Garth Snow Reiterates: “You Need to Give Something to Get Something”

Oct 22, 2013; Uniondale, NY, USA; New York Islanders right wing Kyle Okposo (21) and New York Islanders left wing Matt Moulson (26) celebrate Moulson

UNIONDALE–Islanders GM Garth Snow spoke with media today regarding the Thomas Vanek-Matt Moulson trade before the team’s 11.30am practice at the Coliseum.

Snow reiterated his stance that the team needed to be more consistent, which prompted the trade to happen sooner in the season rather than later.

"We just haven’t been good enough."

Moreover, GM Snow agreed that the rebuilding period, in his eyes, is over and the team must pivot off recent success and harbor and augment on the energy sparked from last season’s run.

Snow opened the press conference with a quick one sentence summary of the trade, and nothing more. When asked if he’d spoken to captain John Tavares about the recent events, Snow admitted he had not and agreed that Matt Moulson was bit taken aback in the process.

But it was all business for Snow in this case, and yes, he spoke of the difficulty in losing a caliber player and individual in Moulson, one who gave his all on and off the ice to his teammates and community, but his emphasis, as he stated, is to make this team better now, and not later.

Offering the draft picks may seem like a perplexing move for some, but considering the talent ready to make the leap next season, one must believe that if the Islanders are to be the team everyone believes they can and should be, which is a consistent scoring threat, not to mention post-season material, battling it out for relevancy, moves like the one made last night will be a reality in some way.

Snow also revealed that no deals have been garnered between Thomas Vanek’s agent and the Islanders, leaving most wondering of the possibility that Vanek could leave at season’s end. But Snow did reference the fact that the Islanders have success in resigning UFA once in their system, with Lubomir Visnovsky as the latest example.

Thomas Vanek will skate with the team in half an hour, and he and the team will be made readily available afterwards.

EOI will bring you more details and a full soundbite of the presser and player commentary later this afternoon.

–RD (RNDHL)