Summer 2014 was Snow’s crowning achievement. Before the playoffs ended, he traded a 4th-rounder to Washington in exchange for the rights to negotiate exclusively with Jaroslav Halak and signed him to a 4-year deal — solidifying the crease for the first time throughout his tenure.

On the second day of free agency he signed, in tandem, Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolay Kulemin. They wanted to sign somewhere together, and Snow was willing to meet their prices. This was huge because Grabovski was one of the most underrated offensive and play-driving talents throughout the league. He commanded a good amount of money, but was one of the main factors in the Isles turnaround going into 2014–15. He could plug in anywhere, and it’s a shame that he has probably been forced into retirement by concussions. If he was healthy, he’d be playing every night.

Snow wasn’t done there, though. A week before the season he stole both Nick Leddy and Johnny Boychuk within an hour of each other from the Blackhawks and Bruins respectively, and only gave up T.J. Brennan, Ville Pokka, and two second-round picks (the Isles and Hawks also swapped goalies Anders Nilsson and Kent Simpson).

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In one summer, he vaulted the team into contender status — they finished the season 3rd in the Metro, and 4th in the league in CF% while playing some of the most entertaining hockey I’ve ever watched. If the Isles had shown up for Game 7 in Washington, we might be talking about Snow in an entirely different manner.

That June at the draft, Snow sent defensive prospect Griffin Reinhart to Edmonton for a first and second-round pick. He used the first to select Barzal (ranked by Corey Pronman as the second-best prospect not currently in the NHL) and used the second to trade up to select Beauvillier, who’s currently in the NHL. Reinhart, on the other hand, can’t make the Oilers. A great way to flip an asset that isn’t working out, but horrendous use of the 4th overall pick.

New York didn’t dominate the league the same way the following season, but still got in to the dance as a wild card. And despite being thoroughly outplayed, they snuck past the Florida Panthers with some all-world goaltending from offseason acquisition Thomas Greiss and some star-making heroics from Tavares. Tampa Bay wasn’t feeling so generous in the next round, but had broken a curse in place since 1993 — before I was even born.

Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo were set to become unrestricted free agents this past offseason, and while Snow negotiated throughout the season with Nielsen, he intended to let Okposo walk. He must have felt they needed a shake-up, bringing in 31-year old Andrew Ladd and 37-year old Jason Chimera to replace them. Ladd ended up with a 7-year deal with an AAV of $5.5 million (he also brought Parenteau back on a 1-year deal, only to stupidly waive him before the season began).

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Both Ladd and Chimera seemed to struggle to adapt at first. Ladd only had one point through all of October (which was an assist) and Chimera only had two goals going into December — both were also getting killed possession-wise. Meanwhile, Nielsen and Okposo were off to rather hot starts with Detroit and Buffalo respectively, and the Islanders dropped to last place in the NHL.

It was painfully obvious to even the casual observer that something needed to change by November/December. I mean, they even looked definitively terrible. With rumors of the owners searching for a new boss of some kind to take over hockey decisions Snow finally fired his friend Jack Capuano as head coach, with assistant coach and assistant GM Doug Weight taking the reigns on an interim basis.

Since Weight took over the Isles have been on a 15–7–3 tear, including 5–3–1 on the 9-game road trip that finished up last night in St. Louis. They currently sit a point out of the second wild card with a game in hand on Toronto, but if Snow had pulled the trigger on firing Capuano a month earlier, the Isles might have a solid grip on a playoff spot.