Our tale begins at the 2011-12 draft. Somewhere before that draft, after another season of rebuild, when the braintrust of the NY Islanders realized that despite the replenished prospect pool, they were recognizing the years it would take for all of them to develop as to get to a level where they would have a perennial playoff level team.
After all, can anyone argue with the fact that free agency was merely reaping C and D level players. There seems to be a lack of understanding that when a rebuild, top players who could help make that rebuild occur faster are just not jumping at the chance to be stopgaps for when those players would develop and make a difference to make the team a contender.
So it was at this draft where the desire for players more "further along" was now put into the arsenal of options.
Before that draft, in fact, perhaps right up to it, Garth Snow had been chasing Bobby Ryan from the Anaheim Ducks. They were already looking for the "elite-level" forward to place on the Tavares line. The key attributes to that desire is finding a player below their peak (usually 30), that could be a longterm piece.
By the way, had that trade happened, ask yourself if Matt Moulson would have still been on the team.
However, despite that intent, the Ducks removed Ryan from the market, unsure
on how their upcoming free agents
would cost.
Then, right after this we have "The Columbus incident":
Reports from the Columbus Dispatch online cited that the Islanders were offering their ENTIRE DRAFT of picks for NHL-ready Ryan Murray. As I reported at the time, per an NHL source on the draft floor, this was "greatly exaggerated". Of course, that didn't stop the news machine running with it. Then a week or so later, The NY Post reported the same thing... That the Columbus report, per the Isles, wasn't quite accurate.
It seemed to me, according to those I spoke with, that the Isles were really hoping that Ryan Murray was taken by Edmonton. If so, they believed they could have then traded spots with Columbus for Nail. However, that clearly did not happen.
So something else took shape.... And if we now look at the change of philosophy to quicken the pace of the NHL team... Might at least quite a few picks of that draft have been offered to have someone who needed little development time, with the defensive core really not very solid?
Seems feasible despite the errant report that spewed out of the porous Columbus front office despite the fact the Isles DID NOT offer their entire draft.
Another sample of this this new philosophy/desire by the Islanders can be seen just this year when they dealt impending UFA and fan favorite Matt Moulson for the elite-level forward Vanek, despite that there was severe risk of the