As usual with the Islanders, it couldn’t just be about the personnel move, in this case the decision to trade up in the draft on Friday to select risk/reward fledgling center Josh Ho-Sang 28th overall. No, it couldn’t be just about that.
Instead, as is commonplace with this shipwreck franchise that often seems to be run as a vanity project by and for both owner Charles Wang and general manager Garth Snow, it was about a look-at-me moment out of the executive suite.
It was about Sideshow Garth, who with a smirk on his face that belied his absolute lack of success in his eight seasons on the job, did a live interview on TSN that was carried on the NHL Network in the US in which he responded to prior criticism of Ho-Sang in the Canadian media by stating, “He’ll fit right in. They s–t on me, too.”
Following which, in a media briefing with print reporters Friday night in Philadelphia, Snow embellished, twice more using the barnyard epithet.
“They can’t s–t on me any more than they do, I think is what I said. I don’t care,” said the GM, who sounded like he cares much more than he should. “We get players that we feel can help us win a championship, and we don’t give a s–t what anyone else thinks — except our fans, of course.”
Well, of course they care about the fans. That’s why the Islanders have been a floor team for the greater part of the hard-cap era. That’s why Wang hangs onto the franchise.
Fans of downtrodden clubs want their management personnel to be feisty. Here, where the Islanders labor in obscurity — eclipsed historically by the team in Manhattan and for the last two decades by the one in New Jersey as well — an attitude is more than welcome.
But Snow’s self-styled martyrdom is tough to take. A smirk should be accompanied by success, not the track record of failure the Islanders have recorded through Snow’s eight seasons as GM, during which his team has qualified for the playoffs twice — once in the past seven seasons — and has won a total of three postseason games on his watch.We don’t give a s–t what anyone else thinks — except our fans, of course.
- Islanders GM Garth Snow
The Islanders do have young guns coming. We know that. They had better, given that Snow has made five top-five selections, another in the top 10, and a sum of nine first-rounders and eight second-rounders over the past seven Entry Drafts. Maybe Ho-Sang will be one of them, though Kirill Kabanov, a risk/reward project out of the 2010 draft about whom the Islanders crowed at the time, doesn’t appear on track for the NHL.
Friday night, the Islanders made what seems to be the solid pick of winger Michael Dal Colle at fifth overall and the home-run/strikeout pick of Ho-Sang. When interviewed, both 18-year-olds seemed more mature than the GM who had selected them.
The Rangers, seeking a righty to replace Anton Stralman on the second pair if the pending free agent flees as expected, have checked in with and have legitimate interest in New Jersey’s 27-year-old Mark Fayne, according to an individual familiar with the situation.
The Blueshirts also are believed to have interest in Devils’ prospective free agent fourth-line wing Ryan Carter, who could, to a certain degree, fill the spot expected to be vacated by Brian Boyle.
We keep hearing the Rangers aren’t going to pay to keep Dominic Moore, which only means they will pay down the road if management squeezes the fourth-line center and prime penalty killer out of New York.
Moore led the team in faceoff efficiency in both the regular season (54.6 percent) and the playoffs (54.5). The two Rangers’ centers under contract for next season, Derek Stepan and Derick Brassard, combined to win a paltry 46.3 percent of their draws during the regular season and an even more disturbing 44.1 during the playoffs.
It is one thing when the cap forces a GM to say no. There seems to be no good reason, however, for the Rangers to lose Moore, who is believed to be seeking a three-year deal for between $1.6 million and $1.85 million per season.
Multiple choice: James Neal and Scott Hartnell, a) both had dreadful playoff series against the Rangers; b) both were traded this week; c) both of the above.
So what point, exactly, was Ottawa GM Bryan Murray trying to make when he negotiated a deal that would have sent Jason Spezza to the Predators even though the center had Nashville on his no-trade list?
Nashville GM David Poile, who acquired Neal on Friday, seemed miffed at Spezza, who has asked out of Ottawa with one year remaining on his contract, but his annoyance was misplaced.
The insidious nature — or, on the other side, the genius — of a hard-cap system was on display Thursday night and Friday afternoon when the NHLPA voted against including the new Canadian television contract as revenue for purposes of calculating the 2014-15 cap.
The players, concerned about escrow that might have increased by 3 percent if the cap had gone to the projected $71 million, instead authorized a cap of $69 million that will create a significant squeeze on a significant number of the league’s most successful clubs and will cost players jobs on those teams and eliminate those teams as potential destinations when the market opens on Tuesday.
The cap pits player against player — for what’s good for one always costs the next guy money, always. In this case, it was players without contracts for next season against those with contracts.
Despite the urging of executive director Don Fehr, the membership could not and did not see the value in getting as much money in the system as possible and instead went with the penny-wise, pound-foolish approach. Narrow interests won.
Three lockouts later, the players capped themselves.