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The 2015-2016 New York Islanders Will Be…

By Adam Savard

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The New York Islanders turned around their fortunes with one highly productive and skilled offseason.  Which team is going to do that next season?

Mar 9, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; New York Islanders defenseman

Johnny Boychuk

(55) shoots the puck against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre. The Islanders beat the Maple Leafs 4-3 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Islanders have been a team slowly building for some time.  Great players like John Tavares and Kyle Okposo were surrounded with young talent in Travis Hamonic, Calvin de Haan and Anders Lee among others.  Mix in Frans Nielsen and Michael Grabner and the casual NHL fan may wonder why the New York Islanders finished fourth from last in the league last season.

The third worst team goals against average is a good place to look so GM Garth Snow went out and signed Jaroslav Halak and he has been the steady force the Islanders desperately needed in the crease.  But something was still missing.  As this season approached Snow took advantage of the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins, two teams that needed to make roster moves driven by salary cap needs.  Nick Leddy and Johnny Boychuk were acquired for minimal costs to give greater talent to the back-end and support Halak.  The results have the New York Islanders competing for a division and conference title.

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    • Snow wisely signed Leddy to a long-term contract extension and recently announced the same for Boychuk, providing top defensemen to build around for several years.  Combined with the success of draft picks Brock Nelson, Griffin Reinhart and Ryan Strome and the New York Islanders look ready to compete for Stanley Cups for several seasons to come.  Garth Snow is a virtual lock to win General Manager of the Year for his efforts.

    With the highly hyped draft class this year there is young talent available to help another struggling franchise make a similar turnaround.  Though regardless of who drafts where a general manager still has to support that star player with quality talent around them.  One player has never constituted a team and won’t after the upcoming draft either.  How much has Tavares won with the Islanders until this season?  Exactly.

    The general manager will need to be bold.  He will need to take calculated risks and yet be precise.  He will need awareness of what salary cap issues teams are dealing with and how to possibly take advantage of them similar to Snow.  Spending wisely in free agency will also be important as will the delicate balance of young, promising talent and draft picks to go with veterans that have been there, done that.

    Let’s take a look at the bottom five teams in terms of total points.  What does history tell us about the general managers of these franchises?  Now that the trade deadline has passed how do the roster moves this season impact the future?  And what could we expect from each team at the draft and through the offseason?

    Next: The Rebuild in Toronto Has Begun

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