New York Islanders Making Sense Of The Garth Snow Era

For 12 years Garth Snow was the General Manager of the New York Islanders. The New York Islanders are in decent shape going forward thanks in part to Garth.

As a 16-year old, at the time I knew almost implicitly that the New York Islanders were doing something wacky. I recall my friend Travis in middle school (who was a Red Wings fan, total bandwagoner) scoff and joke about how crazy it was to make the backup goaltender the new GM.

The Idea still sounds crazy to most including me. This isn’t going to be another diatribe on how awful Garth Snow is/was. If you have any hope for the future of this team as it stands now Garth Snow’s legacy is all over this current team.

Garth to his credit has pulled some stellar flips in recent memory. Strome for Eberle was a great flip on a bust of a fifth overall pick. Also flipping another failed draft pick in Griffin Reinhart for the pick used to select Mathew Barzal was a stroke of genius.

The Travis Hamonic trade also doesn’t look bad right now prospects Noah Dobson and Ruslan Iskhakov are apart of that deal, and since the Flames didn’t make the playoffs last year they also have a 2nd rounder coming to them at this year’s draft.

It’s impossible to ignore his influence good or bad. If you’re an Islander fan and you like what you see from players like Barzal, Beauvillier, Bailey, Lee, and Cizikas its thanks in part to Garth Snow.

Life After Garth

I was thrilled when I learned that Lou Lamoriello was a possibility to take over for Garth Snow. Lou won three cups with the Devils and helped build the Leafs into the juggernaut that they are today. Lou was going to bring some credibility to this franchise. He was going to clear a path forward for this team.

However, I can’t and won’t try to remove Garth Snow from the iconography yet. We understand as Islander fans that Garth did some dopey things. DiPietro’s contract, Ryan Smyth, bad trade deadlines, Andrew Ladd, I get it.

This optimistic and holistic view I am taking here could prove to be unwise but who cares? Why should the sentiment always be so negative? He’s gone. It’s over for Garth as GM, open the blinds. Just don’t forget in four or five years when Barzal, Beauvillier, Toews, Bellows, Sorokin, are killing it to send a letter to Garth with some little repentance.

The next couple of months is going to be huge for this team. Garth tried to build some semblance of a team through the draft. Lou doesn’t know what he’s got with this team yet. January alone will probably make or break this team.

There was a lot of negative around Garth, and that’s fair, but there’s still some positives that can’t be forgotten.