Kevin Allen

USA TODAY Sports

New York Islanders general manager Garth Snow is in such an undesirable predicament that turning over a high draft pick to the Buffalo Sabres in June might be the most sensible play he has.

Snow put himself in this mess in the fall when he agreed to give the Sabres his first-round pick in 2014 or 2015 for Thomas Vanek.

In fairness to Snow, the deal seemed less scary when he made it because the Islanders had been a playoff team last season and expected to be better this season.

With Vanek coming over, he anticipated the Islanders would be a playoff team again and likely thought he would be giving up a pick in the middle of the first round.

The problem is the Islanders' season went south and they will be drafting fourth to sixth, depending upon what happens in the next week.

But that isn't the problem. A team in this situation normally would take its early draft pick this season and give the Sabres the 2015 first-rounder.

You take a talented young player, and then you hope you will improve enough next season to make that 2015 pick less valuable. For example, the Islanders could end up with German-born center Leon Draisaitl, a 100-point performer this season in the Western Hockey League.

In terms of public relations, it also works in the short term. The Islanders don't want to say they are giving the Sabres the first pick this year because they are fearful they could be worse next season.

Keeping the 2014 pick makes perfect sense under normal circumstances. The problem is these are not normal circumstances.

First, the 2014 draft is considered an average one and the 2015 draft class is projected to be talent-rich, led by two potential superstar centers, Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel.

The 2015 draft could be the like the Alex Ovechkin-Evgeni Malkin draft of 2004.

The Islanders are moving to Brooklyn's Barclays Center in 2015. Imagine the public-relations nightmare of starting in a new venue if you have to explain why the Sabres are drafting McDavid or Eichel with the Islanders' draft pick.

No one knows how the draft order will shake out next season, but common sense tells us the Islanders have a better chance of picking first or second in 2015 than most teams. If you were drawing up teams with a chance to be bad next season, you have to put the Islanders on the list.

Yes, they were a playoff team last season, but Mark Streit, Matt Moulson and Andrew MacDonald are gone from that team.

The Islanders have impressive prospects coming up, but you don't win in this league with young players. The Islanders can improve through free agency, but it will be difficult to persuade top free agents to join. Remember, they couldn't get Vanek to stay.

Maybe they could land a difference-making goalie, but there is no guarantee of that. The Islanders would have to overpay, and they rank 29th out of 30 teams in payroll this season.

Plus, the NHL is considering changing the draft lottery rules next season.

The Islanders wouldn't want to hand over their 2015 pick and then have the rules change to give them a better chance of landing McDavid or Eichel. One thing being considered is basing it on a team's performance over the past five seasons.

The Islanders are about to miss the playoffs for the sixth time in seven seasons.

The consensus around the NHL is that Snow is in a can't-win situation, but he almost has to give Buffalo the 2014 pick and then sell fans on the idea that picking 10th to 15th in 2015 will be the same as picking fifth or sixth in 2014.

The truth is the Islanders could give up a quality prospect this season, and not be able to land a player as talented next season. But it is the path they probably have to follow to assure this bad situation doesn't become a nightmare that fans will talk about for decades.

Snow's situation is like when a contending golfer hooks into the deep rough at the Masters and has to consider whether to try to make a miraculous shot or punch out, take his bogey and move on to the next hole.

Analyst Johnny Miller would be telling the golfer to accept the bogey in the name of taking the double or triple bogey out of the equation.

Snow probably has to give the Sabres his 2014 draft pick to take "catastrophe" out of his equation.