Charles Wang and Garth Snow walked shoulder-to-shoulder through a circular hallway and out the doors of Nassau Coliseum Monday afternoon, the Islanders owner and general manager with their heads down, all business.
The men had just made the team’s biggest personnel move in more than a decade, trading Matt Moulson, a first-round pick in 2014 and a second-round pick in 2015 to the Sabres in exchange for elite sniper Thomas Vanek. It was the most significant deal by the franchise since Mike Milbury traded Taylor Pyatt and Tim Connolly to Buffalo for captain Michael Peca in 2001.
And if this were a deal done in a vacuum, the Islanders would be deemed the losers.
Instead, context shows what happened was Snow screaming from the mountaintops that no longer were the two foremost objectives of the franchise saving money and stockpiling draft picks. With a new building in Brooklyn on the horizon and the playoffs from last season still fresh in their minds, this was an all-in proposition, and one that wasn’t done on a whim.
“Our rebuild,” said forward Kyle Okposo, “is no more.”
Vanek is a far better player than Moulson, but not first-plus-second-round-pick better. The two will both be unrestricted free agents come this summer, and while Moulson will be looking for a raise into the $5 million per year range, Vanek will surely not want to take a pay cut from the $7.14 million he averaged over the past seven years in Buffalo.
Vanek and his agent have not yet begun negotiations for an extension with Snow, and won’t for some time. If Vanek picks up and leaves this summer —which, don’t kid yourself, would have been the same case with Moulson if he weren’t traded — it might seem like those highly valued draft picks went for naught.
Yet it was a calculated risk Snow took, saying on Monday, “I think we’ve had more success when we’ve signed players that have been part of the organization for a period of time.”
If things don’t work out for the Isles and Vanek, Snow can likely flip him at the trade deadline and regain some part of his picks. As for the Sabres, their highest interest in Moulson is his value in picks at deadline, as well.
If Vanek does stay, the Islanders will certainly have to overpay for him, as the market might dictate $7.5 million over, say, a five-year span is appropriate. That is not commensurate with his skill, and could very well ruffle some feathers in John Tavares’ camp, he of the Hart Trophy nomination and an annual cap hit of $5.5 million.
But almost all good teams have contract inequity, including some less-than-desirable contracts. It’s called compiling a full NHL roster, which the Islanders haven’t had in some time.
But now, the utmost priority is for the Islanders to win, because no matter how convincing fellow Austrian Michael Grabner is, or how persuasive fellow Minnesota-dweller Kyle Okposo can be, Vanek jettisoned out of Buffalo because he wanted to win.
“I enjoyed my time there,” Vanek said of the league-worst 2-10-1 Sabres, “but I didn’t want to be part of that.”
So Snow is gambling his picks for a chance, gambling while he still has many holes still in his roster, most notably at defense and goaltender. But the options to fill those holes will continue to show themselves as the season progresses.
And know for a fact he and Sabres GM Darcy Regier have exchanged ideas regarding goaltender Ryan Miller. Yet for now, Snow is willing to see how that market evolves.
For now, the focus was on this big step forward, the step that finally, after all these years, got Snow and Wang a seat at the big-boy table.