New York Trades Matt Moulson (2014/1st 2015/2nd) For Thomas Vanek

New York Islander Fan Central | 10/27/2013 10:48:00 PM | | | | |






Islanders website: Announced that they have acquired Thomas Vanek from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for Matt Moulson, a first round selection in the 2014 National Hockey League Draft and a second round selection in 2015. Vanek, 29, joins the Islanders after playing in 13 games with Buffalo this season, accumulating nine points (four goals and five assists). 




NY Post: Garth Snow's comments:  
“As an organization, we are not satisfied with what our record is and where we are as a team”

“We expected a little bit better,” Snow said. “We had an opportunity to acquire an elite winger, so we did it. Matt Moulson has been a great player for us the last couple years. Sometimes you have to give up something to get something.”
“We traded a player who was going to be a free agent for a player who is going to be a free agent,” Snow said. “We’re looking to make our team better, that’s the bottom line.”

“He’s got a ton of upside,” Snow said of Vanek. “He’s a responsible player. He’s powerful, he skates. He’s a high character hockey player and person. We’re excited to have him it here.”

 “It makes giving up draft picks of that nature a little less of a burden when you’ve had the drafts that we had and the prospect pool we have,” Snow said. “Yes, it’s a high price to pay, but you have to give something to get something.”
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Garth Snow:
"I didn't like the way we'd been playing, We're better than our record indicates and we need to take the next step. Thomas is an elite player in this league and he'll help us now and in the future."
 "Matt has been a great player for us the past few years Obviously he's a good person. But I can tell you I'm not happy with where we are record wise. We're better than this. We need to take the next step and I wasn't just going to sit by and let games pass."
 
"For the most part, I'm happy with our group, we have to be more consistent. The bar was set the second half of last season and in the playoffs and we need to get there, sooner rather than later. "We know our players in there can do the job. It's a matter of going out and doing it."
Buffalo News: With Moulson's agents comments/Darcy Regier:
 "On one hand surprised by the trade but another not really," Moulson's agent, Wade Arnott, said in an email to The News after talking with his client. "Matt will now have the opportunity to choose were he wants to play whether that is Buffalo or elsewhere in free agency. He is heading to Buffalo with an open mind. No conversations yet but interested in hearing Sabres plans."
 "It was a deal that was off and on here for a while," Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier said in First Niagara Center. "It was something we feel we needed to do."
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Matt Moulson:
"It's sad to leave people you care about and love behind, I think over the years, I've shown my want to be a part of the organization and turning around the team into being successful. I guess, obviously, in the long run, they didn't feel the same. I guess this is what happens in pro sports, I gotta move on. Obviously, I'll miss everyone, but this will be a new chapter."
     
Tsn.ca: With Snow comments/Vanek's agent.
 "If we hadn't drafted so well, if we didn't have good prospects, we couldn't afford to take the risk," Snow told McKenzie on the steep price the Islanders paid to acquire Vanek. The Islanders had not held contract extension discussions with Vanek prior to acquiring him.
Vanek's agent Stephen Bartlett told McKenzie that his client is "excited to be an Islander." "We'll take it day by day and focus on the short term for now and see where we are at season's end," Bartlett told McKenzie..
New York Islander Fan Central Comments:  
The biggest trade of Snow's tenure as general manager, and a very sad day to lose a first class player like Matt Moulson. Snow however failed to improve his biggest need with a defense struggling badly that has failed to produce one even strength goal, and he traded a first round pick, plus a second rounder in 2015 without addressing this.   

It reflects the desperation that goes well beyond the standings to the play of the New York Islanders.

No forward is going to help Matt Carkner or Matt Donovan move the puck quicker away from the defensive end of the ice. 

Absolutely this forward group had to get faster, the moves to other lines for Moulson were a sign something could be coming back to last spring. Tavares needed more speed/skill around him at five on five which is where this team was not scoring.

Vanek helps this. New York losses one of it's key powerplay weapons, however as written earlier Tavares had one power-play goal all season.

No doubt John Tavares now has a better, faster offensive talent around him (which he badly needed to open some room on the ice for him), but the loss of his friend will sting a lot after losing Mark Streit last summer.

Both Moulson/Vanek can be recycled in trade deadline deals (to recoup 1st rounders) if this fails to help improve either club.

I would be surprised if Snow is not done, if he's going for it right now he must to do something about his defense because that's where the club's biggest problems are. They cannot be fixed internally.

He just lost his first round pick next summer.

Long term to resign Vanek means front-loading, the kind of contract this franchise does not give out, and many corporate teams will next July, along with where everyone in media claims he will be heading in Minnesota.

Fair or not Vanek did not make the Sabres a winning franchise for the contract he received.