I’m sure that all of you have heard by now that Mike Milbury has stepped down as Senior VP as the New York Islanders, but will still be a special advisor to Isles owner Charles Wang and will work on “special” projects. What this all means for the Islanders I really can’t say, because I have no idea, but I know this much; the Milbury era wasn’t the brightest in Islanders history and I’m sure Milbury and the organization are happy to be moving in a different direction.

Those words were pretty much echoed by Mike Bossy on the Islanders website the other day:

“You see, the Mike Milbury I got to know was not what I expected. I truly believe that Mike the GM was the same as Mike the VP. Passionate, hard-working and always wanting to make the right decision. Sometimes in life we make decisions based on the climate at the time. I’m sure if you were to sit down with Mike today he may want to reverse a couple of the trades he made back when he was GM but those days are gone. Mike is turning the page and starting a new chapter for himself. I wish him only the best of luck.”

As for me, I wasn’t a big fan of Mike Milbury the GM and my physical interaction with him wasn’t very good either. Covering Islanders prospect camp in 2005, I asked to talk to him numerous times and was shunned every single time with a myriad of excuses. Nevertheless, I don’t harbor any bad feelings towards the guy because that’s how the business works and if I could get a buck for every time someone said they didn’t have the time to talk, I’d be having lunch at Outback Steakhouse right now instead of sitting in dining room writing this.

However, what I do harbor bad feelings about are the numerous trades the guy made during his tenure as GM, such as trading away guys like Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan McCabe, Roberto Luongo, Ziggy Palffy and a bevy of other guys that could have produced much more than some of the players on the teams he put together. In addition, most of the high draft picks over the years that the organization have picked under Millbury’s supervision, such as Kristian Kudroc, Mathieu Biron, Sean Bergenheim and Branislav Mezei have all been flops or haven’t been given an opportunity to prove themselves.

For a few years, it was almost hell watching all of these players turn into superstars with other teams. One can only wonder how things would have turned out with the Isles could have had Bertuzzi on a line with Palffy and McCabe at the point, but that’s just wishful thinking. If the Islanders would have gotten something back for those players, instead of an underachieving Olli Jokinen and players like Felix Potvin and Trevor Linden, who never wanted to be here in the first place, things wouldn’t have been so bad, but that never happened.

With player acquisitions and the drafting of players being the two most important roles of a GM and Milbury not going an above average job at either [Neil Smith was the Isles GM when they drafted Kyle Okposo last season and signed Mike Sillinger and Brendan Witt], I think it’s a fair assumption to make that Islander fans are happy to see Milbury out of any position that could have him make personnel decisions regarding the team.

Posted under Isles Thoughts 2007