in NCAA B Articles

Al Arbour coached the New York Islanders through most of the seventies, eighties, and early nineties, a stretch of stability almost unheard of in modern sports. But since Arbour’s departure, the Islanders have changed coaches almost yearly, with general manager Mike Milbury the trigger man for most of those firings.

And it seems this year will be no different, as head coach Steve Stirling was officially dismissed by the team on Thursday morning after the Islanders struggled to an 18-22-2 record through three months of play. Actually, though, this year there is one major difference - Milbury has been pushed aside as well.

In effect, Milbury is only switching offices - he’s been named the Senior Vice President for owner Charles Wang’s various sports properties (which include the Islanders, the American Hockey League’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers, and the Arena Football League’s New York Dragons). But, upon naming a successor, he’ll no longer be the one making the day-to-day hockey decisions.

And that fact will make hockey fans on Long Island very, very happy. Since taking over the team in 1995, Milbury’s Islanders have not won a single playoff series, and they have missed the postseason altogether seven times. The list of head coaches tried out (and discarded) by Milbury in that span: Rick Bowness, Bill Stewart, Butch Goring, Lorne Henning, Peter Laviolette, Stirling, and himself (twice).

The key to the team’s repeated failure on the ice, however, lies not with the comings and goings of coaches, but with the comings and goings of players. Three of Milbury’s moves stand out as being the most crippling to the Islanders franchise to date.

First, back in 2000, Mad Mike traded goaltender Roberto Luongo and forward Olli Jokinen to the Florida Panthers for forwards Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha. Milbury then followed up that move by taking goaltender Roberto Luongo with the first overall selection in the 2000 entry draft (passing over future star forwards Dany Heatley and Marian Gaborik in the process). While not a bust, DiPietro has not become one of the league’s elite goaltenders, and the trio of DiPietro, Parrish, and Kvasha is a far cry from that of Luongo, Jokinen, and Heatley or Gaborik.

Second, in a 2001 draft day move, Milbury shipped the second-overall selection and defenseman Zdeno Chara to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for disgruntled forward Alexei Yashin. Although Yashin has produced in New York, it hasn’t been at anywhere close to franchise-player level. Meanwhile, Spezza has already developed into a better player than Yashin (skating alongside Heatley) up in Ottawa, while Chara is now one of the league’s most feared rearguards.

And third, to compound matters, Milbury gave Yashin a 10-year contract that currently has him sitting as the second-highest paid player in the league. Given a chance to toss that albatross of a deal into Long Island Sound before the current season (using the one-time buyout opportunity that came with the new CBA), Yashin was instead kept around and then made the captain after Michael Peca was dealt.

And those are only the lowest of the lowlights. Also shipped out of town during Milbury’s tenure as the team’s general manager: Wade Redden, Bryan Berard, Darius Kasparaitis, Bryan McCabe, Todd Bertuzzi, Zigmund Palffy, and Raffi Torres. As well, Kenny Jonsson, Adrian Aucoin, Roman Hamrlik, Dave Scatchard, and Peca departed in the offseason, with replacements Alexei Zhitnik, Brent Sopel, Mike York, and Miroslav Satan not getting the job done this season on Long Island.

Milbury acquired defenseman Janne Niinimaa as part of the ill-fated Torres deal back in 2003; Niinimaa was a bust, and was dealt to the Dallas Stars earlier this week for bruising defenseman John Erskine. That could go down as Milbury’s last move as the team’s GM, although there is no firm timetable for naming a replacement. As for the coaching position, assistant Brad Shaw will take over those duties on an interim basis. A former NHL defenseman, Shaw was the coach of the AHL’s Cincinnati Mighty Ducks from 2002-2005, putting up one winning season in those three years behind the bench.

It’s obvious who Wang’s top choice for the permanent coaching (and maybe GM) job would be: Brent Sutter. The owner, general manager, and head coach of the Western Hockey League’s Red Deer Rebels, Sutter has led the Canadian junior team to two straight gold medals. And of course Sutter played for the Islanders during their glory years of the early eighties, and also had a stint as team captain. There couldn’t be a more perfect fit for the team.

But will Sutter want to get involved in this mess, and leave behind his empire in Red Deer? No one in the Sutter family has ever backed down from a challenge on the ice, and fixing a team run by Milbury for a decade is pretty much hockey’s gordian knot. Sutter could be the bold stroke that does the cutting, if Wang can manage to lure him back east.