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Sorry folks, NHL General Managers by and large are sacred cows, unlike coaches.
Once they are in the job it takes a ton of horrible years/decisions to send them packing. George McPhee, Sather, Bryan Murray, Don Waddell, Bob Clarke, Darcy Regier, so many others.
David Poile in Nashville is considered one of the best in the business, the Predators have done little come playoff time. Boston had to send a draft pick to Ottawa for it's general manager after a league dispute.
It took forever to get Craig Patrick out of Pittsburgh, he did not have stable ownership but his first year out of the lockout pushed the wrong buttons with the high priced veterans, and Ray Shero came in from Nashville.
Many get promoted to the role of President, even some unqualified disasters like John Davidson, or Kevin Lowe, have the media in their corner, win or lose.
Brian Burke moves around a lot, one or two other gm's do also and Burke traded what turned out to be two top picks for Phil Kessel.
Paul Holmgren does what Ed Snider says, whether it be trade players signed after one year to decade plus contracts or front-load for the next one in July.
People like Cliff Fletcher in Toronto even get to play interim gm after Milbury robbed him blind for Jonsson and Brewer or Luongo depending on who you consider the Leafs pick was used for.
Burke does not front-load, so no top players pick Richard Peddie's team, same as Montreal, who can only take Scott Gomez, once the max part of his contract is already paid.
One or two general managers real claim to the job is being former player agents as we saw with Mike Barnett in Phoenix for a while.
As hockey fans we may be frustrated over Garth Snow not being able to front-load contract offers in summer, but most teams cannot front-load either and not able to make those kind of signings.
Overall you have to access the job the general manager does year by year. I cannot blame Garth Snow for the injuries in the previous years, he's made some excellent signings or decisions (Streit, Roloson, Moulson, Grabner and even Schremp for a time) to help the club in free agency, a few decisions were mistakes in resigning Brendan Witt early along with one extra year of Doug Weight/Sim. (even with a two-way contract)
Snow has not publicly stuck out his neck to protect his former coaches, he would not be the first to fail there.
No one wanted to see Trent Hunter leave when his contract was up, Snow handled it perfect and re-signed Hunter at an excellent rate, regardless of the decision not working out in the long run.
Snow has also done a great job locking up his prime players, combined with his extensions to MacDonald/Nielsen.
Brett Hull was a horrible co/gm in Dallas, anyone can throw around money, we have seen general managers over their head in the job from day one.
I do not see that with Garth Snow. Bergenheim got every chance here, as did Tambellini, even if they were Milbury's picks or traded players. Even Jeremy Colliton was qualified, as Jesse Joensuu was.
Absolutely Blake Comeau was played out of position, that goes on the gm.
Bottom line, last summer Snow made some good gambles in Rolston based on his second half production a year ago vs Hunter, same on Reasoner's thirteen vs Konopka's two goals.
It did not work.
Were those gambles any worse on paper as opposed to the ones made by Florida's new gm, Dale Tallon, who grossly overpaid for marginal free agents well passed their prime in most cases, after his drastic mistakes in Chicago, despite winning a Stanley Cup?
Bergenheim got a four year contract after Tampa moved on, he has two more points than Blake Comeau.
Snow was boxed in with returning Eaton, Mottau off injury vs finding a way to move on from them or outright cut them. It was a mistake considering what the defense did without them in the second half, plus resigning Jurcina early.
Obviously doubling down with Steve Staios, giving him the spot with Streit was terrible, as was bringing in a limited fourth line veteran in Pandolfo, who at this time is playing center for the first time in his career.
In the draft Snow/staff's goaltending decisions are not looking good with Koskinen in Europe, the decision on Hamonic outstanding. Still, the draft picks have to step in and supplement his plan here, it's still very early on that front, especially for Josh Bailey.
Matt Martin looks like a player.
James Wisniewski for a third vs resigning Sutton was an excellent gamble, even if it did fail, Sutton got injured his first game in Anaheim, was converted to forward, now he's in Edmonton.
Even if 2011-12 means another head coach losses his job, and the New York Islanders finish at the bottom of the standings this time with no excuses about injuries) Garth Snow should continue as this club's general manager.
Given the injures the previous years, the excellent decisions on many moves, his contract negotiations, it's not even close to the point of considering a change at general manager, sure he needed to make a move (even if from his AHL team) but has not and it does raise fair questions about his performance.
I see no chance Garth Snow goes with another Mike Milbury plan. Based on the things that worked in the second half of last year, this blog agrees completely the pieces are in place.
No folks, teams are not dumping anything but struggling players at this time, it would be nice to see Snow call up Bridgeport and get deHaan, Wishart in here, move on from Rolston, Pandolfo, Mottau and Reasoner so Niederreiter can finally play and give Ullstrom/Rahkshani a serious run of games.
As I wrote a while back a lot of these problems are going to solve themselves after the season.
