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Jake Guentzel is having an historic postseason for the Penguins. A leading contender for the Conn Smythe, the rookie leads the postseason with 12 goals. The Pittsburgh Penguins selected the forward 77th overall in the 2013 draft. Can you guess the team that had the 76th pick? I'll give you a hint. It's general manager is the fourth-longest tenured in the league. That's right, the New York Islanders.
Garth Snow selected Taylor Cammarata. The 5'7" forward will begin his professional career in the Islanders organization next season. Cammarata, at no fault of his own, will basically have to hoist the Stanley Cup to validate the pick.
This got me thinking, what other players did Snow pass over? I went back to 2007 and reviewed each of Snow's drafts. To be fair, I only looked at the next three picks after the Islanders selected. It's easy to criticize a team for missing out on a player 10, 20 or 100 picks later. I also eliminated goaltenders from the equation unless one was selected by the Islanders and one in the next three picks.
We all know that the draft is a crapshoot. Every team misses. So I looked at two of the three teams who have employed their general manager longer than the Islanders. We will call them "Team A" and "Team B" for now.
The Isles first pick in the 2007 draft was in the third round thanks to the Ryan Smyth and Richard Zednik trades. The rebuild had a soft launch. The Isles drafted left winger Jason Gregoire, who never made it past the AHL with their second pick in the third round. With the next pick in the draft, Tampa Bay selected Alex Killorn, who scored a career-high 19 goals this past season. In the fourth round Snow selected Maxim Gratchev, who played one game for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in 2008-09. Three picks later, The LA Kings select Dwight King, who helped them win two Cups.
We move to the sixth round as Snow select Blake Kessel. Phil's brother never played in the NHL. Two picks later, the Rangers drafted Carl Hagelin. Team A selected Patrik Zackrisson in the sixth round and also missed out on Hagelin. Team B selected defenseman Jonathon Blum with their first pick. Blum was not tendered a contract a few years later. The next pick was Mikael Backlund.
The 2008 draft is the one where Snow gets criticized the most. The Isles held the fifth pick, traded down twice, and selected Josh Bailey at nine. Had Snow traded down to 12, I could have included Erik Karlsson in this conversation, who was taken at 15.
The Isles could have had their offensive defenseman in the second round as they selected center Corey Trivino over Roman Josi. Trivino, who had some personal issues at Boston University, never played in the NHL and played last season the KHL. Josi, like Karlsson has enjoyed a fine postseason. Snow continued his replenishing of the defensive corp by selecting Aaron Ness, who had a cup of coffee with the Isles. Three picks later, the Ducks selected Justin Schultz, who had a career year in Pittsburgh this season after a couple of down years. The third second round pick by Snow was Travis Hamonic.
The sixth round was extremely painful for Snow, who selected defenseman Jared Spurgeon. A real solid pick here, only problem was that Snow failed to sign the 5'9" defenseman. A couple of years later he signed with the Minnesota Wild. With the next pick in the draft, the Blue Jackets selected Cam Atkinson. The second sixth round pick by the Isles was center Justin DiBenedetto, who played eight games for the club. Two picks later, the Sharks selected Tommy Wingels. Team A had a couple of misses in this draft. In the third round they selected Justin Daniels and missed out on Jori Lehtera. Not exactly earth shattering there. In the fourth round defenseman Samuel Groulx was taken. The next pick, the Washington Capitals struck gold with Braden Holtby. Team A ended up selecting Finnish goalie Harri Sateri later in the round.
2009 was Snow's strongest draft as John Tavares, Calvin de Haan, Casey Cizikas and Anders Lee all were taken. Team A selected defenseman Taylor Doherty in the second round. Three picks later, Tomas Tatar was selected.
2010 saw Snow select Russian Kirill Kabanov in the third round. Kabanov did not cut it in the AHL and went back to Europe. Radko Gudas was selected by the Lightning with the next pick. With their last pick in the draft, Snow selected goalie Cody Rosen. Two picks later Frederik Andersen went to Carolina. Team B selected center Freddie Hamilton. Two picks later, defenseman John Klingberg was taken.
The Isles had the fifth overall pick in 2011. Ryan Strome was the choice. Two picks later the Jets selected Mark Scheifele, who finished with 82 points this season. Scott Mayfield was selected in the second round. Three picks later the Blue Jackets selected Boone Jenner. Imagine Atkinson and Jenner on the Islanders instead of in Columbus. Defenseman Andrey Pedan was selected in the third round. The following pick, Vincent Trocheck went to Florida. Snow could not sign their next pick, defenseman Robbie Russo, who ended up signing with the Red Wings. Russo made his NHL with the Red Wings in March. Playoff hero Jean-Gabriel Pageau went to Ottawa the following pick. Team B missed out on John Gibson, who was taken right after goaltender Magnus Hellberg. They also missed out on Pageau.
The Isles got really defensive in 2012 as all seven of their picks play on the blue line. Snow was hoping that Ryan Murray would fall to four. He went to Columbus at two. Griffin Reinhart was the choice at four. Reinhart never developed with the Isles and Snow sent him to the only place who overvalued him, his hometown of Edmonton. The Isles somehow received a first and second round pick for Reinhart. Snow used the first round pick to take Mathew Barzal in 2015. The next three picks after Reinhart were all defensemen, Morgan Rielly, Hampu Lindholm and Mathew Dumba. In the second round, Snow selected Ville Pokka, who was part of the Nick Leddy trade. The previous pick, the Canadians selected Sebastian Collberg, the guy that Snow really wanted and ended up getting in the Thomas Vanek deal. In the third round Snow made the right call selecting Adam Pelech, one pick ahead of Jimmy Vesey, who would have likely been unable to sign the forward. Jesse Graham was selected the in the sixth round. Graham has bounced between the AHL and ECHL in the organization. The next pick, the Maple Leafs selected Connor Brown, who scored 20 goals in his first-full season in the league. Team A selected forward Chris Lalancette and missed out on Andreas Athanasious.
There are two players that have yet to play in the league that were selected in the top ten of the 2014 draft, Hurricanes' Haydn Fleury and you guessed it, Michael Dal Colle. William Nylander was taken three picks later by the Leafs. Even if the Dal Colle pick does not pan out, the 2014 draft could rival the 2009 one as Snow's best draft (Ho-Sang, Ilya Sorokin, Linus Soderstrom, Devon Toews)
As you can see the Islanders missed out on more players than the San Jose Sharks (team A) and the Nashville Predators (team B). These are classic second guesses. But it is alarming how many players were passed over. The general manager relies on his scout to help make those picks, but who hires the scouts? That's right the GM.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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