Garth Snow Deserves Some Credit for Isles’ Run
Islanders’ General Manager Lou Lamoriello won the Jim Gregory GM of the Year Award for the second straight year, but his predecessor, Garth Snow, deserves some credit despite the pain he caused Isles fans.
Put your pitchforks down, please. This is not to take away from the accomplishments of Lamoriello. Three of his acquisitions — Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Kyle Palmieri and Semyon Varlamov — are the reason the Islanders have gone as far as they have in the playoffs.
Pageau has notched three goals and 10 assists and is in a three-way tie for second in the team points. Kyle Palmieri has become a force in clutch-time, scoring the overtime goal against the Penguins in the first game of the playoffs. Semyon Varlamov has been stellar in these playoffs. Coming into Game 7, he has a .919 save percentage and a 2.68 goals against average.
Lou has been integral to the team’s success. The culture changes he implemented (i.e. no beards and no large numbers) have pulled this team together in ways no other management team has been able to. Nevertheless, Snow, not Lamoriello assembled most of this roster.
Out of the 20 Islanders to play in the Stanley Cup Semifinals (18 skaters and both goalies), 12 are in the organization due to snow. Only eight of the players, 40 percent, are from Lou.
Snow’s deals towards the end of his tenure were fantastic. One of the NHL’s biggest fleeces of the last couple of years came from Snow, trading two draft picks for prospect Griffin Reinhart. Those two picks became Mathew Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier. Reinhart isn’t in the NHL anymore.
In the 2021 playoffs, Snows’ players have been getting a lot of the work done. Four out of the five top point-getters on this Islanders squad have been Snow pick-ups.
Was Snow perfect? Oh god no. He signed Rick DiPietro to a 15-year contract. Though, at the end of the day, saying that this is Lou’s team simply isn’t true. Garth Snow assembled this team’s base. However, Lamoriello managed and adjusted it to get the Islanders where they are today.
Lou deserves all the credit he gets, but understand where he got his roster from.
