Actually Bill probably brought more players directly to the NHL than any other GM. Billy Harris, Denis Potvin, Clark Gillies, Dave Lewis, Mike Bossy and Bob Bourne all came directly from juniors with only Bourne being sent to the minors for a time during his second or third years. The others never spent a day in the minors and rarely if ever sat out games. In fact Harris, Gillies and Bossy immediately started their careers on the first line.
In addition Trottier, John Tonelli, Pat Lafontaine and the Sutter brothers never played in the minors. Trotts spent an additional year in juniors and the Sutter brothers spent a partial season there. The original JT, John Tonelli had a contractual agreement with the rival WHA and spent one remaining year there before coming directly to the Isles. Patty Lafontaine was on the US Olympic team.
Bill was a firm believer in bringing guys directly to the team to see what they were made of and how they handled pressure.
In fairness he had a great teaching coach in Al Arbour and there was a 20 year old draft in those days and that meant that guys like Harris, Potvin, Gillies and Lewis were physically ready.
You're 100% right in that Bill was a patient man with his team and players. He made very few trades and never ever traded a first round pick in his 20 years. The rare trades he made were ultra successful. He was the anti-Milbury.
It was a 20 year old draft for everyone though. There were 21 picks before Brian Trottier (including Gillies at #4), there were 14 players selected before Bossy. Potvin was a 1st overall. Smith was a trade. Goring was a trade. Torrey had incredible success with the draft, unprecedented.
For all the "Snow's drafted well" - what does it matter if the team doesn't win? And this is coming from someone who LIKES Snow's drafting, I think Bailey was a great pick, I loved the trading down move at the time and since. I think Hamonic was a brilliant pick. But if Snow's some draft savant, why select Ness and Trivino ahead of Hamonic?
But I agree with your post and the "patience" approach. And many Isles fans on this board are flat out of patience - we want to see a better product, fast. And some thought it was NOW. This year. And it's not.
I still like the team and most of the players. This is a fun team to watch. When they are on their game, they can beat anyone. They are just so incredibly inconsistent!
So i guess team Canada should get Moulson on the team to help JT???
And if Grabner was a no brainer, than why don't i ever hear about some other teams picking 15-20 goal scorers of waivers?
You made your point and everyone agrees, Snow does some things really well:
- sign key guys to great long term contracts
- uses the waiver wire to bring in decent players (but some of those are Schremp, Tambellini, Boyes)
- has brought on some hidden gems like Parenteau and Moulson (and some of those are Rolston, Reasoner, Pandolfo, Carkner, Eaton, Sim)
- "convinced" Nabokov and Visnovsky to play for the Islanders. (some may argue he should have convinced someone else to play goal this year)
You can't simply isolate the POSITIVE moves that Snow's made, ignoring the negative ones.
And you can't point to Wang because since Snow's taken over, what has Wang really influenced that we know of? Snow spends just as much money as they do in Colorado or Phoenix - yet those franchises are far better on the ice. Maybe Snow should have drafted Ryan O'Rielly instead of trading all those picks for Calvin deHaan? Maybe he should have traded Parenteau at the deadline instead of letting him walk for nothing.
Maybe Snow should not have picked up Parenteau or Moulson, rather, he should have brought Chichura, Vermette, Michalek and Mike Smith? Maybe then, the Islanders would have been as good as Phoenix.
Snow is not a successful GM because the team isn't successful. It's that simple.
To be more clear. SIMILAR teams, with similar budgets, draft choices, have been more successful, in a shorter timeframe, than the Islanders. Even teams without Tavares.
You cannot evaluate the positive in isolation, then bring up excuses. That's "apologist speak".
If you're wife was a great cook, had a hot body, but cheated on you and stole money for crack, would you say she's a good wife? You could probably do worse, no?
It's okay to expect more.
Defending Snow the way some do is simply disingenuous.
It's okay to acknowledge the good things he's done, to recognize the circumstances that may impact decisions, but to jump to "success" is just not true. I'm a Snow supporter, for the most part, but there's a way to go yet.
