Yes I did. Just sent it out actually and I encourage anyone and everyone to do the same. They need to know how we feel no matter what they decide to do with that information.
Anyway if you care to read the letter, here it is:
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Dear Mr. Ledecky and Mr. Malkin,
As a 43-year-old Islander fan from Roslyn, Long Island, my heart and soul joined the Islander family as a fan in the mid-80’s, meaning the Islanders have been my favorite team for over 30 years now. I’ve rarely missed a game, traveled long and far to see them play, and spent more money on the team than I care to admit. As much as I love them, to be frank it’s been a truly painful ride enduring the last three decades, but rarely do I ever quit on anything when my heart is involved.
However that loyalty is seriously being put to the test now as I watch my favorite team sink into a world of ineptitude with each passing season. I care too much about the Islanders to not let you know exactly how I, and so many other fans, feel about the current direction of the franchise. So with great respect I am hoping you will hear and appreciate the rather harsh honesty I think that needs to be put on the table in order to identify and improve fortunes for the organization going forward.
We are now at the completion of Garth Snow’s
twelfth year as General Manager of the New York Islanders and this will be the
eighth time we have missed the playoffs. How is this tolerable for any owners anywhere – Much less ones that want to win a “fifth Stanley Cup?” In what position in any field would any employee still have a job if their results did not improve in over a decade on the job? No organization where the owners truly want to run a “world class” franchise could this be tolerated.
That is why if your goal is truly to be the owners who bring a fifth Stanley Cup to the New York Islanders, then Garth Snow must be fired as President and General Manager effective immediately. This doesn’t mean reassigned or minimized, but totally removed from the Islander organization entirely and replaced with a qualified/elite team President who will be allowed to hire whatever GM he deems appropriate.
I’d be happy to sit down and break down every single draft pick, trade, and free agent signing Snow has performed since July 18, 2006 that justifies his firing, but the only thing that should matter is this – Wins and losses. And in that vein, after 12 years of proven ineptitude, the reality is that we will not win another Stanley Cup with Garth Snow running the Islanders, and the longer he is allowed to remain in his position the longer it will be before a qualified replacement could get us there.
I am a big believer in human psychology and study human behavior. In watching Garth Snow operate over the past decade plus, it is apparent that he continues to massage his place within the Islander franchise where he positions himself as the smartest/most powerful guy in the room. Somehow he got Charles Wang to buy into this and I’m hoping that is not the case with you.
Essentially Garth Snow is looking to surround himself with “yes men” who won’t question his authority. In this regard he is putting his ego before the team, and when your focus is based on hiring the most subservient employees, you are not hiring the most qualified ones. And as a result the Islanders have now wound up missing the playoffs again – Making it eight of his twelve years on the job.
Now I understand that it’s easy for me to sit behind a keyboard and call for Snow’s firing. I also understand that there’s plenty of information that I don’t have access to being a fan and not an owner. But again the information we as fans do have is the Islanders win/loss record under his tenure which is not tolerable to us as paying customers, so why is it tolerable to you? Do you think that someone who hasn’t gotten the job done for 12 years is all of a sudden going to figure it out in year 13? At what point does missing the playoffs wear on you the way it does all of us who you are asking to spend money on the team? Because all the wonderful quotes you have made to the press about the islanders, “winning that fifth Stanley Cup,” sound great, but they’re just hollow words if they’re not followed up with actions that make that a reality.
If we never heard another quote from you and the Islanders did win that fifth Cup, you would be heroes to all of us, as opposed to making all these grand claims and never delivering on them. Season after season of first-round playoff losses, much less missing the playoffs entirely, is not going to all of a sudden magically lead to a Stanley Cup Final without serious, decisive, and meaningful change – Change that has to come from you. Words alone will not get us there.
Therefore every moment that Garth Snow remains as President/GM of the Islanders what you are really saying to the fans is that you are ok with the unbelievable disappointing results of the past 12 years, and for all of us to expect more of the same heartbreak going forward.
The fans are also very aware of the reported extension that Charles Wang gave Snow prior to turning control of the Islanders over to you. We understand that it’s possible you do want to get rid of Snow, but are hampered by his contract in that it could be a very lengthy/lucrative deal for Snow that would cost tons of money to buy out, and/or have other legal ramifications in doing so.
However if you truly want to lead the Islanders to another Stanley Cup, your significant financial resources must be used to solve any problem, and this is the biggest one. Whether the team needs a new training center, a more comprehensive scouting staff, or spend to the salary cap to build a winner, buying out Garth Snow at any cost is an issue that needs addressing and therefore must be done whatever time, energy, and financial resources it costs to do so.
If you can make the Belmont Arena Project happen, then there are no obstacles that cannot be overcome in removing Snow. The only question is – Why haven’t you yet?
And Snow must be fired whether or not John Tavares returns to the team or not. With Tavares we’re still missing the playoffs as a result of Snow’s ineptitude, so hardly a saving grace if he were to resign just to repeat similar seasons going forward. And I shudder to think what it will be like in Islanderland if Tavares does leave as a result of Snow not building a contender all these years, and then you retain Snow as President/GM. You will lose the faith of the fans at an even greater rate than missing the playoffs alone will do.
Mr. Ledecky, you’ve been quoted as saying the following:
“We were talking about stockholders (fans) earlier. What’s the standard? We won the first round. We went to the second round. The standard this year has to be, you won the second round and went to the third round. And eventually you have to hoist the Stanley Cup, because that’s what the fans demand. They demand that excellence, on the ice and off the ice.
“The off-the-ice, I can handle, by giving them a great experience. The on-the-ice, that group has to manage that. They have got the insight. They’ve got the experience to decide who plays goalie, who plays on Johnny’s line and stuff like that, not me. That’s a recipe for disaster.
“Each one of you could talk about an owner who came in and completely rearranged the furniture and is paying for it in years and years of poor performance.”
That quote was from July of 2016 and since then the Islanders, at least on-ice, have clearly gone backwards. If the standard back then was “winning the second round,” how does missing the playoffs entirely fit into that standard? Where is the accountability to your “stockholders” for the Stanley Cup standard that we demand and you claim to want? I mean how many more years of missing the playoffs/not coming close to the Stanley Cup will be tolerated before you get involved in the on-ice issues plaguing this team?
Because I will tell you with confidence that in 30 plus years as an Islanders fan the only reason I’ve attended a game was to see the team on the ice play. Everything else about the arena experience was just background noise. When the Islanders were winning the Coliseum was packed – Despite having the worst bathroom situation of any arena on the planet. Would all of us have loved better bathrooms? Of course, but every single one of us would have put up with them had we won a fifth Stanley Cup.
No matter what your business is, the product is always the most important thing. If Islander fans attend a game and the islanders lose, then the “experience” was a bad one. In sports the team is the “product,” and right now the product that is the New York Islanders is not the “world class” experience you claim to want for the fans.
That is why to say that you’re going to leave the “on-ice” part of the Islanders up to the hockey people is so painful to hear. It comes across as you’ve accepted that Garth Snow is going to be a “lifetime GM” and you’re going to worry about everything else. It’s one thing to let qualified people do their jobs – That I’m all for. However it’s another thing completely to employ unqualified people who are hurting your product and do nothing about it.
This is why you must get involved with the front office, install a qualified and “world class” President of Hockey Operations immediately. It’s literally the most important thing you can do now, as every moment where Garth Snow remains President and GM of the Islanders is another moment the Stanley Cup will remain out of reach.
My heart bleeds blue and orange and has since I was a child, but the path we’re on now has a very low ceiling that is very quickly leading to increased apathy from many fans including myself. You have a chance to make good on your warranted high-end aspirations, and so many of your “stockholders” are praying you do just that, but you need to do it now.
To achieve great things in life there’s always hardship along the way, and this is one of those moments. I’m not saying making sweeping change in the front office is easy, but it is necessary, and surely you bought this franchise understanding that one day you would have to do so. The lifelong Islander fan is truly a tortured soul, so if you do hire a President/GM that leads us to the hockey “Promised Land,” I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that you will be Gods to many of us. That’s how much we’ve suffered and how bad we want it.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Since I cannot make the change I am so confident is necessary, I hope you take it to heart and that leads to action. Because the next letter I write you I want to be thanking you for doing all the things necessary in the front office that lead the New York Islanders to win their fifth Stanley Cup. In terms of my sports life, there’s literally nothing I want more.
Sincerely,
(my name)
