The Hockey News Annual GM Ratings
Die neueste Ausgabe der nordamerikanischen Fachzeitschrift "The Hockey
News" nimmt die Arbeit der General Managers in der NHL nach der
Transferdeadline unter die Lupe:
The Hockey News Annual GM Ratings
By Ken Campbell
Mad Mike was such a great nickname, so wonderfully alliterate and so fitting.
But the guy who occupies the GM’s chair with the New York Islanders
these days simply isn’t cooperating on any level. After all, what
demeaning name goes with Garth? And what’s this about Garth Snow coming
into the dog’s breakfast that was the Islanders and actually making
moves of consequence that don’t make everyone in the hockey industry
shudder?
David Poile and his Nashville Predators might have obtained the crown
jewel of the trade deadline in Peter Forsberg, but Snow might turn out
to be the biggest winner by landing Ryan Smyth in exchange for two
prospects and a first round pick.
Or maybe not. If the Islanders don’t make the playoffs and Smyth walks
as a free agent after the season, Snow will have been snowed. But the
fact he got Smyth for an underachiever (Robert Nilsson) and a player
who will max out as a third-liner (Ryan O’Marra) signals Snow is
serious about making the Islanders better in the short term as well as
the long.
For that reason, Snow sits 16th in THN’s ranking of GMs, but if he
continues on his current path, he’ll be on the rise, unlike the
Islanders’ fortunes when they hired him to replace Neil Smith, who was
on the job for 40 days after taking over for Mike Milbury.
There were a lot of jokes about both Snow and the Isles when Snow
skated out of the crease and into the executive suite. And Snow has
done a good job of not providing any punchlines.
Well, not too many.
“More than anything, I’m happy for (Islanders owner) Charles (Wang)
finally getting credit for having a plan and seeing it through,” Snow
said. “Charles put me in a position to succeed here.”
Well, if he says so.
In any event, even before the Smyth trade, Snow brought a good amount
of stability to the team and did a fine job of clearing cap space by
trading Alexei Zhitnik and Mike York.
But Snow’s best performance came in February when Jason Blake attempted
to take advantage of a career year and whine to the media about his
contract negotiations.
Snow didn’t lash out and held the line that he wasn’t going to publicly
negotiate with Blake. Chances are, Milbury would have trashed everyone
in Blake’s family and had a deal in place to get him out of town in a
New York Islander minute.
To read the rest of this story and other great features from the world of
hockey, you can buy this issue
http://www.zinio.com/singles?issn=0018-3016U&ns=zno
or subscribe at
https://secure.indas.on.ca/care/hnc/digital.php?key=W06LDN73
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