NHL- New York Islanders President of Hockey Operations, Lou Lamoriello announced today that Garth Snow and Doug Weight have been relieved of their duties. Lamoriello will take over the responsibilities of General Manager and immediately begin the process to find the team's next Head Coach.
"The New York Islanders would like to thank both Garth and Doug for their dedication to the franchise," Lamoriello said. "Both started their tenures with the franchise as players and grew as tremendous leaders to the positions they held." Both will remain with the organization. ------- Ironically enough, considering their undying animosity for what was widely thought to be a never-ending contract, the last line of that press release shouldn't be all that much less encouraging to Islanders fans as the two paragraphs that precede it. Pity position or not, the fact that Garth Snow will still be lingering around the organization like a wet fart should make each and every decision that takes place in Lou Lamoriello's office look as though it was chosen from a bed of roses by comparison. Maybe the architect that basically built the Devils' winning culture brick by brick doesn't need to be made to look better by having his own personal foil inside his new franchise. Maybe he's once again found the magic touch that he had in becoming one of the most revered General Managers in all of sports. That said, the work that he did just prior to getting systematically thrust from his throne in New Jersey and the supervising he's done since certainly hasn't convinced me that this upgrade isn't made to appear more massive by the frightening option that was status quo. The Islanders' immediate future is largely dependent on retaining John Tavares, and while that was more unlikely under Garth Snow, I wouldn't exactly go raising the number '91' to rafters just yet. Lou Lamoriello can be just a stubborn as he is loyal, and that's led to plenty of shrewd negotiations with star players in the past. With the amount of cash that's going to get thrown at the feet of a number one overall pick that actually lived up to his billing, I don't know that I'm all the sudden ready to declare the team that drafted him the runaway winner in the free agency sweepstakes just because their money man is no longer bankrupt of the brains necessary to do the job. I guess what I am trying to say is that while the Islanders absolutely could have done worse, until proven otherwise they are basically in the stage of the game where they think they are dating 'Mr. Right' solely because of how wrong they were about the ex-husband that ended up using their personal information to sabotage their credit. Lou Lamoriello could end up being a hugely successful hire, but given that his age probably doesn't make him long for a position in which he's undeniably decreased in prominence, there's probably a fairly decent chance that he ends up having to point to Garth Snow's tenure just to prove the progress he made.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
January 2020
|