Isles Strike Gold with Nolan; Hire New GM as Well
The New York Islanders have effectively ended the long and tedious search for a new GM and Head Coach, when they officially announced the signing of Neil Smith as their new GM, and Ted Nolan as the Head Coach. I’ll start by saying that I think the move to sign Ted Nolan as coach was an excellent move, but the signing of Neil Smith is a bit iffy; if there’s one thing to be criticized here, it’s that Neil Smith had a tendency to overspend on veterans, and trade away young talent. What I really like for the Islanders about this whole situation is the signing of Ted Nolan as the new coach, as I feel he has been consistently overlooked by other NHL teams, and is certainly capable of having success with the Islanders. First we’ll start with a bit of commentary about Ted Nolan. This is just his second stint as a NHL coach; as you may or may not be aware, Ted Nolan was the Head Coach of the Buffalo Sabres for only 2 years, and in his second year with the team, he led the Sabres to a Northeastern Division title, and won Coach of the Year honors. After a long and bitter dispute with then GM John Muckler, Nolan did not resign with the Sabres and since has been out of NHL coaching. If you’re an Islander fan, here are a few reasons why you should be excited about the next season with Ted Nolan at the helm. In his only NHL stint, Ted Nolan motivated and got production out of a cast of players that you won’t see in the League Leaderboard any time soon. Nolan got Matthew Barnaby, Donald Audette, and Derek Plante, among others, to lead the team in scoring en route to a divisional title. Nolan has had a tremendous amount of success in other hockey leagues including the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, in which Nolan coached the Moncton Wildcats to a 52-15-0-3 record, and one game shy of the championship game. Nolan has also coached the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League to three consecutive Memorial Cup tournaments, and even won the Canadian national junior championship in 1993. Ted has been constantly overlooked by teams, and I’m sure he’ll be coaching this year with a chip on his shoulder. He is exactly what the Islanders need as Alexi Yashin has been a huge disappointment, and Miroslov Satan did not produce as much as the Islanders had expected as well. Now on to Neil Smith. Smith has a Stanley Cup championship in his resume, which he got during his time with the New York Rangers, but many of his years with the Rangers were not as glamorous. Smith is notorious for his uncanny ability to trade away top prospects, and make all sorts of trades before the deadline. Whether Islander fans will accept this or not is yet to be seen. Also, Smith has quite the history of putting together pricey teams, with tons of veterans, a strategy that didn’t work out too well for Smith with the Rangers. Now with a salary cap put in place, Smith can’t put together a team the same way he did with the Rangers. Enough with the negatives about Neil Smith though; let’s discuss the positives about the new Isles GM. Neil Smith is known for his ability to draft solid players. Whether he trades them away at a later point is pretty much moot to the fact that he drafts good players. Some notables include Doug Weight, Sergei Zubov, Alex Kovalev, Nicolas Lidstrom, Mattais Norstrom, Sergei Nemchinov, Marc Savard, and Mike York, just to name a few. The Islanders’ problem as of late have been trading away young talent (Luongo, Chara, Bertuzzi, and 1st round pick Jason Spezza) and overpaying mediocre talent. (Alexi Yashin) These two things seem to be the most criticized aspects of Smith’s style of management. Even if Neil Smith isn’t the best GM in the league, he does have a Stanley Cup win. Also, it’s great for the organization and fan base that there has been this breath of fresh air into the team. The only problem that the team is facing now is that Mike Milbury still has a role in the organization (Wang’s senior vice-president and advisor), and how much power he’ll actually have in Islander decisions. Chances are, things are looking up if he won’t have much of a say; if he does though, then who knows if things will ever change. The New York Sports Headquarters is a site devoted to providing the latest news and insight to all things New York Sports. We will be covering issues regarding professional baseball, football, hockey, and basketball. Under special circumstances, we will also be covering other sports, such as golf, soccer, auto racing, and horse racing. We will provide insight, up to date news, opinion pieces, and all sorts of other information regarding the New York Sports world. http://www.nysportshq.com/ |
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