Ok, we got our answers, and listened to all interviews.
Lou Lamoriello is here as President of Hockey Operations with full control, he has not even come down here yet or visited the practice facility, all hockey aspects are his call.
Give Scott Malkin the highest marks, within days of that 4/9 press conference with Toronto in the playoffs, their evaluation was over, he called his Leafs counterpart, and pushed to speak with Lamoriello, it took some time after the playoff loss, and clearly Shanahan wanted someone else as gm, but Malkin sold his vision to Lamoriello, and here he is.
Ownership kept it's word, even if I hate who/where they want to be a tenant of.
Now we see what Lamoriello does, no point for me to be repetitive, we all listened to what he said.
Bottom line he now does his own evaluations, whether I agree or not, if Snow-Weight stay in their jobs, I have to support that direction. If changes are made I will support that.
Snow had my support as gm until the end of last season, he failed to win, his team took a step back, then this year they fell off a cliff, he's accountable for it.
Clearly Doug Weight was over his head.
Lamoriello now has to be given the time to do what he feels needs to be done, if he can keep Tavares, ok, if he can't that's ok too, there is a lot of talent here, much more than a lot of peripheral media wrote about.
Snow was treated badly by the local media because of how he got the job that does not even cover games, he's done an excellent job, but it's about winning, you don't win, it's time for someone else.
Sorry, but he did not make the Milbury trades, he traded a player who's agent demanded a trade so he got a friend of Tavares in Clutterbuck, signed a few players too early, and gave Ladd market value, he lottery protected Vanek, pick, unlike Calgary with Hamonic.
Get over it, there were no Luongo deals in there since 2006, he got a ton right, and he got it right every time it was time to not resign someone, his players respected him, and liked being here.
But again it's about winning. I can't speak to culture inside a room as a fan, all we can do is listen to what they are quoted as saying about being there. Even Nabokov was thrilled to be back after being forced to play a full season for 500k, he stole Grabner, got it right on Moulson, Parenteau, Streit.
He had nightmare luck with injuries for 3/4 years, that excuse could not be played last season, he stood on a stage and lied with Ted Nolan in 2008. In 2009, he said he rarely used the rebuilding word, by 2011, he used it every chance he could when his team again fell off the map.
Lamoriello had some very rough decisions leaving NJ, and he inherited the staff in Toronto & answered to Shanahan, here he will do what he loves to do from scratch, he was promised full support from ownership, they don't have to say a word from here.
He lost Parise after going to the finals, Kovalchuk walked from his contract, he got fined a 1st round pick he got back, he had a lot of bad signings/trades including Grabner/Martin.
Lamoriello will have the final say here, there is baggage to go with his ability.
Now we'll see what happens, staff changes come usually after 7/1 when contracts expire.
It was a good day for the New York Islander franchise, but it's about winning.
Welcome to New York.
