GM Snow on Okposo and Conspiracies
April 25th, 2007 by murph
Here’s an excerpt from part two of GM Garth Snow’s interview with NewYorkIslanders.com. In part two Garth talks about working with Coach Nolan, prospects in the Islanders’ system, and the “conspiracy” theories from the Islanders/Sabres playoff matchup.
How do you rate 2006 first round pick Kyle Okposo, and are you trying to woo him to Long Island and the pro ranks?
Kyle is a very high-end prospect and an even better kid. Our fans are going to love him. But I’ll tell you this: I will never go out of my way to convince a young man to leave school. It’s a personal matter. My years at Maine were some of the best of my life, so it would be wrong for me or anyone else for selfish reasons to try a woo a kid at college to come here. There’s always time. I understand it’s an important decision, but I feel it has to come from the young man and his family. We’ll be ready for Kyle when he’s ready for us.
During the playoff series, much was made of tension between the NHL office and the Islanders. You don’t really think there is any kind of conspiracy, do you?
I sure wouldn’t hope so. I think it was just a heated time. Stuff like that is bound to come up when you absorb a few controversial calls in a row and Colin Campbell is going out of his way to refer to me in the press as a rookie GM. Everyone on both sides needs to put it behind us, and I’m sure we will.
In the case of Brendan Witt’s goal against the Sabres, our issue was never that there was a conspiracy. We simply felt the referee made a mistake and the rest of the process at the league level didn’t work either. I read the other day that Colin said there needs to be a review of the process this summer. I was happy to hear that and I take that as a partial admission that he agreed with us.
