As much as the 2014-15 season represents the end of an era in New York Islanders hockey, the team is not waiting to turn the page. The club will play its final season at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum before moving west to Brooklyn, but the new year should be anything but a death march.
The Islanders are so far removed from the glory days of the early 1980s when Al Arbour was leading the likes of Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier, Denis Potvin and Billy Smith to four consecutive Stanley Cup titles. Their distance from success has ebbed and flowed, but with only two playoff appearances in the past decade and a record that often strays on the wrong side of .500, something has to change.
A lot is about to change for the Isles. They will be moving to Brooklyn after this season, ending a 42-year run on Long Island. Their owner, Charles Wang, has reportedly finalized his league-approved deal with Jonathan Ladecky and Scott Malkin, who will assume majority ownership after a two-year transition period.
But all of that is in the future. They'll be looking to make the now matter. They got off to a good start, beating the Carolina Hurricanes 5-3 in their season opener.
General manager Garth Snow has stepped in a lot of holes over his eight years on the job, one that came with an incredibly low bar set by former GM Mike Milbury, whose trail of trades may live forever in infamy. That hasn't stopped Snow from remaining aggressive in his role. Sometimes it has paid off, other times it hasn't (see: Thomas Vanek debacle of 2013-14).
On paper, the work Snow did over the most recent off-season would appear to put the team in its best position entering a season since he has been in his role. The roster has a core in place that is worthy of a big-market team.
Starting with John Tavares, the club has finally better insulated its central group that also includes top defenseman Travis Hamonic, Kyle Okposo and Frans Nielsen, with youngsters like Ryan Strome, Griffin Reinhart and Brock Nelson knocking on the door to join them.
In various trades and free agency, Snow brought in no less than five potential impact players. That's in just one summer. The trade for goaltender Jaroslav Halak's negotiating rights was a huge risk, but it paid off when Halak signed and instantly became the best goaltender this team has put in its crease since before Rick DiPietro started breaking.
Seriously, the Islanders have been lucky to crack a .900 team save percentage in recent years. Halak comes in with a career mark of .918. If that doesn't help, I'm not sure what else will.
That was step one.
Snow didn't forget about continuing to build for the future either. Knowing he wouldn't have a first-round draft pick in 2015 due to the Vanek trade with the Buffalo Sabres, Snow swung a deal to get a second first-round pick in 2014, bringing highly skilled forwards Michael Dal Colle (fifth overall) and Josh Ho-Sang (28th overall) into the extremely deep prospect fold.
Snow even publicly struck out, as he traded for Dan Boyle's negotiating rights, only to have the veteran defenseman decline to negotiate and sign with the New York Rangers instead. Boyle probably would have helped, but bringing him on could have changed what the GM ended up doing later in the summer that could lead to a bigger payoff.
The Islanders GM, undeterred, went out and got former Toronto Maple Leafs duo Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin, paying a high price in unrestricted free agency. Even at that cost, those additions created some veteran forward depth the team needed to take a step forward, particularly as a better puck possession team.
Then, just before the season was to begin, Snow made his final and perhaps boldest statement of intent. He utilized the great prospect depth his organization possesses and acquired two Stanley Cup-winning defensemen. Snow dealt picks for Johnny Boychuk from the Boston Bruins and a cadre of prospects for Nick Leddy from the Chicago Blackhawks, bringing an entirely new element -- and some much-needed experience -- to the team's blue line. The blue line was looking like an area of weakness for the team, and while it still may not be the Isles' biggest strength now, it's miles better.
The message is clear. This is not a roll-over season for the Islanders. This is not merely a misty-eyed parade to the end of the team's tenure in Nassau County. This is a step forward, and it's an intended emphatic step out of more than a decade of disappointment and embarrassment.
With the litany of young players the team has built itself upon through the draft, the veteran acquisitions don't take anything away from this team's future. That's part of what makes Snow's maneuvering so impressive.
Every year it seems is supposed to be the year this New York club takes the next step and very rarely has that been the case. This year seems different, though.
There are no guarantees in hockey, but with the roster as it is assembled currently, the Islanders have every reason to believe that they'll spend their final season on Nassau ice giving their long-suffering fans a season to help remove that bitter taste that has been building up over the past 20 years.
If it doesn't work, there's a good chance Snow and head coach Jack Capuano are out of jobs by season's end (or earlier). But considering the depth the team built through the draft, Snow had the flexibility to get that crazy look in his eye and get anyone and everyone he thought could help the team. If he does go out, at least he's going out swinging in an effort to make this final year on Long Island a memorable one.
