Sure, Snow may have alot of help in the Islanders' management on all his decisions, but he does represent. Snow made the deal of the day right before the deadline, acquiring Ryan Smyth from the Oilers in exchange for Robert Nilsson, Ryan O'Marra, and a 1st round pick in 2007. This absolutely shocked the hockey world.
But that's not all he's done recently. Over the course of the season, Snow has added some key ingredients to the Islanders lineup to ensure they make the playoffs and then make some noise once they get there.
-Yesterday, he acquired Richard Zednik for a 2nd round pick in 2007.
-February 18th, he traded Denis Krebeschov to the Oilers for Marc-Andre Bergeron.
-On December 20th, he dealt Mike York to Philly in exchange for Randy Robitaille.
-On December 15th, he dealt Alexei Zhitnik to the Flyers for Freddie Meyer.
-He signed free agents like Mike Sillinger, Chris Simon, and Richard Park in the offseason. Those players have panned out pretty well.
-The hiring of Ted Nolan as coach by Islander's management was a wise decision. Nolan has whipped this team into shape, and the players WANT to play for him.
-Rick Dipietro is playing superb this season, making his record-setting contract almost seem worthwhile...for now.
The impact of Ryan Smyth will be the deciding factor of Snow's wizardry. He gave up 3 first round picks for him. The other issue of course is if they don't make the playoffs and cannot sign Smyth in the summer, it would obviously be a bad investment.
The Islanders are currently 1 point out of the final playoff spot in the East.
That's neither here nor there right now. Right now, there is a world-wide new-found respect for Snow that sure as hell did not exist last summer!