To paraphrase a famous former president, the media and Islanders fans won’t have Mike Milbury to kick around anymore. The former general manager/coach/lightning rod on Tuesday announced his resignation as senior vice-president, a role in which he oversaw the sales and marketing departments last season.
Owner Charles Wang retained Milbury as an advisor for such things as Project Hope, the youth program to develop hockey in China. But Milbury no longer is a full-time employee, much less a member of the so-called “committee,” which really involves the owner accepting or rejecting the recommendations of general manager Garth Snow and coach Ted Nolan.
That means the anger of fans who remained paranoid about the possibility of Milbury calling the shots from behind the scenes last season must be directed elsewhere. Maybe Milbury will bequeath his bulletproof vest to Snow as an act of kindness.
As Milbury explained it to Newsday in the news story posted on the Web this afternoon, his decision to step aside grew out of a season-ending meeting with Wang. The former GM said his passion is for hockey rather than for ticket sales, and he admitted plans to seek other opportunities in the game. In other words, “Mad Mike” misses the action he enjoyed as GM from 1995 through the 2005-06 season.
Milbury’s controversial trades have been analyzed to death by fans obsessed with the mistakes of the past, and this season didn’t help his reputation as Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo (former Islander) and Ottawa forwards Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza (could have been drafted by the Islanders) excelled throughout the regular season and playoffs. Interestingly, Milbury said the bitter backlash he experienced in the past from Islanders fans had nothing to do with his decision.
“I’ve flown underneath the radar here for the better part of a year and a half,” Milbury said, referring to his decision in January, 2006 to relinquish his GM duties to move into the senior VP position. “I’ve had more interaction with fans and better interaction with fans than at any time during my career because I wasn’t subject to the whims of wins and losses. Take a look at the Yankees. Joe Torre has won four [World Series] rings, and he’s getting booed as he pulls the pitcher. It’s the business. If you can’t handle that, you’re in the wrong business.”
When Snow traded former first-round picks Robert Nilsson and Ryan O’Marra plus this year’s No. 1 to Edmonton for free-agent winger Ryan Smyth at the Feb. 27 trade deadline, many fans saw Milbury’s hand at play, mortgaging the future. But Nilsson and O’Marra were Milbury’s picks, and the fact is that Snow spent the first half of the season evaluating the farm system to determine which players he was willing to trade and obviously reached a different conclusion about their potential for success than his predecessor.
Not that Milbury didn’t admire Snow’s boldness as a rookie trader. Asked what he thought of the job done by Snow and Nolan, Milbury said, “I think it speaks for itself. I get this from people all over the Island: they were proud of the team, they were proud of the team’s competitive aspect. Garth showed that he had some gumption and courage to make a big trade for Ryan Smyth. I think that was instrumental in making sure we got to the playoffs, and the dramatic way in which we made the playoffs made for a good footprint for both of those guys.”
Thanks to that blockbuster deal, Snow actually made Milbury’s sales job easier. Milbury said the Islanders’ attendance spiked over the last 20 games of the season, corporate sponsorship grew by 25 percent, and the Islanders expect to retain about 90 percent of their sponsors and 80 percent of their season ticketholders.
“The team’s performance over the last little while was enough to keep people coming back,” Milbury said. “That was a lot of fun games. The team hung tough throughout the year. That’s a good sign. Obviously, Garth’s got some work to do, but I’m sure he’ll give it his best shot.”
Of course, Snow’s recent decision to keep Alexei Yashin at the behest of the owner rather than buy him out will make things harder for the sales staff this summer. And if Snow can’t sign Smyth as a free agent and lets free agent Jason Blake walk, as he appears prepared to do, no one can point the finger of blame at Milbury. The bullseye is on Snow’s back now, and that’s as it should be.
WRITER’S NOTE: Some faithful readers of this blog complained of censorship on Monday when a few comments speculating about Milbury’s possible departure were deleted. One comment included speculation about the reason for the departure that was completely unfounded and unfair to Milbury and his family. It wouldn’t have been tolerated in the newspaper, and the same standard for fairness applies to the blog. The other comments ordinarily would not have been touched but were deleted to protect Newsday’s competitive interests because the full story was not available until today.
Comments (183)
HALLEJUAH!!
i thought steve zipay was the only one who deleted posts
Alright! But now who is going to be our scapegoat for the next 10 years of mediocrity?
YES!!!!
YES!!!!!
YES!!!!!!!!
Ok now that I got that and the dancing around the rom out of my system, I have to wonder where MM is headed next.... Boston? (yeah not an original thought) Maybe Gretzky will hire him in PHO... only man who could do a worse job... WOW! I am still grinning... MUST MUST GO...AND Finally DID!
something's fishy!!!!!
give him any title u want but if he's still around, he's still around...
if you believe this ur all still dumbasses!!!
peace
thank god no more of milbury and his stupid policies for the parking lot during the playoffs . now the isles can get back to greatness without him here
Why are you complaining about deleted posts? You want "freedom" of speech? Start your own blog and don't pollute others. Now, as far as this new 'beginning of summer' move by the Islanders, I can only assume it is the start of sweeping changes, all of which may not be pleasant. Be careful what you wish for people... you just may get it.
Hey Mike, With your stellar resume good luck finding another job making hockey decisions!! HAHAHAHA, oh my, what franchise would be dumb enough to hire this clown. Wait isnt there an opening on Broadway. ONE CAN ONLY HOPE.
With Milbury's stellar resume Im sure his phone is ringing off the hook right now. HAHAHHAHA, yeah right. I thought the Islanders were the worst run franchise but if anybody hires this clown they automatically become #1. Isn't there an opening on Broadway now under Sather. ONE CAN ONLY HOPE!!!
The King is Dead, long live the King!
Blaming Mad Mike is too easy--the Isles are a soft bunch of kids with some decent older dudes . Bring back old time hockey. This stuff is horrible.
Its time that Milbury is gone. There are almost no reasons to want to remember his tenure here, and I doubt highly that many fans will miss him.
Good of you to explain why stuff was being deleted. It makes a big difference.
Personally I think Milbury knows we're not signing Smyth (0%) or Blake (20%) and we're keeping Yashin (100%)...so Milbury wants to leave before the blood bath...trying to protect whatever is left of his hockey rep. Remember...he didn't want to sign Yashin for more than 5 years...If Wang listened to him, his contract would be up, and we wouldn't all be depressed about more Yashin Hockey.
I know it seems like a good thing...but I think it's a bad sign for things to come.
As a fan who attended the first Islanders game at the Coliseum (3-2 loss to the Alanta Flames) and had season tickets since then, I wish to thank Mike Milbury for holding the team together through the really lean years.
Maybe some of you don't remember what it was like when there were two thousand season ticket holders. I do. I also remember the owners who looted the franchise during Milburys tenure.
Mike held the franchise together with paper clips and twine while the greedy bastards sold off all of the talent this team had. Sure Mike made a lot of bad trades, but how many of them were to dump salary on orders from on high?
People tend to forget that when Wang loosened the purse strings, Milbury got Peca, Yashin, Aucoin and Osborne and the Isles had one of their most exciting seasons in many years. The playoffs with Toronto were among the most best hockey I have ever seen. Milbury brought back respect to the Island.
I, for one, will never forget getting a phone call from Milbury during the lockout (He personally called every season ticket holder). We taked hockey for 40 minutes and it was like taliking to the guy next door. I laughed when he called the Bertuzzi-Linden trade a "mulligan."
Sure, Mike made mistakes, but he did keep the team afloat during its darkest days(remember Spano?)
So, thanks Mike and good luck to you where ever you go.
Classy post, Bill. I am in the camp of Islander fans who consider Milbury to have done more harm than good. You make some good points in his defense BUT I think the thing that overwhelms all of that is how poorly he drafted and how terrible his judgments were about when to give young talent a chance to develop and when to trade it away. The draft is the one means that cash-poor teams have to equalize the odds a bit with the big boys. Under Milbury, the Isles misfired the only arrow in their quiver. But it's good that someone dissented from the piling on.
not for nothing... but I believe that all the pain in the neck parking policies came from SMG management looking to cause the Islander organization even more ill will with their fans. That was the story I got form more than a FEW of the SMG employees who weren't happy with having to enforce insane restrictions on attendees. So... pick a different arguement.
There is a God!
Don't let the door hit you in the a^^ on the way out Milbury....Take you and your screwed up Boston ways and go back to beantown with the rest of the chowdahs!!!!
I'll make only three comments.
1) Milbury may have worked hard when we had looting ownership, but he was still getting paid and had the control--if not cash he craved. I'd hardly say he was making a huge sacrifice.
2) I won't rehash the Yashin/Peca deals, but few people seem to remember that Chris Osgood fell in our lap before the 2001 season--otherwise Garth Snow would have been our starting goalie. Osgood sizzled to start the season and the Isles built off of that--but a monkey could have pulled off the Osgood acquisition and without Detroit putting Osgood on waivers--2001 could have been a disaster, even with Peca and Yashin.
3) He did not call every season ticket holder because he did not call me. It may have been a good P.R. stunt at the time, but I'll bet he missed well more than 75% of all season ticket holders.
when Blake signs with another team and Smyth does the same, sweet baby jesus lord help Garth Snow. he better dip into the UFA pool and Wang better back him 100%. this could be the best move of MMs NYI career.
I agree with a lot of what Bill said but again he did make some HORRIBLE trades....
A few other positives he brought to the table:
1) He was not boring
2) He hates the Rangers and made that fact known
But time for him to move on...
The decision to delete a comment on a blog, or not comment on the story yourself simply because of Newsday's having not run the story itself is exactly the reason people aren't reading traditional papers anymore. These blogs are just a gimmic by the papers. By holding back on stories until they can run on the main website or in the print edition you insult the fans and your readers.
3 WORDS...
LUONGO
HEATLEY
SPEZZA
A monkey would have known to keep Luongo and draft Heatley. If Milbury was so in love w DiPietro he could have still drafted Heatley and then used the 5th overall pick to nab DiPietro (instead we jumped at DP and took Rafi Torres at no.5)
How can anyone defend Milbury??? We suffered through all those horrible years in the 90's so that we might have a great decade now. Instead we gave all of our supposed reward for suffering (Redden, Heatley, Spezza) to Ottawa. That's right, the 3 best players on the soon-to-be Stanley Cup Champions should have all been Islanders.
It's not about complaining, it's about seeing what was obviously a horrible lapse of intellectual hockey judgment. Think how the Yankees would be if they had traded Jeter and Posada in '96 for a couple of Japanese enigmas. That's exactly what Milbury did, trading away surefire stars like Bertuzzi, McCabe, Heatley, Spezza, for the chance that Trevor Linden, Oleg Kvasha, Mark Parrish, etc. would somehow transform from mediocrity into something more.
A MULLIGAN??? Is that all Milbury has to say??? McCabe and Bertuzzi for Trevor Linden???
Who remembers when they had that horrible ceremony where Dennis Potvin presented Linded with the Captaincy? HaHa what a joke...
I'd like to join KH and compliment Bill on his classy post. I don't agree with most of the comment, but I appreciate the magnanimous gesture.
While it's true that Milbury tried to do his best while Spano, et al were looting the team, the fact is that no self-respecting GM would've allowed himself to remain in that position under those circumstances. And by sticking around (and making poor decisions with regard to draft picks and young talent), Milbury was at least partially responsible for lending an 'air of legitimacy' to what ultimately turned out to be the theft of the Islanders' future.
TD: You say you're worried that Milbury is leaving now to protect what's left of his reputation. I have only one question to that... What reputation does he have left that he needs to protect?
Merrick: I read your comment to the previous blog entry by Logan - the one where you admitted continuing paranoia despite MM departure. I'm still laughing. Great post.
what is this parking policy everyone is referring to?
This is a good day.
Actually, it isn't Heatley. It's Gaborik. Milbury has said that if he hadn't made that trade, and therefore kept Luongo instead of drafting DiPietro, he would have gone for Gaborik over Heatley. That wouldn't have been too shabby.
I agree with some of Bill's post. It is true that the pre-Wang owners were awful. And clearly, it was money that drove us to some trades, like Ziggy's exit. But money was no excuse for the Luongo/Jokinen deal. And as much as DiP may become a great goalie, the math on it is that that we could have Jokinen, Luongo and Gaborik rather than DiP, Parrish (and then Tambellini/Grebeshkov and MAB) and Kvasha. Just a brutal deal that we're still paying for.
How can anyone defend Milbury??? We suffered through all those horrible years in the 90's so that we might have a great decade now. Instead we gave all of our supposed reward for suffering (Redden, Heatley, Spezza) to Ottawa. That's right, the 3 best players on the soon-to-be Stanley Cup Champions should have all been Islanders.
Fair enough, but lets take a look at these deals.
Redden. People tend to forget that the Isles got Bryan Berard for Redden.
They also forget that Berard was the NHL Rookie of the Year in his first season. He was one of the few attractions on an otherwise dismal team. I wonder how many of you were complaining when they handed Berard the Rookie trophy?
Heatley. Yes, the Isles passed on Heatly and took DP. Where would this franchise be witout DP? Enough said.
Spezza. Spezza was a draft pick when Yashin was leading the Isles into the playoffs for the first time in many years. How many GM's give up draft picks for "win it now" players? The team could ill afford to wait three or four years for Spezza to be NHL ready. Yashin was a STAR and Spezza was a draft pick. How many of you remember Chara being booed every time he gave up the puck at the Coliseum. Chara didn't develop into a first tier player until he hit Ottawa.
And a lot of Charas success had to do with his supporting cast. Ottawa let him walk and what happened in Boston this past year?
Linden..Lets think back to the Bertuzzi-McCabe years. How many playoff appearances did Bertuzzi or McCabe make? Remember too, that Trevor Linden was considered one of the premier Captians in the NHL. And that's what Milbury was trying to do. Give the Isles some leadership and respectability and put more than three or four thousand fans in the stands.
Yes, Milbury made mistakes but he also DRAFTED all those players that turned out to be NHL'ers. I wonder how his track record for drafting talent stacks up against other GM's. Pretty fair, I would say.
My post ws not to defend everything Milbury did. By his own statements he made many "mulligans." But he did steer the ship through its roughest patch.
The time for Mike to go has long past. He stayed too long, but I do appreciate what he tried to do under the worst possible circumstances. And he deserves thanks for that....Bill
Cincy:
I wrote a post that expressed the exact same thing--you might give Milbury credit for sticking together and working under adverse circumstances. Still, I'd have had a lot more respect for the man if he stood up and resigned in protest rather than facilitated the crooks for whom he worked. It's foolish to speculate, but who really knows what would have shaken loose if he'd said to Newsday early on "I quit because my boss does not have the best interest of the fans in mind." He'd be a hero.
Bill, I appreciate your perspective on Milbury, but count me as someone who couldn't wait for him to go. I was shocked that he retained his job as long as he did. The one thing I'll give him is that he drafted well, although he had a bunch of top five picks which made it a little easier.
I hated just about all of his moves, and Isles fans can only dream of the type of team that we would have had had he kept his prospects together. These were not prospects like Nilsson and O'Marra (two players taken 15th overall in their respective drafts), these were top 5 picks like Lunogo, Brewer, Redden, Torres, etc. I can't kill the Yashin deal because at the time he was coming off a Hart Trophy caliber season (it's the ridiculous contract that kills that deal) and Peca for Connolly and Pyatt was nice.
All in all, I'm glad that he is not with the franchise anymore and hopefully Snow and his staff can make some moves to improve the team for next year.
Bill,
Re your "Yes, Milbury made mistakes but he also DRAFTED all those players that turned out to be NHL'ers. I wonder how his track record for drafting talent stacks up against other GM's. Pretty fair, I would say."
My dear Bill, answer this simple question for me please. What good is it to have a great track record for drafting (McCabe, Bertuzzi, Chara, Luongo, Brewer, etc.) if you always trade trade those draftees for over-pricd over the hill type players, your so called win-now players? Please don't try to justify MM's horrible deals.
As per Berard, he constantly lost the puck and was a defensive liability, even though he won rookie of the year. Redden has been an all-star reliable player for 10 years = bonehead deal.
As per Linden, he has never been a legit NHL scorer, yet we traded one of the best power forwards in recent history and probably one of the top 3 offensive defenseman in the league for a guy who never wanted to leave the Canucks. Tell me what team does Linden play for now? Exactly.
As per Spezza, we finally get the chance to grab a quality player in the draft. Everyone knew Spezza would be great. It took him only about a year to be NHL-ready. This was the year to grab the player.
How about thinking about it like this. In 2000 & 2001 we had the No.1 and No.2 picks respectively. Assuming DP equals a Luongo (even though that is far from true) it means we drafted DP when we already had Luongo and traded Luongo for Kvasha and Parrish [BOTH GONE], so 2000 we currently have nothing to show for. Then in 2001 we trade Spezza (the pick) for Yashin who is horrible and should be bought out. So where these top picks should have created a cornerstone for the Isles franchise, we now have nothing to show for it, but a horrible contract.
I can promise you this, there's a pretty excellent chance you will see Crosby and Malkin on the Penguins for a long long time. Smart GMs don't trade future stars for a quick-fix.
If passion about his job includes swearing at fans and threatening them, then how is that a virtue?
I generally try to look for the good in folks and still hold out hope, but for the most part, this guy has consistently behaved like a first class jerk. I'm sure he has his finer moments, but like all narcissists, as soon something doesn't go his way, the ugliness comes into full view.
As for Yashin/Peca, to ignore the costs of these contracts contracts above and beyond the players exchanged is wrong. It's like paying $700 for a good steak, but not being able to pay your rent. I noted this on an earlier blog, but Yashin was like a very expensive one-night stand where we after one good night, we got a long-term case of siphillus. IMHO, the Yashin deal in toto has to be one of the dumbest transactions in the history of professional sports. One round of instant playoff gratification for nine-years of expensive dead weight doesn't wash with me.
Btw, the announcement came on the heels of mailings to season ticket holders asking them to re-up. No pics of Yashin (or Smyth) are to be found.
How easy it is to look back at trades and critcize. What most of you fail to realize is that Milbury was attempting to keep a floundering franchise afloat. He did his best.
As for quitting in protest, it's a lot easier to run away rather than to stay and try to make things better. I respect him more for his effort. He did not always suceed, but at least he tried.
By the way, who was it that traded for Blake, Aucoin, Hunter, Kenny Jonson, Peca and Hamrlik?
As for all the players traded away, exactly how many Cups have Luongo, Jokinen, Bertuzzi, Redden and Spezza won?
You can look it up!!...Bill
Speaking from experience, it's actually a lot easier to shut up, go to work and keep collecting that nice paycheck.
Player trades aside, maybe it makes sense to look at Milbury's resounding success with recruiting and maintaining a coaching staff. No? His record as a coach? On what objective basis can Milbury be counted a success? Three successive playoff seasons? With the amount that Wang was prepared to spend post-cap, a ring-tailed monkey could have assembled a team good enough to make the playoffs.
Pre-cap, not post-cap.
Maybe MM could go and be the GM of whatever team Steady roots for after he declared he was "done" with the Isles after they lost acouple of games ...
Damn AZS.... you're a little TOO into steady... don't get me wrong... sometimes I can't stand the guy either... but anyone who posts here all the time is just as hard core as you and I.... no matter what they say. Now on mad mike... this guy was the worst... forget all the dumb trades... I don't care becauae he couldn't see what was about to happen in the future with drafts and such...but, he signed yash... a guy who had proven he has no heart by holding out, had proven he couldn't do d+ck in the playoffs throughout his career. On a positive... didn't he beat someone with his shoe once???
You guys SUCK!
By the logic of Bill, it's ok to make bonehead deals and trade away future stars as long as those players haven't won a championship yet. Right, of course, that makes plenty of sense.
Some of what Bill said makes sense, and I agree that just rattling off the list of players Milbury passed on drafting or traded away is not the fairest way to evaluate his tenure. Redden and Spezza, for instance, belong in the "you have to give to get" category. It would obviously be great if we could trade a first round pick for a veteran star and then swap them back 5 years later once the pick matures and the vet is past his prime, but that's not how it works.
However, Luongo, Bertuzzi, trading Berard for Felix Potvin, not to mention screwing with young players like Eric Brewer so that they were unable to develop through our system...his tenure was unambiguously a failure. And this is only faulting him for moves he made with a real NHL budget under Wang.
There is no basis whatsoever to say that he should be blamed for the salary dumps mandated by Milstein. The guy had like five kids who were either in college or getting ready to go in a few years. To say that because he did not make the pointless gesture of resigning in protest is just grasping at straws to indict him for things that are not his fault. In the same position, if anyone here would have resigned and left his or her family's future uncertain, he should be ashamed.
Oops, minor correction: Bertuzzi wasn't traded under Wang, but he was traded during the brief period where the dirtbag owners were willing to increase the payroll. At the time, Linden was making more than Bertuzzi and McCabe combined. So I'll amend my sentence to say that I was only faulting Milbury for moves he made that increased the payroll.
By the logic of Bill, it's ok to make bonehead deals and trade away future stars as long as those players haven't won a championship yet. Right, of course, that makes plenty of sense.
Fleix, sense seems to be something that escapes you. Please show me where I said it was "okay to make bonehead deals or trade future stars".
All I was doing was pointing out that excatly NONE of the traded players has led their respective teams to the Cup.
Is your measure of sucess indivdual statistics or how many championships your team has won?
In any case, if it makes you feel better as a man to denigrate Milbury, then by all means, knock yourself out.
My own point of view is that he did some good things, some bad things and he stayed too long. But, I always felt that he was passionate and that his heart was in the right place. For that, I wish him well....Bill
Bill, on the topic of "statistics vs. championships," I think your metric is quite flawed. It seems to assume that if a player does not win a championship, his season is worthless. Your argument would make sense as a defense of Milbury if he made unorthodox trades but put together a team that won the Cup. That did not happen.
In fact, in a lot of cases, the players Milbury traded away performed better--both in terms of individual statistics and in terms of being part of teams that won more games and went further into the playoffs--than the players he got in return.
Don't waste time talking about Milbury!!
Everyone should just be talking about resigning Ryan Smyth & Jason Blake!!
The Islanders should start worrying about signing some of their free agents before they lose them in a month, instead of signing minor prospects!
R.Smyth - 4 years for 25
J. Blake - 3 for 11
with a 1 yr option for 5
Poti - 2 for 6.5
Bergenheim - 3 for 2.3
Asham - 2 for 1.8
Hunter - 2 for 3.5
don't resign:
Simon
Kozlov
Hill
Dunham
Zednik
AND FINALLY BUYOUT YASHIN OR NOT TOO MANY PEOPLE WILL BE BUYING ANY TICKET PLANS OR INDIVIDUAL TICKETS NEXT YEAR!!
Man I just love how people manipulate stats to benefit there arguments...
Redden 10 year allstar... hmmmm He's only played 9 years and I believe he's only been 2 allstar games..
He's been a great defensemen but if Berard was there you don't think he could have been just as good with the talent around him?
That is the case with many of the players Milbury traded away. Bertuzzi SUCKED on the Island. He SUCKED no two ways about it... He was a crybaby whiner, loads of potential and nothing backing it up. He goes to Vancouver and as much as it kills me to admit it Messier got a hold of him. He played with guys more talented then himself and he was now great.
You don't think guys talents depend greatly on the supporting cast, ask the Bruins fans who thought they got the next Bourque when Chara signed with them...
Bill I've always felt the same way as you. Milbury did the best with what he had. Could he have made some better descisions? Absolutely but he deserves some credit for the job he did during those aweful ownership years..
Not sure who it was that said his drafting was terrible. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a team in this league that doesn't have a starting player that Milbury either drafted or traded for at one point or another. Whether the guy performed well here or not is up to the player not the GM...
-Mike
Unlike a lot of boneheads on this forum, I can understand what Bill is saying without foaming at the mouth.
Milbury did what he could do, being hamstrung by ownership. He made definite mistakes we all know by hindsight and noting else. Complaining that he traded Bertuzzi and then Bertuzzi being a great player while playing elsewhere is stupid. He wasn't great when he played here. Thats the reason we suffered with Isbister for so long . . . he was supposed to be our next Bertuzzi. But that didn't happen, did it?
I'm glad Milbury is gone. But I'm not so blinded like some of you are, not to see he did what he could, trying to do what he thought best for this team.
Well, to change the topic a bit....which player had a more satisfying career? The average player who was on a team that won several championships or a player who piled up indivdual stats and never hosited a Cup?
Would you rather be a Duane Sutter, Anders Kallur, Jay Pandolfo or say Mats Sundin, Joe Thornton or Teemu S (who finally may get his Cup)?
Personally? I'd prefer to be an integral role player on a championship team than a star who never won the big one.
Still, it would be ridiculous to argue that, because Andrew Ladd who won a cup with Carolina, he is somehow better than Ryan Smyth.
I agree that Milbury did the best he could when he was ordered to dump salary. However, when he was able to add salary, he made the wrong choices. And the fact that Bertuzzi was garbage here and took off the second he got new scenery does not make Milbury a good manager. It shows that neither he nor the people he hired were able to get the most out of a young player with loads of talent.
Lifetime fan,
Players play differently under different conditions from teams. Coaching and team chemistry seems to be two conditions that players take to differently. Take Czerkawski... with us he was netting 30-35 goals... playing on Montreal and all the sudden he couldn't find the back of the net.
In the end its all hindsight.
Bill to your question, the average player would've had the more satifying career.
There were people at the time who said that it was too early to give up on Bertuzzi. It wasn't a matter of Bertuzzi finding a system that was better suited for him. It was a matter of Milbury screwing with his head and setting back his development. That's what Bertuzzi said, it's what the Vancouver coaches said, and it should be obvious to anyone who thought about the kinds of things Milbury said and did. They didn't get through to Bertuzzi. Milbury screwed with Eric Brewer, too. The guy did not know how to develop prospects, so he traded then away, and they went on to have great careers with other teams.
Also, "hindsight" is not some sort of bad thing. If you want to evaluate the performance of somebody, you need to look back at the decisions he made and compare them to the decisions he could have.
I feel compelled to add my two cents. I have been on the fence about MM forever. During the "dump" years when EVERYBODY wanted to see him ousted, I saw him as a lackey.
When given the chance he brought some outstanding talent to the team. But I always felt that his demeanor and the climate created by him and the poor previous ownership dissuaded good players from choosing Long Island.
The guy has had some classic moments including beating a ranger fan with his own shoe, making tommy swiss cheese cry in his arbitration hearing, calling travis a gutless puke and the whole Ziggy Palffy saga.
I, unlike most Islander fans, wish the guy well. He made some terrible moves, and some very nice ones. But I don’t think he ever had any other intention but to get himself a Stanley Cup ring. He probably served Mr. Wang well as a guide into the world of the NHL, and earned his respect and loyalty.
Even with 16,000 strong chanting “MIKE MUST GO!!!” he never stopped trying to make the Islanders better.
I’d buy him a beer… but I’m also glad to see his tenure end. It was long overdue.
Good luck Mike. I’m looking forward to seeing you on ESPN or VS next year… Hopefully you’ll get another GM job and can prove all of us wrong.
Bill,
Kudos for standing up for the guy. But that's a losing battle. He was not successful in any aspect of the game, and "hindsight" is the ONLY medium on which we have to judge.
He pretty much stood alone in engineering the trade with the panthers to eventually draft DP. DP can be the greatest goalie of all time and that deal will still never make sense to me (and many others).
His strengths may have been getting key medium level players on the cheap, but he did not have a talent for getting potential out of players he aquired.
In that manner, he had a "my way, or the highway" attitude... but "his way" always turned out to be a dead end... so he never earned any respect. That is just a recipe for disaster.
The Isles took a great turn last year when they FINALLY hired Nolan. Snow will benefit greatly from that. But, he too, may be short sighted as a GM.
He had a great year, but has let some players go a little early, or for too little.
Snow got CRAP for Zhitnik, then Philly turned him into a blue chip "D" from ATL.
He gave away Nilsson and O'marra (and a #1 pick) for a rental. I'm very happy I got to see Smyth play... but if that deal didn't happen the organization would be in a better place right now. The jury is still out on that deal... but they are going to over pay for Ryan's services when they may be bidding against themselves.
He gave away Grebeshkov for a PP band aid. (I actually liked the move) That trade (with the smith move) may have given the Isles life after their 3/8 death (Simon incident). But it will be judged by Grebeshkov’s success or lack there of over the next 5 years.
The “end of year” deals left the team very thin on “D” and even thinner on tradable prospects… and without a meaningful draft pick this month.
I can’t remember the team being in that position during the Milbury era… but nobody was chanting SNOW MUST GO as they played BUF-A-LO.
I think as fans we will be able to better assess snowey’s GM talents by the product on the ice in October. If Smyth and Blake are both gone, and they don’t get Gomez or Drury, the team will be fighting attendance issues all year…. No matter how well a Nolan team performs.
Okposo needs to be in the AHL to be ready for 2008-09. Bergenhiem needs to get a shot in the NHL. They desperately need defensive depth, and a #1 center.
I can see the team being successful without Smyth, but what will that say about Snow as a GM?
JP, I'm pretty satisfied with the job Snow has done. It may have been wiser to deal Zhitnik at the deadline, but the idea at the time was to free up some room so that Campoli could crack the lineup. It wasn't Snow's deals that left us thin on D, it was a rash of injuries and Hill taking steroids that did it.
I agree with you that we need to land a major FA forward, whether it's Smyth or someone else. I don't mind the deal to get Smyth because, as I and others have said, players are a lot less permanent in the new NHL. It used to be considered idiocy to lose a player, except maybe a fourth liner, for nothing. Now, it happens all the time, and there's someone else waiting to sign to replace who you lost. There are no more five-year rebuilding plans because rebuilding doesn't take five years anymore.
If Smyth had 5 more years left on his contract, everyone would call Snow a genius for the trade. Well, if Smyth walks but we give a 5 year deal to someone else, it's the same result.
And one more thing on the subject of attendance: I'm sure that people would be frustrated if the team loses both its major FAs and doesn't bring anyone in to replace them. However, I would hope that if the team plays hard and wins some games, they would start showing up, just as they did at the end of this year. If "fans" refuse to support a team that's winning and playing exciting hockey, then shame on them.
I think you missed my point LF. The deal was two players (of questionable potential/upside) and a #1 pick for a rental.
If that's all it was, then I as a fan am glad he did it because I enjoyed watching him play for 23 games. But when you look at the bank account your wife just spent your last $500 on the most comfortable recliner left in the store... but she only rented it for a month.
BAD DEAL. Especially when she could buy it just like everybody else on July 1.
Now... if it means that you can one up everybody because you had the seat in your house for a month... then he's smarter than the average bear. But I bet they STILL OVERPAY for him, just to distance themselves from the sack of potatoes that is wearing the "C" right now.
A more experienced GM never would have pulled the trigger on that move... but maybe, knowing he had a free pass, he'll get a discount.
As far what left us thin on "D". Marty's injury and that trade, along with the style Witt plays and Hill's age left the team to rely on thin air in MAR and APR. then add Gervais's injury and we had to watch the puck bag (Meyer) get 10-15 minutes of ice time. I don't think I've ever seen a pro fall or lose his equipment as often as that guy. Now fully healthy he's #7 on the depth chart... and there is nobody in bridgeport to surpass him. That's scary.
and look at the center position. NADA.
Silly, Kozlov(?) and Park. I like all three, but none can lead a 20 minute line who can hit you with three fast forwards. That's why I'd rather see Gomez than Blake... and why Bergenhiem is important. "trade Bates" can take faceoffs but he's no better than a #3.
Yashin puts them in a position where they can't afford Blake, Smyth (who they shouldn't overpay for) and Gomez.
If they got Braydon Coburn instead of that puck bag they wouldn't have to burn cap space on a "D".
I also think Snowey did a great job as a rookie GM, but his moves were not the most prudent.
He cleaned out the farm, but what did he replace them with. Drew fata looked like some "D" depth until he pulled a chris Simon at the end of the season and got himself suspended. His hockey career might be over now... given he couldn't break into the lneups of two of the most "D"esperate teams in hockey.
They did a very good job assembling "spare parts" last year. Let's hope they can do a better job this off season with that extra year of experience.
That issue has a lot to do with a whole miriad of factors, from team marketing to the disaster that the NHL has become.
But with the demographics that they serve, the Isles should be able to fill one of the smallest buildings in the NHL with their eyes closed.
Somebody really dropped the ball.
Way too many issues to list them all, but probably the last one is the team itself.
I thought they were outstanding last year. But they need to continue in a positive direction. Not retaining or signing new talent is going to hurt them in early season numbers.
they probably need a goal of 13,500 avg attendance... but their realistic goal is not to be the Kansas City Islanders in 2009.
too bad, milbury and the icelanders deserved each other!
wah wah wahhhhhhh! stop hurting me! i will now put a hex on the icelander orginization!
JP, I think you're missing my point about the trade as well. Smyth gave us a shot to make a run right away. Had the team continued to win instead of stumbled down the stretch, they'd have likely pulled a team like Atlanta rather than Buffalo. If they win the first round and come into the second with some momentum, who knows what happens. There's a reason that most hockey people praised the hell out of the deal, and it's not because Snow made a rookie mistake.
In addition to upgrading the team for a playoff run, trading for Smyth shows the rest of the league and the rest of the FAs that the Isles are serious about winning.
Trading a couple of prospects is, as I was saying earlier, not really a problem in the new NHL. You can address more and more problems from without through free agency. There aren't five year rebuilding plans anymore. Besids, both Nilsson and O'Marra were Milbury picks, and I don't think Snow and Nolan felt they fit into the team's plan any longer.
From Greg:
But Nilsson and O’Marra were Milbury’s picks, and the fact is that Snow spent the first half of the season evaluating the farm system to determine which players he was willing to trade and obviously reached a different conclusion about their potential for success than his predecessor.
Translation:
They were lazy players that would never have cut it on Ted Nolan's team. Maybe they'll turn out to be gold, and we'll castigate Snow and Nolan for it in the future; either way, if they weren't going to get ice time with Nolan then they're worthless as prospects. Dealing them was like having a mole removed.
The first round pick this year hurt a bit more, but I'm not convinced this is a great draft year. I'd also look to see what Snow pulls off on draft day.
What does Snow have to work with to "pull anything off" on draft day?
Isles have nothing to trade.
Dealing prospects is a dumb philosophy in the new NHL.
When players are young, that is when they make the least in their careers. You need some players on your roster who can contribute and make a low salary to compliment your high priced guys.
So throwing away prospects at the deadline for rentals in the new NHL is a very dumb way to go about it.
Look at Atlanta, they traded everything away for Tkachuk and they just announced they don't want him back.
DUMB!!!!!!!!
trade me!
On MM,
Everyone just read Fishsticks by Alan Hahn. That will tell everything you need to know about Milbury. During the lean years he did everything in his power to get himself fired but the Millsteins would not fire him because they did not want to continue to pay him. According to the book MM wanted out BIG TIME but he had Alimony and College tuition costs to pay so that is the real reason He stayed on with the Islanders. So all this talk about how he stuck through it and wanted to win and didnt have the ownership behind him is all crap! It wanst until Wang came along that he saw an opportunity to be a real GM and he still stunk the joint up. Final analysys: the WORST!!!! GM executive job performance in all of sports history and lets not forget he hired and fired 7 coaches including Lavioulette who by the way won the cup! I think that says it all!! Good Riddance.
My reading of _Fish Sticks_ was not that Milbury made bad player moves to get fired, it's that he was disrespectful to the owners out of the