The Dangers of being the Best of the Rest

 

Photo via TSN

 The NHL draft will supply a team and its owner a decade of success if done correctly.  Some teams have failed to grasp this concept as their draft capital has been spent loosely. This creates a cycle of mediocrity and failure, as it does not allow the team to be good enough to compete for a championship. 

The New York Islanders, considered New York's less favourable team by most, have been stuck in this “best of the rest” cycle, all stemming from incompetence at general manager. Lou Lamoriello, the current general manager, has doomed teams such as the Leafs and Islanders. His reckless trading habits and overspending has forced teams into spots where competing or tanking for draft capital are not possible.  Starting with the mishandling of prospects, Josh Ho-Sang was a forward with immense potential drafted in the late first round of the 2014 draft. He has played well throughout the minors and juniors, until 2018 when Lou Lamoriello called him up to the NHL and buried him on the fourth line stunting his development. He finished 2018’s NHL tenure with 2 points in then games the year before he had 10 in 22 games. 

Next is Oliver Wahlstrom, a gifted goal scorer whose career is in jeopardy as he has underperformed since being taken 11th overall in 2018. After a terrible NCAA year at Boston College Wahlstrom signed his ELC and took to Bridgeport, the AHL affiliate of the Islanders. Last season he put up 10 goals in 45 AHL games, a far stretch from his 30 goal scoring potential, which was so highly regarded during the draft. Next is the misuse of Draft capital and cap space. 

This year Lamoriello has had a plethora of bad decisions starting with the trading and signing of J.G Pageau, a third-line center having an above-average year was traded from the Senators to the Islanders in hope of a new contract and a playoff berth. But with that, the Islanders gave up a first, and two seconds, with two of those picks coming in the 2020 draft which is one of the deepest drafts in recent memory. On top of that, they signed Pageau to a 6 year 5 million AAV with an NTC and an NMC during all of those years, while being in a cap crunch. With this move, the Islanders have to make some tough choices first being that they had to ship off their number 1 defenseman that was at least worth a first. They sent him for two-second rounders while being on a good contract that is below market. This move prevented the signing of star forward Mat Barzal, Barzal was seeking a seven million dollar contract from the team, but now the Islanders are not in a situation to give him that contract and will most likely either lose him or give away too many assets to sign him. 

The Islander's mismanagement runs rampant throughout their entire front office, from their scouting department to prospect development, to the general manager. Their current situation is undesirable and their future is not a bright one without prospects or young pieces in combination with subpar management, this team requires a long rebuild without Lamoriello.

By: Jackson Pitts