New York Islanders: The Difference Between Recognizing A Problem, And Fixing It.

New York Islanders General Manager Garth Snow is probably better than you think at recognizing a problem. And he may be ok at choosing the correct solution. But execution leaves much to be desired.

Let’s look at some of the biggest issues the New York Islanders have faced over the past eight years, and see how the GM diagnosed them. Then let’s see how he tried to solve them.

The first and most obvious was that he took over a barren shell of an organization. The team was mediocre and the pipeline was filled with flotsam. But it was also devoid of fan enthusiasm.

So when his inherited collection of misfits made a surprising run for a playoff spot in 2007, Snow cleared out his farm of guys he didn’t want (Ryan O’mara, Robert Nilsson, Alex Plante) and got himself a bonafide… pretty good player.

Why not?  Signal to the world you’re at least trying, and that this franchise has a pulse. The trade helped get them in, but that was it.

They were out quickly and impending UFA Smyth didn’t come back. It really did inject some life into the usual spring death march. So kudos on to him on that one.

Short-Term Over Long-Term

But that was a short-term issue. In the long term, Snow needed to draft an entire team’s worth of talent. (Two teams if you count Bridgeport). There wasn’t an NHL body worth keeping long term. So what did he do? He acquired more than a dozen extra draft picks.

In 2008 alone the Islanders had seven EXTRA picks. Nine guys, they picked that year have played in the NHL. That’s astounding.

Between that year and the next, they chose Tavares, Hamonic, DeHaan, Cizikas, Bailey, Lee, Martin, and Jared Spurgeon. Eight NHL regulars in two years. Six of the eight play in the top half on the lineup.  He set out to restock the cupboard, and he did.

He knew he had no goalies and he drafted several, some of them quite high in the draft. Poulin, Koskinen, Nilsson. This is where we start to see the Snow pattern.

He recognizes problems well. He comes up with the right general solution. But the execution is weak. Drafting and developing strong goalies IS the right idea. But these guys weren’t very good. So eventually, he just had to acquire Halak… and Greiss… and Berube… but that’s another story.

Not the Executioner of Excellence

By 2012, with a supposedly strong goaltending pipeline, and a Tavares-lead attack having potential, Snow rightly knew he had to beef up a defense so that it didn’t constantly employ the Jurcinas, and Eatons, and Mottaus.  Not to mention Reese, Wishart, Donovan, and Ness.  That’s a lot of substandard D for one team.

So his solution was to draft lots and lots of them.  A whole draft weekend full of defense.  When that didn’t work he was able to trade a wheelbarrow full of spare parts for Leddy and Boychuck.

And it doesn’t take a genius to know that if you draft a guy like Tavares you want to surround him with the talent up from that will maximize his potential.  And God bless his heart, Garth Snow has tried.  He brought in offensive guys stuck in the minors who might mesh with him (Moulson, Parenteau). In the first round alone he drafted goal scorers for JT to feed (Nelson, Dal Colle Bellows), power wingers to clear space (Nino), second line centers to relieve the burden (Strome, Barzal) and a talented enigma for John to nurture (HoSang).

He also reached outside the New York Islanders organization for veteran solutions like Vanek and Ladd.

Next: New York Islanders: New Forwards Are Struggling

Problem correctly identified.  Solution well thought out.  Execution… not so much.

And speaking of execution, I think both he and Capuano do have their heads on the chopping block if they don’t find a solution to this last problem soon.  Tavares needs, and deserves, a running buddy that can bring out his best — or at leafs tap in a gimme now and then.