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Before we crown the winner of the Garth Madness fan vote, I wanted to submit my owned bracket.
My final four
Andrew Ladd Signing
I'll be the first one to admit, I wanted Ladd, wanted him before the Winnipeg Jets traded him back to Chicago. I hoped Garth would have acquired Ladd at that deadline. But Garth waited until the window when you can talk to impending unrestricted free agents, showed him the state-of-the-art practice facility at Northwell, and Garth had his man, well his second or third choice.
Like most of Garth's contracts, this one had more term than needed, way more. A seven-year deal to a 30-year-old is basically a no-trade clause. Just to hammer it home, Garth gave him that as well. Ladd needed to be protected in last June's expansion draft and will have to be again when Seattle enters the league.
If the team, or the fans are thinking about buying out Ladd in the offseason, the cost is great, $4.83M for the next four years and $333K the following five years.
Berube Debacle
I could've gone with Jaro Halak being waived, but I feel the whole Berube situation was embarrassing to the organization. Either choice really kept the Islanders from making the playoffs last season.
Berube reflected on his interesting time with the Isles. "They had to know it was bad for my development, too. We can sit here and find a million reasons. I think at the end of the day they were just scared to lose me on waivers. They had (Christopher) Gibson who was probably the next guy to be called up if there was an injury, so he was injured. I don’t think they had anyone who was able to come up, and I ended up in this weird situation where I was kind of a prisoner there. But you know again, I respect their decision. I wouldn’t take anything back. I think I can use that as an experience now. Being a backup, it’s hard. Sometimes you can go a week or two without seeing a game. Now I know what it takes to get ready and get prepared to play a game."
Nino Niederreiter For Cal Clutterbuck
The handling of Nino by the organization was unfortunate. Garth traded a potential top-six forward for a know quantity in the bottom-six Clutterbuck. Niederreiter is thriving with Minnesota. While Cal, a fan favorite, has yet to played 80 games in a season. His contract extension is a burden.
Goalie Development
This one got overlooked in the fan vote. In the 12 drafts that Garth has overseen, eight goaltenders (Mikko Koskinen, Anders Nilsson, Cody Rosen, Stephon Williams, Eamon McAdam, Ilya Sorokin and Linus Soderstrom) were selected. Of those eight, only three (Poulin, Koskinen, Nilsson) suited up for the Islanders. McAdam is the only one currently playing in the organization.
Developing a goalie usually leads to success. The last 12 Stanley Cup Champions had their goalies come through their system.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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