Garth Snow Interview Again Contradicts His Past Comments

New York Islander Fan Central | 12/18/2012 05:56:00 PM |
NHL.com: Did an interview with Garth Snow on 12/18 where he discussed several subjects.

NYIFC Comments:
Snow again employeed his 2012 favorite word---------rebuilding.

This was something he made clear was a word he did not like and rarely used back in 2009.  There have been several entries here critical of him for this change which began when the 2011-12 season fell apart  here.

If Garth Snow does not believe his own past statements, he's not being honest with the public or himself.

That's very disappointing because the outside talent his staff has identified, the excellent contract negotiations with many players re-signing here (Tavares, Okposo, Grabner, MacDonald, Nielsen x 2) speak to his skills that he absolutely is a capable NHL general manager who's had some very poor luck with man games lost to injury with players signed to very astute contracts at the time (Witt, Hunter, Sillinger, Sim,  Reasoner, Comrie, Eaton) where most simply broke down.

I asked Snow flat out about front-loaded contracts in one of his past Islander website ask the gm segments. I did not get a real answer or was expecting one.

Charles Wang in his XM 10/25/12 interview referred to front-loaded contracts as " One of those fancy, funny deals with big money up front----signing bonus, " when discussing the straight yearly contract DiPietro signed.

I have absolutely no problem with that stance by Wang if that's his view on front-loading.

Brian Burke refused to do it in Toronto. Montreal would not either and when the time came to sign top free agents the building made no difference. Those franchises (like all others with the same policy IE San Jose) all never landed one top free agent. 

Reality here is Garth Snow can discuss free agency all he likes. He can redo the dance in the past about the building being a factor to help Wang get a new/renovated arena in Nassau which is exactly what he should have been doing. 

But now we move forward when the day comes when there will be NHL unrestricted free agency again on 7/1.  There may be front-loading, or not.  If there is front-loading Wang/Snow will have to do it whether the Isles play at the Barclay's Center, Nassau Coliseum or in Montreal if they wish to land a top player.

If not, the building again will not matter. 

If front-loading is out of the next CBA it levels the playing field more, but whatever loophole is found to exploit the system as we saw when front-loading really got started with the Drury, Gomez, Briere, Smyth UFA class, this time Garth Snow will have to do the same if he's serious about landing any top free agents.
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John Spano joined twitter-I asked him on 12/18 if an apology to NYI fans, Mr Pickett for your actions is a respectfully appropriate request to ask of you.

He responded with the following: here.