I also don’t believe Snow talked Wang out of it, it was probably all for.

Overall, we may like what Snow has done so far, but in reality its still just all potential, and could wind up to a hill of beans, his grade is still 100% an incomplete.

As for Millbury I don’t want to ever defend him, but along with his awful, awful, trades (and drafts) there were a handful of really good ones like the acquisitions of Blake, Peca, Aucoin, Hamrlik, Reichel, Jonsson, and Luongo, that also kept us more competitive at times (compared to the last four years bI would think the Isles still have a better winning % under Milbury). Not to mention he had to deal with constant instability with the ownership. I often think Milbury is judged more on what could have been, than what actually was.

To whatever extent there was something there, I saw it as the Islanders (or Snow) gauging interest in a short-term “Hossa in Detroit”-type situation for Kovalchuk if he couldn’t find his dream bank in LA, but we’ll never know how serious that was or where the “Isles might offer 10×10” came from. The reports jumped quickly to “this would sell the Lighthouse,” which I never understood, but that wouldn’t be the first time I failed to understand Wang.

I’d like to think today Snow can indeed walk Wang back from doing anything rash…

Good point. I don’t like the tight-lipped, almost paranoid part of the operation (though I think that’s gotten slowly better), but he did step into a really messy situation with the 40 Days of Smith and the committee with a coach not of his choosing. That setting would lend one to want to tightly manage how everything is slowly built back up. And for the most part, I can’t argue with the on-ice building philosophy he’s following.

For me the biggest feather in his cap is that he’s actually stuck to it and resisted short-term fixes with long-term consequences.

One thing that gives me confidence is that Snow (or maybe it was Jankowski, or the wizard behind the machine) seems to get this need for depth and talent in the system. Accumulating picks provides depth and flexibility for trades (whether to move up in the draft today, or to package prospects for immediate help later).

It also allows you to use later picks on big-payoff guys like Petrov, Kabanov even Lee and Cizikas. (Not that Lee or Cizikas are in their class or are even sure bets to be NHLers, but circumstances allowed all of them to drop way further in the draft than their projected talent.)

Point being that each draft at maximum gives you one guy who can help today. Everything else is just an investment you hope pays off in the future. In that way, Snow is thinking about a big payoff in a few years, rather than five years spent struggling to get the 8th seed and a couple of home playoff dates.

Options,
Centers: JT, Bailey, Frans, Schremp, Lee, Cizikas, Ullstrom, DiBo, Toews, Trivino.
R. wing: Okposo, Comeau, Hunter, Petrov, Rakhshani, Kabanov
L.wing: Moulson, Parenteau, Martin, Jesse, Gregiore, Figren
Defence: Hammonic, DeHaan, Ness, Donovan- pushing the current NHL/ AHL rosters.
Goal: Kosk, Poulin, Nilsson in the pipe

looks like depth to me.

agreed, I could swear during the late 90s HF always rated the Isles as one of the top 5 and we see how that turned out.

Where I think the Isles addressed their biggest weakness in the minors, the lack of legit top 6 forward prospects, where we added 3.

Not that I think HF knows wtf they are talking about.

Unlike many other GMs, Garth had to learn his position while being on the job. He didn’t really have much of an opportunity to apprentice or work another front office position first. Also, to be honest, I wouldn’t have thought of him to be General Manager material before he became GM. That being said, I think Garth’s learned a lot by example, and has done a good job at doing so.

I get teased quite a bit about the rise of Garth Snow from backup goalie to GM, and believe it or not, most of the folks who tease me are not Rangers fans. I hear it a lot from my Sabres fans friends. Of course, the Sabres have their GM/head coach tandem straight from the Bill Torrey school of hockey general management.

Oh man, I was nervous as hell, and I found out on ESPN’s “Bottom Line” while I was on a beach vacation, so I was stranded in disbelief.

One thing that made me a little hopeful was I knew he had done MBA or whatever classes. I’m not a big fan of the relevance of MBA {lightning bolt strikes from my boss}… … …uh…what was I saying? Oh yeah: But I’d want my GM to have some management theory and organizational theory courses under his belt.

Dryden is a M.P., was he ever a G.M.?

Eddie Johnston was in the GM role in Pitt, wasn’t he?

Spezza pick and Chara were part of the Yashin trade.

Sometimes, Milbury’s hands were tied when it came to making a deal, due to whoever was owning the Islanders at the time, especially during the last few years of the 1990s. The Ziggy Palffy trade is one such example I can think of where Milbury’s hands were forced into making a trade due to unstable ownership situations. However, I think that “panic moves” is a good choice to describe many of the personnel moves that Milbury made, especially since Wang became the owner. I think that I may be accurate in my opinion that Milbury was quick to sacrifice long term potential and growth for short term gain.

I think if we had kept everyone and developed them right, yes we would have lost some of them when they got older, but there would have been enough talent to make a Finals run at least once. Who knows what long term effects that might have had for the Islanders and the arena?

As long as they weren’t forced to deal them under absolute duress like Palffy, they could have gotten better assets, though.

/adds Palffy angst to the traditional seasonal “what could have been” syndrome going on

Not to mention that all of these guys developed off the Island. we can sit here and say that these guys are so good, but they may never have developed that way on the Island. Environment is a big factor in how someone develops. These guys may have stayed here for the long run, and been absolute busts. It happens all the time, with guys who need the ‘change of scenery.’ We can say that all these guys were so great, because they were, but they may not have been had they stayed here.

Actually, I think that’s where Garth should get another mention. Someone up top mentioned it, but it bears repeating. Develop these kids the right way. Don’t throw them into the league and say, on day 1, ‘OK, you’re the future of the franchise. Go save the franchise and keep it here by tearing up the league!!’ Too much pressure for these kids. Garth has done a great job developing the right way, by saying the right thing. Milbury would never have done that. Again, to steal someone else’s thunder, he said they were the next big thing, than lost patience when they weren’t, after not even giving them a fair shot. Overall, Garth has been a big improvement.

Sorry for not quoting the other posters, but you know who you are. Good job.

As bad as Maloney was as a GM, he at least left the cupboard stocked for Milbury. Not only did Milbury seem to randomly destroy the team’s future at times, but when he finally handed it off, there really was nothing of value for the Islanders in the way of prospects. I think that along with Smyth not signing here lead to the current rebuilding. I think Snow realized that it was going to be a bandage job year after year when he looked at the Islanders prospect system and saw nothing of value coming out soon.