When it comes to Garth Snow’s tenure as General Manager of the New York Islanders, there were many things that he did that Islanders fans, and hockey fans, in general, had a reaction to. Ranging from the good (Reinhart for Barzal and Beauvillier, Eberle for Strome), to the bad (Ryan Smyth), to the ugly (the Thomas Vanek era), Snow had an interesting 12 years as GM. Tracking back to the good, there was one day in particular during his tenure in which Garth Snow changed the Islanders’ defense for the long term, for the better.

On October 4th, 2014, the New York Islanders were preparing for their 42nd season in the National Hockey League. In six days, the team starts their season in Raleigh against the Carolina Hurricanes, and they were looking at a defensive core, when fully healthy, that was going to look like the following:

Thomas Hickey – Travis Hamonic

Calvin de Haan – Lubomir Visnovsky

Brian Strait – Matt Donovan

To be honest, everyone knew that this Islanders team, that definitely had playoff aspirations, should not be running a healthy defense starring Travis Hamonic as its main attraction, and de Haan and Visnovsky started the year on the injured reserve. Garth Snow needed to make a move and a big one at that. Unfortunately, he did not make one. Fortunately, he made two.

In the days prior, Snow was working the phones, trying to acquire a defenseman to strengthen the defense core before the start of the regular season. He was talking to multiple teams about players that filled different aspects of the game that Snow and Head Coach Jack Capuano wanted. Well, Snow was successful in working the phones.

On the same day, the Islanders were able to announce the acquisitions of two defensemen. One, a young, up-and-coming 23-year-old who was coming off of a Stanley Cup Championship, the other a hard-nosed veteran with tons of Stanley Cup playoff experience.
That day, the New York Islanders acquired Nick Leddy and Johnny Boychuk.

The Islanders acquired Leddy and goaltender Kent Simpson (who was later released) from the Chicago Blackhawks for defenseman T.J. Brennan, defenseman Ville Pokka, and goaltender Anders Nilsson, and they acquired Boychuk from the Boston Bruins for a second-round pick in 2015 and 2016, and a conditional third-round pick in 2015 (the condition was not met).

So… what has the outcome of those trades been, and where are the players that the Islanders traded?

The Nick Leddy Trade:

T.J. Brennan: Since the trade, T.J. Brennan has had an interesting time in the league. He spent the majority of the 2014-15 season with the Rockford Icehogs before being traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he spent the end of that year and the entire next season bouncing between the Leafs and the Toronto Marlies. Since the 2016-17 season, he has exclusively been in the American Hockey League with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, but he has also been one of the best defensemen in the AHL since his time in Lehigh Valley began.

Ville Pokka: The Islanders’ second-round pick in 2012, Ville Pokka had an interesting time in North America. Pokka was traded before he even had a taste of North American hockey, and he spent his first season in the Blackhawks organization with the Icehogs. He spent three full seasons with the Icehogs. In his fourth year pro, he started the season with the Icehogs, and then he was traded to the Ottawa Senators and played for the Belleville Senators the rest of that season. Before last season, he took his talents to the KHL, signing with Avangard Omsk, where he has spent the last season and a half.

Anders Nilsson: Out of the three players traded to the Blackhawks, Anders Nilsson has definitely been the most successful. What is crazy is that his success has come away from Chicago. He spent that season with Ak Bars Kazan in the KHL, and ahead of the following season, he was traded to the Edmonton Oilers. After having a strong start to the season, the Oilers traded him to the St. Louis Blues. He spent the rest of the season with the Blues, and then they traded his rights to the Buffalo Sabres, and he spent the 2016-17 season as the backup in Buffalo. In free agency, he signed a two-year deal with the Vancouver Canucks to serve as Jacob Markstrom’s backup but was traded to the Ottawa Senators in the second year of the deal. He was successful as Craig Anderson’s backup, and he signed a two-year extension with Ottawa.

The Johnny Boychuk Trade:

Brandon Carlo: The 2015 second-round pick that the Bruins acquired in the Boychuk trade turned into Brandon Carlo. Carlo has turned into a stable defenseman for the Bruins, staying fairly healthy. Over three-and-a-half seasons with the Bruins, Carlo has missed south of 20 games total, and he even played all 82 during his rookie season in 2016-17. The six-foot-five 23-year old is not the most offensively minded defenseman in the league, but his defense definitely makes up for it.

Ryan Lindgren: The 2016 second-round pick turned into Ryan Lindgren, who is no longer with the Bruins. After spending the 2016-17 season with the University of Minnesota and in the Bruins system, he was traded at the 2017 Trade Deadline to the New York Rangers in the Rick Nash trade that sent the longtime Rangers winger to the Bruins ahead of the Bruins playoff run that April. Lindgren played eight games with the Rangers last season and has been a mainstay in the Rangers lineup this year.
Overall, looking back at that day in Islanders’ history, we can all say that these two moves are two of the bigger moves that Garth Snow made that Islanders fans can appreciate.

SEF