody plays the game pretty well and his disadvantages in size and strength are making him fall behind.
People may be hitting the panic button when it comes to Minnesota these days, but feelings about certain coaches there aside, the most logical step for the Islanders is to give Ness two more years to develop, hope he packs on a ton of muscle, and then see where he's at once his career at Minnesota is done. It's not the type of thing that can fixed with a simple change of scenery.