This is getting completely out of hand...

The negative perception of the New York Islanders front office has gotten out of hand, especially amongst New York Islander fans in particular, and we're going to discuss it on this episode of Islanders Digest. We're going to go through what Matthew Darsch did this season, how this front office looks now, talk about what's good, talk about what's bad, and also talk about what's too early to see, because I think that is really important, and I talked about this a lot towards the end of the season when people were really getting frustrated, saw a couple comments saying, fire Darsch, and that is still absolutely ridiculous. In my opinion, unless somebody is being absolutely atrocious with their job, it takes three years to really even evaluate if a GM is doing a good job, so we'll get into all that on this episode of Islanders Digest, and along, and what's really inspiring this video is New York Times recently came out with their rankings of the NHL front offices on how they're doing. The Islanders, to start off, finished 20 in that ranking, so there definitely is room for improvement, but that's about where you would expect a new GM. It's really hard to, in one year, completely be the GM of the year, and a lot of times those guys that do come in right away and make explosive changes that all work out in year one, typically those do not go well long term. The most important part of a front office is setting a team up for long-term success, which is why it takes a while to see how things are going, and sometimes things can be looking a little rocky with the Islanders. I definitely understand people who are concerned about the direction, who don't see the direction yet. It can be a little concerning when things are not going all right at once, but the bigger question is how are things going to develop in a few years. I think the Islanders have done a lot of good things to put a future in place that we can all be excited about. With that, let's look at these rankings. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to this channel for more Islanders content just like this. I understand it's the off-season, there's some hit or miss topics, but believe me, once the season gets started, it's going to be a lot of fun on the channel. I still think we're having fun now. I definitely see some interesting comments all the time, and I love all that feedback from you guys, but let's talk about the Islanders here and how their front office is ranked 20th. Based on how these rankings look, you can see in a lot of areas the Islanders fan base has ranked Matthew Darsch and his front office lower than the public perception. We're going to go category by category. I'm going to add my initial feedback. I've already seen what's happened that year. I will say my initial feedback for Matthew Darsch was more positive going into the season than it is now. To be fair, it is unfair to create a GM after one year, and I do see a lot of signs of things I want to see. I'm still very high on Matthew Darsch, but some fans would probably say the Islanders belong 32, and that to me is just a complete overreaction. As we'll get into it, even when we talk about the bad moves, they are some questionable ones, but relative to the scope, which I think is important, the Islanders are pretty much in the same place where they were a year ago, only with a much further revamped prospect pool, and while a lot of that is future, you don't know what prospects will become, that kind of will give you more certainty in these gratings, but for now, that's pretty much what you would ask for, right? So when we start with roster building, this is the one where I think it's fair to give a C+. The public gave a C+, Matthew Darsch's fan base gave a C. I understand the fan base giving a C as opposed to C+. It was a very frustrating year, and those of us who watch the Islanders closely know this roster is not all that well constructed. I probably would go with a C+, I would give a little leeway just because of how much was already set in stone before he got here, but Matthew Darsch really kind of went further down that direction, bringing in players like Shen, which we'll talk about in a bit. However, I don't think it's a terrible roster, certainly doesn't deserve a D or an F. You look at this Islanders roster, and it's a team that can basically make the playoffs if everything goes absolutely 100% right. It's not like a team like Vancouver or Calgary, where you can pencil them out before the season starts. This is a team that can realistically make the playoffs, and if they make it, can realistically make noise, but a lot has to go right, and it was the same last year as it is this year. Now, next season, Matthew Darsch talked a lot about being able to really maneuver this roster. That's when I'm going to be really critical of his roster building. If he goes in next season, once he has more leeway, and is able to move the defense that he doesn't like, and build a new strong defensive core, maybe add two or three forwards that are really exciting, build a true top six, then he will grade higher. But until then, the roster building is an area where I think it's fair to be critical. Cap management, I don't think it's as bad as people say. I've come out here and said that a lot. The public gives him a C+. I would probably, yeah, I would probably agree with that. He hasn't done anything excellent, where you're like, whoa, he is a cap wizard. The fan base, I know, I'm gonna get comments talking about the Palat trade, the Shen trade. At the end of the day, as Matthew Darsch discussed, the Islanders were not really looking to sign big free agents this offseason. They weren't looking to spend that money. So they saw an area where they had some money to spend and decided they wanted to get a player like Palat, like Shen. In the case of Palat, is he overpaid? 100%. But I much rather the team, if they see something that they can potentially get value out of, I'd much rather take a chance on a player who has looked lost, but who knows, maybe he comes to training camp, has a good season, not expecting it, just saying it is possible. And I do think at the very least, he will be a and he was brought in because he plays the right way. They hope they'll rub off on other players, right? I rather you do something like that than just give $6 million back to the owners so they can keep their change, right? Obviously, you'd like to see them use that cap a bit better, right? But none of the cap they spent put them in a situation where they were at risk of anything. And you kind of look at some of the cap maneuvering they did last season, especially when it came to the injuries. Romano, they tried as long as they possibly could to stay below the injured reserve before it became absolutely impossible. I think they showed a lot of creativity when it comes to the cap. And I'm definitely a cap nerd. I look way more into the cap than other people. Even this year, the amount of money they left basically puts them in a situation where they can kind of take care of their player bonuses. They're basically spending the maximum amount of money that they can spend without going over for next season. And even with these questionable moves, they have put themselves in a spot where they're going to have $40 million next season. I know some people are kind of critical on that. So look at how many other teams have this cap space. Please, before you make that comment, look at every other team that has more cap space than the Islanders and look at who they have to sign. The Islanders are in a very good place for the future of the salary cap. The reason I'm not giving them a higher grade is because they haven't signed any long-term contracts that I absolutely love. I think Romanoff is fair value, but fair value gets you a C. If they sign Holmstrom for a long-term deal that was a discount rate, even got Heinemann for a few more years. I kind of want to see more deals, more years on that deal when they signed it at the time, then I would go ahead and give them a B or an A. But for now, I think it's a C. There's nothing outrageous with the Islanders cap and it's really hard for me to give a team below a C when they're not in cap hell, right? If the Islanders want to make moves, they want to make trades, there isn't much holding them back, right? What's holding them back is they don't want to give up future assets, which then goes to the next category of draft and develop. And this is the category, it feels incorrect to give a team a grade A before we've seen players actually make it to the NHL. And it is a new front office. So, you know, prospects, other than Schaefer, of course, haven't really seen anybody make it yet. But with how well the players progress from last season, when the draft took place, all the way up to this point now, I'm going to give them an A minus. So many of the Islanders picks have overperformed where they were selected. You look at Jacob Fosnicka, who's starting to break the top 10 of this prospect pool after being a seventh round pick. And then you look at all the players in the pool and how everybody took a step, whether it's from Demetri Gamsin, who was here before. Kashawn Aitchison really took a step forward. You do get some credit, not a lot of credit, because Schaefer should have been the first overall pick. But hey, some people out there, a lot of people who watch this channel were saying the pick should be Michael Misa. You do get credit for that. And although Schaefer was a prospect, you could not mess up. They did handle his development really well. I think they get a lot of credit for Victor Eklund and how well he's developed and giving him the chance to make the roster. Maybe I'm going to bring this down to a B plus because the one player I don't think they handled quite as well is Isaiah George. I think he should have given given more runway than I could have given them an A minus. But I think B plus is pretty confident. It is notable that the fan base, while it is very negative, is very high on the drafting and developing. And this is, of course, something that we have to see go on longer. Honestly, if all these players take a step once again, say Victor Eklund makes the NHL, then we're going to get pretty close to a situation where the Islanders are in an A already for this category. Next is trading. And I actually am shocked the fans put this at a D. I understand they were probably thinking of Shen, Palat. Listen, those are not grade A trades. But when it comes to the biggest trade that Matthew Dars made, that Noah Dobson trade, I think the Islanders got great value. You got a 20 plus goal scorer who really can fit the roster in a variety of ways. Some people see him more as like a third or fourth liner. Well, fine. That is a very important third or fourth liner. And you also got two first round picks who are trending in the right direction for a player that there was a lot of knowledge around the league that wanted to go to a certain location. So the Islanders did very well with that deal. I still think they won that trade. You can call a win-win if you want to. And then you look at some of the other trades, and it's really not as bad. Do I absolutely hate the Carson Susi trade? Yes. Am I going to dock you two letter grades for making a trade for a player with a third round pick? No. The third round pick came from the Palat trade. I keep on seeing people talk about giving up assets for Palat. That is incorrect. Matthew Darsh received a third round pick and a sixth round pick who they can use this season. So it'll be really funny if this Palat trade becomes a huge win because the Islanders hit a gem in the sixth round of the sixth round pick. Say another Anders Lee type player looking at players in the past who've been good six round picks for the New York Islanders. But the point is they didn't give up anything for Palat other than Siplikov. If you want to call Siplikov an asset, sure. They gave up Siplikov. With that deal, the criticism you can make is that they did not take enough. Maybe you could say the devil should have given them a second. Absolutely valid criticism, but that doesn't make that trade an F. If you want to criticize the Shen trade, I think they did overpay. I don't think it's such a glaring trade. People act like the Shen trade. Trading a 29th overall pick, get off in a third round pick for Braden Shen is like a franchise altering move. Take a look at who's been drafted with the last 10 29th overall picks before you absolutely rage out on that trade. Take a closer look at that list. You got to go back 11 years before you get a high quality NHL player. You're trading a lottery pick at or a lottery ticket. I'd say that's why not a lottery pick is not in I don't think the Islanders deserve an A for trading. Absolutely not, but I do think it's closer to B minus C plus. I would probably go C plus until there's another trade they win, right? Because so far there hasn't been a trade where they've gotten back significantly more value. The no dobson trade was closer to a win-win than an absolute win but I think the fan base gave the trading a D. I trust Matthew Darsch to make trades, right? Especially when it comes to trades for the long-term future. If you hate Shen, that's absolutely fine, but the one thing I also have to point out with this Braden Shen trade, everyone talks about it like they traded for Shen and now the value is gone. They got nothing. Shen is still a serviceable player. You might not like him, you might not like his style, you might not like his age. He's gonna be one of the top five scorers on the New York Islanders next season. What that says about the team? Probably not great, but he's going to be a valuable player and if the Islanders do decide to move him again, right? They decide to commit to that younger direction, I guarantee you they will get a good return. It might not be what they take, right? I will admit they overpaid, but for a trade to be an absolute F, you gotta look maybe closer to the Detroit Red Wings, whose fans don't complain about the Falk trade nearly as much as we do about the Shen trade and they traded the 15th overall pick, which mind you, there were prospects available at that time that I do think can be franchise helping prospects. For a 29th overall pick, I think the best case scenario is you get a player like Scott Mayfield, who's serviceable, but you can find that player any day on free agency, which brings us right to free agency and I'm running along, but I think this is a really good topic, so I decide we'll go in more depth, this will be a longer video, we'll work on getting some of the later videos a bit shorter. Free agency is where I actually think it is valid to give the Islanders a D. Since the new front office has taken over, there just simply has not been a good, you know what, I was not thinking about Matias Micheli, I would give them a straight up C here, right? The public gives them a C plus, fan base C minus. One of the things I will say this front office does need to improve is their pro scouting. The pro scouting was not good. When we talk about trades like Palat not really working out, Shen not being quite what people hoped, that is the pro scouting department and yes, the GM is responsible, but it's not like the GM is scouting these players constantly, right? You have your pro scouts and they handle that type of thing and one thing I think the Islanders have been lacking for a while now is I think their pro scouting is heavily based on the eye tests and reputation and not enough on the current analytics and while that is something I will criticize for a night right now, one thing I will point out about this front office is I've noticed signs that when something is not going well, they make changes. Darsh has already shown that he can add a big coach like Pete DeBoer, which I think is going to continue to improve the developing. I think he's also has some input when it comes to what type of players the Islanders are going after and then you add Evan Gold. Evan Gold, I believe, is going to revolutionize the way this team does pro scouting. So yes, the Islanders pro scouting has not been great. As a result, the free agency is a C, but with that, I do think it is important to note that because you're adding in people who specialize in things that you have shown that you're not great at, I think that's an encouraging sign. Also note with free agency, there haven't been any outrageous contracts, which is a big plus, especially in the modern NHL. Druin did not fit. It was a disaster, but it was only a two-year $4 million contract and that's part of why they traded what they traded. They wanted to get rid of Druin's contract. The fact that you had to trade away a player that you signed in free agency within a year is not great, but you do get some credit for that being a two-year deal and not like four, five, six, like we've seen with some other players like Duclair, for example, getting half a million dollars less in four years as opposed to two, that was definitely a questionable decision. So with free agency, I think it's all right. If Michelli comes out and has a big explosion this season or if next season they finally get a big time free agent forward, then absolutely. I think this is a situation where this can bump right up to an A because like with the trades, the mistakes they've made, there have been mistakes, but the mistakes they've made have not been ultra costly in terms of the future. So that's where I am with that. With the vision, I'm actually going to go against the public and give Matthew Darsh a B because I think a big part of the issue is people don't understand this vision. They see him go after Braden Shen and they just assume the Islanders are all over the place. In my opinion, the Islanders have not really defaulted from their vision. This is a team that is building for the future. So when people get upset, they don't trade for Cairo or any of these big time forwards. I'm never surprised because I understand the Islanders are not going to trade any of their core prospects. And when you look at what they did during the trade deadline, they did that. They didn't trade any core prospects. They didn't trade their pick, which was Brian's imposition to be a core player. Even if they made the playoffs, that pick was going to be around like from like the 16 to 20 range. That is a significantly more valuable pick than 29. I think people really need to evaluate the difference between a 20th overall pick and a 29th overall pick, because really, if I had a 29th pick and a 30th overall pick, depending on who's available, I might not trade that for a 20th overall pick the way the NHL draft works. And maybe that's a bit of exaggeration, but that just that's kind of what I'm trying to demonstrate here with the vision. I think the Islanders do have a clear vision. I think they're building for the future with their young players. They don't want to trade any assets that could be prime players in the top six, but they also want to be competitive right now. And I think what they saw on the trade deadline is it's very beneficial for young players to get that first taste of the playoffs, because typically as we see, the first taste isn't all that good. I don't know if you remember the first time that John Tavares team made the playoffs. It was not pretty to watch those guys like really struggle with their first playoff. Then every time it got a bit better, eventually John Tavares and all of a sudden they won their first and had all the success. So I think part of that was them trying to get experience for that future core in Richie, in Schaefer. And while it did not work, I don't think they defaulted from their vision the way a lot of people say they will. The reason I won't give the vision an A is because I don't think it's complete. I do think they need at least one more cure core piece to be a part of this vision, which is going to be combining your three core players of the older version of shape. I'm sorry, of Matt Barzell, Bo Horvath, Roken. And then you're going to have Schaefer, Cal Richie, Victor Eklund, and then one more core young guy, along with Kashawn Aitchison. And that's going to be the team that you try to compete with for your next window. I think that is the vision. You kind of think of it like the Dallas Stars model where you had their older guys and their young guys coming up, and it's just a good mix of a team where you have both that speed and also that experience. That's what I think the vision is. I don't think Darsh has defaulted on that vision, so I give him a B in that category. And overall, the public gives him a B minus in terms of a GM. I'm going to give him a straight B. I understand there are things he did not do well, and what I'm saying, Darsh, it's the whole front office. They were not perfect, but at the end of the day, even though they didn't have that many picks, I like all the picks they made in the two years. I think they drafted very well. I think they've held on to the right assets. And yeah, I think this is a situation where this team is looking towards the future. It might get a little uglier before it gets brighter, but keep in mind, if they do get a top 10 pick, let's say, in next season, I do think that kind of finishes up that vision that I still had maybe one or two questions about. So as a result, I'm giving Darsh and the Islanders front office a B. And I also want to add, because they don't really have a note for this, I do think he gets an A for his hires in terms of Pete Zabor, in terms of Evan Gold. They're clearly showing that they are willing to spend and willing to listen to other voices in the room, which you don't always see with front office. Sometimes you see guys who just, they know everything. They're going to make their decision. We noticed this too, with the draft where Darsh talks about how he really wanted to go with a big, strong forward, but the scouts said, no, you got to take Malte Gustafson and he listened. So with all that being considered, I'd love to know what you think about Matthew Darsh. What do you think about my opinions of him? Am I missing everything? Yes, I am a slight optimist. Some people will call me a Darshist, especially when I make comments on Twitter or whatever. But to be fair, I am critical of the general manager just to the amount I think we should be critical, right? I'm going to criticize you for trading a 29th overall pick for a player who I don't think is worth a 29th overall pick. But I'll also acknowledge that I think that player is worth a 45th overall pick, and I'm not going to absolutely decapitate you for going a little higher on the deadline, right? That's kind of where I feel like this. Some of these moves have not been great, but they're also not big enough or bad enough where I'm concerned, right? And I get there being a small sample size and just assuming the worst based on what we've seen and what he said. I think Darsh knows what he's doing. So yeah, that's my evaluation of the general manager. I'd love to know your thoughts in the comments below. Let's go Islanders. We are going to work on getting these videos closer to 10 minutes, but considering there are not a ton of topics we have right now, when I find one that I actually can yap a bit about, I'm going to make a bit of a longer video, and I hope you appreciate it. Listen, I definitely appreciate it.