This season has many stories. Buffalo, Anaheim, and Nashville?s ascension to the top. The Flyers? demise. The great playoff races in both conferences. However, one story that has not been talked about is the success of the New York Islanders. During this offseason, the Isles got a lot of flak from most everyone involved in hockey (including yours truly). It started off pretty normal when they promoted GM Mike Milbury to be advisor to owner Charles Wang, and hired Neil Smith, the architect of the New York Rangers Stanley Cup winning team in 1994, and also hired Ted Nolan as coach of the team. Both men have been out of the NHL for numerous years. Nolan was fired out of the Buffalo Sabres job after winning coach of the year because he was considered a GM killer. Apparently he was trying to steal former GM, John Muckler?s job. In any case as we?ve seen in many other situations in all sports, that is the quickest and easiest way to get fired and be blacklisted to being rehired within the league. Neil Smith was hired by the New York Rangers in 1991 he took them all the way to winning the Stanley cup in 1994, which broke a 54 year drought, the longest in NHL history. After that, they bowed out in the playoffs 3 more times, only making it to the conference finals once, and then missed the playoffs for the next three years where he was fired and replaced by Glen Sather. Since then, he has not been able to acquire another NHL job. The longer he went without getting a job, the less likely he was to get one due to the length of time removed from the game. The closest to coming back before he was hired in New York was in Toronto, where he was narrowly beat out by John Ferguson Jr. for the Maple Leafs GM job. So for about a month, most people thought the front office for the Islanders organization was stable. Smith went out and acquired players like defenseman Brendan Witt, Tom Poti, and Sean Hill as well as forwards Mike Sillinger, Andy Hilbert, Chris Simon, Victor Kozlov, and Richard Park. All of these moves help the core of the team, which is built around captain Alexei Yashin and goaltender Rick Dipietro. The team was looking relatively solid and primed for a playoff push. On July 18th, 2006, on what was a seemingly quiet day on the NHL front was when the breaking news came out. Neil Smith has been fired. Everyone in the hockey world was shocked. It is VERY uncommon that someone with that type of position gets fired that soon after he was hired. The reason as it turns out was because Mr. Wang wanted to run the team as a committee where him, Smith, and Ted Nolan would have an equal say on all personnel decisions. Neil Smith wanted what is the traditional GM job where he has full control over the team. This difference of opinions led to Neil Smith?s demise in New York?s second hockey team. Now this would have enough to say that this team had the most messed up off-season in a very long time. However, the Isles took it a couple of steps further than this. Word broke out that the replacement for Neil Smith is none other than backup goaltender Garth Snow, who had to retire in order to take the job. The Islanders went from an experienced general manager who has a Stanley Cup under his belt to a person who just last year was sitting on the bench incase DiPietro got hurt. The timing of the magnitude of this change was odd too. The change came at a time where the hardest part of a general manager?s comes in, and that?s arbitration. General managers have to go to a 3rd party with a restricted free agent who filed for arbitration and basically trash the player to explain why they should be getting paid less than that player is asking for. So for Snow, he basically has to trash his own teammates, people who are his friends. But the worst part about this, and the part that is probably the most humorous is that his salary as a backup goalie still counts towards the Isles salary cap, seeing that he was still under contract for the Islanders as the backup goalie when he took the job. So he was hindering himself with his own salary. The Islanders have a history of strange moves. This is a team that have traded many players just before they came into their own. Over their history former GM Mike Milbury traded Zdeno Chara, #2 Overall pick 2001(Jason Spezza), Bryan McCabe, Eric Brewer, Olli Jokinen, Roberto Luongo, Todd Bertuzzi, Wade Redden, and Tim Connoly. Many people wondered how Milbury was able to keep his job after letting all that talent go. The fact is if Charles Wang likes somebody, he really likes them. This is proven with the next strange thing that the Islanders did last summer. On September 12, the Islanders signed their young Rick DiPietro to a 15-year, $67.5 million contract, which is the second longest contract in NHL history only to Wayne Gretzky?s 20 year deal with the Edmonton Oilers while they were still in the WHA. DiPietro at this point had done nothing to show that he is a top goalie in this league, which is what confused people involved with the game even more. This was a goalie who had not come into his own yet and they were giving him a 15 year commitment. A deal like this can really be a win-lose situation for one of the parties involved. Lets say DiPietro does become that top-notch goalie that the Islanders think he will be. Then he will be stuck making $4.5 million per year for the remainder of his career when he will be worth much more than that. If that?s the case too, he can?t get traded because no team will want to take on that contract. This means if the Islanders remain perennial losers then he will not have a chance at Lord Stanley?s Mug. However, lets say the opposite happens and DiPietro never pans out. The Islanders will have $4.5 million eating at their cap for 15 years by someone who is not contributing to the team, where DiPietro will be just collecting his paycheck. The security seems nice, but the situation is not the best to be in. This deal though goes along with Alexei Yashin who is currently on his 6th year of his 10-year, $90 million contract. These two contracts are not isolated incidents. When they acquired Michael Peca in the summer of 2001 they tried to sign him to a 9 year contract but could not come to terms. Charles Wang tries to build his organizations around special people, and when they come around, he will do his best to lock them up long term. Let?s fast-forward a few months and now we see the Islanders fighting for a playoff spot and being major players at the trade deadline. Rick DiPietro has been playing completely out of his mind, better than anyone could have asked for, while the Islanders were able to go out and get the heart and soul of the Oilers, Ryan Smyth. The key to the Islanders success is head coach Ted Nolan. This is a former Jack Adams Award Winner (coach of the year) in Buffalo, who was fired shortly after that because his relationship with superstar goalie Dominik Hasek was strained and he was making moves to try and steal former Buffalo GM John Muckler?s job. After being labelled a GM killer, it is very difficult to get another coaching job no matter what league you?re in. On the Island, Nolan is in the perfect situation. He likes to have control of who goes on his team and who doesn?t. In most places when a coach demands that type of control it?s like he?s demanding to be general manager instead. However, the was Charles Wang runs his Islanders is that it is run by a committee based around Wang, Nolan, and Snow. This way he has his equal say of who he wants and who should go while not being in danger of losing his job again. The Islanders are currently 7th in the Eastern Conference and should be pushing up the standings as long as they get healthy. If they do make the playoffs, Ted Nolan will be a major candidate for the Jack Adams Trophy this year as well. They are fighting with Toronto, Montreal, Carolina, and their arch rivals, the New York Rangers for the 7th and 8th spots. The road to the playoffs should be tough, but if they make it, it will only solidify the accomplishment they have made this year. Though the Islanders have some obstacles remaining, namely trying to re-sign Ryan Smyth, they are proving all the critics wrong and are moving on to bigger things. And if Charles Wang has his way they?ll be winning for a very long time.