PHILADELPHIA — The options are aplenty, so Garth Snow is all ears.
The Islanders’ general manager still was listening to offers on the eve of Friday night’s NHL draft at the Wells Fargo Center, his team holding the No. 5-overall pick in one of the weaker draft classes in the past decade.
And in turn, Snow told The Post he was willing to trade the pick for players or trade the pick to move down in the draft. He also was willing to stand pat and draft at No. 5, saying, “We think we could get a really good young player that could help us down the road.”
The only options Snow was ruling out were trading up into the first four picks, or trading his pick — or a package of his picks, nine total, including two in the second round — for a player whom he thought could help his team immediately. The latter is more a function of availability rather than Snow’s wont.
What were identified as the organization’s biggest needs were wingers and goaltending, because Snow is confident with his players up the middle (his centers) and the future of his defensemen, with many high-level blue-line prospects on the verge of the NHL.
“In two or three years, our needs could be different,” Snow said. “So we’re going to do what’s best for the organization, both now and long term.”
It also appears Snow is still rather far apart with to-be unrestricted free agent defenseman Dan Boyle, whose rights came in a trade with the Sharks earlier this month in exchange for a conditional fifth-round pick. Yet starting at midnight Wednesday, Boyle’s agent was allowed to speak to other teams, and it is believed one of those was the Rangers, who have coveted Boyle for a long time, with the blueliner, who will turn 38 on July 12.
Snow also was rumored to have kicked the tires on unrestricted free-agent Brad Richards, as the veteran center was recently bought out by the Rangers. Yet Snow would not comment on any contract offers or negotiations, only adding Richards “has put up some good numbers throughout his career.”
The Rangers don’t have a pick in the first round, sending it to the Lightning along with Ryan Callahan in the deal that brought back Martin St. Louis. Yet because Callahan just signed a six-year, $34.8 million deal with Tampa Bay, the Rangers got Tampa’s second-round pick, while ceding a seventh-rounder in the same swap.
The Devils will choose 30th overall, getting their first-round pick back — and making it unmovable at 30th — after it was originally stripped from them as part of the punishment from their Ilya Kovalchuk salary-cap circumvention penalty.
There is no consensus No. 1 pick, but it is believed centers Sam Bennett, Leon Draisaitl, and Sam Reinhart, along with defenseman Aaron Ekblad, will go in the top four. The first four picks belong to the Panthers, Sabres, Oilers and Flames, respectively.