Milbury steps down as Islanders VP

[Kp-Wings 3]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=209244&hubname=nhl

It looks like the Mike Milbury era, full of mockery and jokes a plenty, may finally be over for Islanders fans. No real reason was given, though it doesn't sound like he was fired. It's still interesting that he finally decided to take the handcuffs off. I guess he ran out of ways to drive that organization ever so deeper in the ground. While some of his moves, like Jason Blake or Rick Dipietro, payed off in the longrun, the dumping of so many other good players along with keeping Yashin around, is often what overshadows his tenure as GM.

Don't get too excited though. It looks like the mentioned Yashin will remain with the team. And that, my friends, is the perfect recipe for a losing team. And more jokes!

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

If Alex Yashin retires now , and Charles Wang took a chill pill , no one would ever mock the Isles again.

[Guest ZDH]

If Alex Yashin retires now , and Charles Wang took a chill pill , no one would ever mock the Isles again.

I don't know about that. The Isles are just too easy to make fun of...

1. They sign Dipetro and Yashin to 15 and 10 year deals. They STILL have not bought out Yashin.

2. How will they ever make people forget about those Captain Highliner Fish Stick uniforms?

3. Their plumbing exploded in the dressing room and there was crap everywhere.

4. Charles Wang said when he became owner "if you don't like us then don't come to the games."

5. The Arena is so old that there are Egyptian Hieroglyphics on the player benches.

6. They hired 20 people to be the GM including Garth Snow who has as much right to being a GM as I do to being the Canadian Ambassador to to Mongolia.

7. They kept Mike Milbury as a GM when he is known by all as the dumbest GM ever in the history of the game.

8. They traded away Roberto Luongo to make room for DiPetro. Also traded Todd Bertuzzi so they could get the overrated Trevor Linden.

9. When you watch the Isles on tv you can barely see the game because of all the smoke in the building.

10. When the Isles are losing their fans take off their Isles jerseys and wear their Rangers ones.

Edited May 29, 2007 by ZDH

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

I don't know about that. The Isles are just too easy to make fun of...

1. They sign Dipetro and Yashin to 15 and 10 year deals. They STILL have not bought out Yashin.

2. How will they ever make people forget about those Captain Highliner Fish Stick uniforms?

3. Their plumbing exploded in the dressing room and there was crap everywhere.

4. Charles Wang said when he became owner "if you don't like us then don't come to the games."

5. The Arena is so old that there are Egyptian Hieroglyphics on the player benches.

6. They hired 20 people to be the GM including Garth Snow who has as much right to being a GM as I do to being the Canadian Ambassador to to Mongolia.

7. They kept Mike Milbury as a GM when he is known by all as the dumbest GM ever in the history of the game.

8. They traded away Roberto Luongo to make room for DiPetro. Also traded Todd Bertuzzi so they could get the overrated Trevor Linden.

9. When you watch the Isles on tv you can barely see the game because of all the smoke in the building.

10. When the Isles are losing their fans take off their Isles jerseys and wear their Rangers ones.

I didnt think about those things. They are easy to make fun of

[theman19 47]

I don't know about that. The Isles are just too easy to make fun of...

1. They sign Dipetro and Yashin to 15 and 10 year deals. They STILL have not bought out Yashin.

2. How will they ever make people forget about those Captain Highliner Fish Stick uniforms?

3. Their plumbing exploded in the dressing room and there was crap everywhere.

4. Charles Wang said when he became owner "if you don't like us then don't come to the games."

5. The Arena is so old that there are Egyptian Hieroglyphics on the player benches.

6. They hired 20 people to be the GM including Garth Snow who has as much right to being a GM as I do to being the Canadian Ambassador to to Mongolia.

7. They kept Mike Milbury as a GM when he is known by all as the dumbest GM ever in the history of the game.

8. They traded away Roberto Luongo to make room for DiPetro. Also traded Todd Bertuzzi so they could get the overrated Trevor Linden.

9. When you watch the Isles on tv you can barely see the game because of all the smoke in the building.

10. When the Isles are losing their fans take off their Isles jerseys and wear their Rangers ones.

you forgot traded away Chara

[betterREDthandead 58]

Milbury sucked as GM, yeah. But Charles Wang has got to be one of the most bizarre-thinking owners in the league. As long as Wang owns the team, I think there will still be cause to point and laugh at the Isles. That is, if it weren't such a shame to have a perfectly good NHL team not playing on level ice with everyone else because of bad ownership.

[Guest ZDH]

you forgot traded away Chara

Oh yes I forgot about that. Chara and a 1st round pick for Yashin and then sign him to what, a 10 year/$90 million deal? The 1st round pick became Jason Spezza by the way. What a great trade Milbury.

[Offsides 21]

Oh...Mad Mike finally steppin' down, eh. That's good for the Isles.

[Hank 0]

Here's a list of deals that "Mad Mike" made while with the Islanders.

Some aren't that bad, but it's amazing how this guy could stockpile picks or prospects and then give them away for nothing before the players could even develop.

I highlighted some that I thought were especially bad deals:

13-Mar-96: New York Islanders traded Wendel Clark, Mathieu Schneider and D.J. Smith to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Darby Hendrickson, Sean Haggerty, Kenny Jonsson and 1st round selection (Roberto Luongo) in 1997.

25-Aug-97: New York Islanders traded Dan Lacouture to the Edmonton Oilers for Mariusz Czerkawski.

06-Feb-98: New York Islanders traded Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan McCabe and 3rd round selection (Jarkko Ruutu) in 1998 to the Vancouver Canucks for Trevor Linden. - (Beyond Horrific.)

20-Mar-99: New York Islanders traded Tommy Salo to the Edmonton Oilers for Mats Lindgren and 8th round selection (Radek Martinek) in 1999.

19-Jun-99: New York Islanders traded Zigmund Palffy, Bryan Smolinski, Marcel Cousineau and 4th round selection (previously acquired from the New Jersey Devils - Daniel Johansson) in 1999 to the Los Angeles Kings for Olli Jokinen, Josh Green, Mathieu Biron and 1st round selection (Taylor Pyatt) in 1999.

19-Dec-99: New York Islanders traded Felix Potvin, a 2nd round selection (later traded to New Jersey - Teemu Laine) in 2000 and a 3rd round selection (Thatcher Bell) in 2000 to the Vancouver Canucks for Kevin Weekes, Bill Muckalt and Dave Scatchard.

24-Jun-00: New York Islanders traded Olli Jokien and Roberto Luongo to the Florida Panthers for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha.

24-Jun-00: New York Islanders traded Eric Brewer, Josh Green and 2nd round selection (Brad Winchester) in 2000 to the Edmonton Oilers for Roman Hamrlik.

24-Jun-00: New York Islanders traded Kevin Weekes, the rights of Kristian Kudroc and a 2nd round selection (later traded to Phoenix - Matthew Spiller) in 2001 to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a 1st round selection (Raffi Torres) in 2000, 4th round selection (previously acquired - Vladimir Gorbunov) in 2000 and 7th round selection (previously acquired - Ryan Caldwell) in 2000.

03-Jan-01: Los Angeles Kings traded Jason Blake to the New York Islanders for a 5th round selection (Joel Andresen) in 2002.

22-Jun-01: New York Islanders traded Mathieu Biron and a 2nd round selection (later traded to Washington, later traded to Vancouver - Denis Grot) in 2002 to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Adrian Aucoin and Alexander Kharitonov.

23-Jun-01: Ottawa Senators traded Alexei Yashin to the New York Islanders for Zdeno Chara, Bill Muckalt and 1st round selection (Jason Spezza) in 2001.

24-Jun-01: Buffalo Sabres traded Michael Peca to the New York Islanders for Tim Connolly and Taylor Pyatt.

22-Jun-02: New York Islanders traded Mariusz Czerkawski to the Montreal Canadiens for Arron Asham and a 5th round selection (Markus Pahlsson) in 2002.

11-Mar-03: New York Islanders traded Chris Osgood and a 3rd round selection in 2003 to the St. Louis Blues for Justin Papineau and a 2nd round selection in 2003.

11-Mar-03: Edmonton Oilers traded Janne Niinimaa and a 2nd round selection in 2003 to the New York Islanders for Brad Isbister and Raffi Torres.

Some of the deals aren't that bad, but boy did he have some stinkers. The Luongo deal really stands out. In some of the cases where we now know that he got ripped off, you could make a case that the young players he dealt hadn't shown any glimpses yet (but he had little to no patience waiting for them to blossom - which is essential in hockey considering most kids don't break out until they're in their early to mid 20's). But in that Luongo deal, everyone in hockey knew Roberto was going to be a superstar. This was his direct quote about Luongo:

"We're rolling the dice here a little bit. Roberto Luongo is going to be an excellent goaltender in this league. He is a class act and a kid I know we would have been happy to ride with. But hell, I've gotta send him off."

I remember one draft year that TSN covered, they had a reporter going around to each table to talk to some of the GM's. When they got to the Islanders table the guy asked Milbury "What do you say to all the critics out there that say you aren't patient enough with your kids before you deal them away?" His response? "F*** off.". No joke.

I'm going to miss MIke Milbury as a GM in the NHL. He was always good for a laugh.

[Guest ZDH]

Aw man that one quote is so hilarious! Luongo is a great goalie but I HAVE to send him off! Mad Mike Milbury. So NOW who is the dumbest GM in the league? JFJ in Toronto? Doug Maclean was up there until he got canned. Who's the Hawks GM? He's done jack since he took over. The Hawks are like the Detroit Lions. Before each season all I hear is "potential, potential." Then at the end of the year all I see is "missed playoffs, again."

[Hank 0]

Aw man that one quote is so hilarious! Luongo is a great goalie but I HAVE to send him off! Mad Mike Milbury. So NOW who is the dumbest GM in the league? JFJ in Toronto? Doug Maclean was up there until he got canned. Who's the Hawks GM? He's done jack since he took over. The Hawks are like the Detroit Lions. Before each season all I hear is "potential, potential." Then at the end of the year all I see is "missed playoffs, again."

I still have to give the nod to John Fergeson Jr. The dude went and spent a hefty price to get Raycroft and now there's rumours that he's looking for his replacement already.

On top of that, he spent way, way , way too much money on a blueline that is suspect at best in their own end. Meanwhile, Mats Sundin still doesn't have a decent winger to play with. I swear, if Sundin ever had a good winger to line up with, this cat would have scored over 100 points multiple years by now. Instead, he has to carry players like Ponokorovsky and Antropov. Both aren't bad players but they're 3rd liners.

McCabe is completely useless in his own end and despite being in the league for over 10 years he still makes some of the dumbest decisions I've ever seen.

All in all, it amazes me that JFJ still has a job. He's been completely irresponsible with their salary. They could get away with buying playoff teams in the past, but not anymore. Their horrible drafting and piss poor signings and dealings have landed them on the outside looking in for 2 straight seasons. And there's no reason to believe it won't happen again next year - which makes me very happy.

[Guest ZDH]

So does this make the Chicago Blackhawks the official joke of the NHL?

I thought the Hawks were already the biggest joke in the NHL? Isles at least made the playoffs this year.

[bruisebrother15 29]

Imagine this team on the ice:

Luongo

Bertuzzi

Chara

McCabe

Brewer

Palffy

Smolinski

Jokien

Connolly

Torres

Isbister

Schneider

It'd be tough in the salary cap era, but damn.