Weird Islanders: The Podcast! – Episode 68 – Neil Smith
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Five immersive worlds, one amazing theme park. Get ready to explore the allnew Universal Epic Universe featuring the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Ministry of Magic, Super Nintendo World, How to Train Your Dragon, Isle of Burke, and Dark Universe. Epic Universe opens May 22nd at Universal Orlando Resort. Our universe will never be the same. Tickets and packages on sale now at universalorlando.com. [Music] Hey everybody, it’s Weird Islanders the podcast back once again. My name is Dan. No mic tonight. He couldn’t make it, but I have a super duper extra special guest. Uh we started this season with our first ever actual Islander. We now have our first ever actual Islander executive and I’m very excited. He is probably still best known as the GM of the New York Rangers, but he has had a long, long history with the Islanders going back over 40 years as a player, a scout, and a general manager. He is also currently one of the hosts of the NHL Wraparound podcast, and we are very, very pleased and honored to welcome in Neil Smith. Neil, how are you this evening? I’m great, Daniel. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Thank you for coming on. Uh, it’s an absolute pleasure to talk to you. Uh we are going to talk about your long association with the Islanders which goes back many many many many years but uh I want to start with the the now because you actually currently work for UBS and so you are you know you go between the the team, the arena, the company and you actually take in a ton of Islanders games and so my first thought when I saw that and read that was how many times have you walked down the hallways of UBS Arena past a group of people and heard one person say to the other, “Dude, was that Neil Smith, that just looked fine. Yeah, I hear that in the elevator. I met most of the games. Uh I’d say I missed in the this past season, I might have missed two to three games and uh uh of course in the co year, the first year of the building, it was hard to be there all the time because of the restrictions. Um but no, I’ve I I love the building. It’s the best building I’ve ever been in. And um UBS uh has me doing client relations there uh which is basically you know trying to entertain the folks that come uh as clients of UBS and uh and it’s an an enjoyable night for me too because I get what could be better. I’m I’m watching hockey. I’m talking to people and uh and making people happy at the same time. Yeah. You know it’s not every day that uh you know the former general manager of the team is walking around the arena but you have a unique situation. You’re watching a team that you have watched many, many years as a player and as a an executive and as a rival. And we’re going to get to all of that throughout the course of this interview. But I I want to start with June 8th, 2006. This was the day you were named the Islanders general manager. Uh it was really a stunning and um sort of spectacular day for the team. Wasn’t just you. It was Ted Nolan was brought in as the coach. Pat Leaf Fontaine, Brian Traier were all part in brought in as part of a uh a management committee that we’ll hear a lot about. I’m just so happy to be back uh with this logo with this uh organization. It’s uh it’s I’m very passionate about it because I started here. I got my opportunity here and uh it’s amazing life for me to go full circle. It’s just I’m I’m one of the luckiest guys ever. What were your memories of that hiring process? I know it was a long time ago, but like when were you first approached by Charles Wong to kind of join the team and and lead up to lead this management committee because you at that point had been out of uh the NHL sort of management game for about six years. So, was him coming to you a bit of a surprise? No, not really. I mean, I wanted to be a GM and and when the Islanders uh job was going to come open because they were going to uh you know, tell Milbury that he wasn’t going to do it anymore, I was very excited to try to be there for a number of reasons. Mostly because my heart was still there from the Bill Tory days and the days when I started out in the business and the second of all was that I was well known in New York already and and it would be great and we could stay living there and I had my small son and all this other stuff. There was a lot of reasons to be excited about it. However, what I didn’t do, Daniel, was my homework on the owner. I I did not do that. And so, he called me. Uh I interviewed with him. Uh I went off. I interviewed a second time and I was doing the Carolina uh Edmonton final on TV. uh when he actually called me and said he’d like to offer me the job and he said to me um uh here’s what I’m going to pay you and I said wait a minute that’s not happening uh you know we’re not doing it that way and I knew in the beginning this this is really odd some of the ways that he approached this um but I never ever was told ever that well you’ll be the general manager but you won’t be able to do the things that a general manager So, I get there, we have the press conference, and right away I got to go into a room in a hotel room with uh five or six guys, including Milbury that are going to make decisions on things like free agency and um you know, draft the the entry draft and stuff. And I’m like, you can’t do it this way. And you know, it just went got worse as time went on. And so people laugh about the 40 days, but actually that the only days that I felt good were the days that we had free agency because Ken Morrow and myself were in there alone and we were able to do a good job on free agency. Yeah. And then on the draft when I was able to get to the scouts and and really organize a thing, we ended up with a real good draft for for the Islanders um uh down the road. So, but the rest of the time it was just a it just a clown show. I mean of u you know you weren’t allowed to do anything. Pat La Fontaine and I suggested a couple of things and Wong right away said no no no we’re not doing that. We’ve got a good organization. And I looked at him and I’m like good? Like you don’t know the definition of good. Um and anyway so it came to blows. Uh, and really when it really hit when the crap hit the fan was when DPro’s contract was up and DPro had not agreed uh to his qualifying offer and had not filed for arbitration. This was their strategy that he was needed so badly that you know we would do what we had to do to sign him. Well, his strategy was right because what I didn’t know was that Charles was in love with him and that uh he said to me at one point uh what would you do if I told you that I want to get that I would give uh Ricky a 15-year contract? I said I’d tell you you’re crazy. and he said, um, and then what happened was, uh, Rick, uh, Curran, who was his agent, who was lives in Philly and was going to come up and we were going to have a meeting about DPRO and I told Wong that I think we should just tell him, you either sign your qualifying offer or you sit out all year because because it was we had all the cards. When you don’t s when you don’t go file for arbitration and you don’t agree to your qualifier, you have no leverage whatsoever. If the team wants to leave you sitting out, they can do that. And I said that should be our thing. Of course, Charles wouldn’t do that because what I didn’t know was he’d been at the America’s Got Talent uh uh concert with Rick a day before. Wow. So, it was Yeah, it was bad. And um and that that DPro thing I think was the thing that completely blew up the relationship between me and him. Yeah. Yeah, it sounds about right because I mean from what I understand well first of all um the sitting home without a contract thing they actually would end up doing with Shawn Bergenheim I believe a year later or so like they had him just he missed almost basically an entire season because of that. But if I’m not mistaken, they wanted to sign Rick the year before to something to a 16-year contract, I think, or something like that, unless I’m misremembering. Maybe maybe Mike Milberry was like, “Yeah, no, let’s not do that.” And uh yeah, then they they presented it to you, and you said the same thing, basically. Yeah. Well, I said, “I’m not I I’m not doing that. We’re going to get him on a three-year at the most.” And I said, “What what I said, I don’t understand why you think this guy’s so great. Never made the playoffs. Doesn’t have that great of a goals against average or a save percentage.” But see what I what was going on here was that Charles was in love with the play some of the players and D’Pietro was one of them. And so it was just irrational, illogical thinking. And um so I get out of there and then he makes Ghro’s backup the GM. And so then he’s able to tell Gar, you know, well, here’s what I want to do with Ricky. And Gar’s like, okay, I mean, I don’t know what to do, so I’ll do whatever you want. It always bothered me and I I think my my friend Mike too that like Gar kind of gets saddled with that contract, but it’s like no, if you’ve been reading, if you knew the team, that was the Charles idea. Like that was his idea. That wasn’t Gar’s idea. Why would a guy just taking over the team to propose a 15-year contract? No, it was it was it was Charles not understanding, right, that you know, you want to give security to somebody because they’ll he thought they’ll play better with a lot of security. And what he didn’t know was, you know, we’re talking about athletics. we’re not talking about accounting, you know, uh, and so, um, it was a bad decision. I’m glad I wasn’t there for it because I I wouldn’t want it saddled on my on my resume, but I did that. Yeah. Yeah. No. Uh, I was there watching it and I didn’t like it. It wasn’t It wasn’t on my resume either, but, uh, had to watch it unfortunately. Um I just um you know you you’re in the room with all of these guys and one of those guys uh was Ted Nolan who was the coach and he was again picked you didn’t get to pick the coach he was already picked for you. Um I’m curious about what your relationship was with him. I got to tell you as a fan we were very excited that the team had hired Nolan because we kind of felt like he was almost already one of us you know having been kind of out of the league for a while. Um, did you find I mean obviously you only got to the end of the summer, but did you find it easy to work with Ted? Did you feel like you were aligned with him at least? Yeah. And Pat La Fontaine and Ted were very, very close. And so, yeah, I I actually grew to like Ted. And when I say grew to like him, I had no reason not to like him. He’d been in Detroit with me earlier in my career uh in Aderondac. So, I knew Teddy. And you know what? It that part of it was fine. I mean, he was he said uh he gave me his uh thoughts and needs for the team and that’s one of the reasons we got Chris Simon um because that’s who he he wanted and that’s fine. I mean, when you know the coach has a feel for how much toughness he needs and so I no I didn’t I didn’t find Ted. We would have been fine, Ted and I. It would have been fine. I don’t think that it’s appropriate that the GM doesn’t pick the coach, but it was too late because when I agreed to go there, I said, “Okay.” And then he said, “Okay, do you want to know who the coach is going to be?” And I go, “What? What did Pardon? What did you say?” Yeah. Yeah. So, and then I had to make the decision. Okay. Do I want to turn this down and stay doing TV? And, you know, I was longing to be back in the in the NHL and not doing TV. So, um I and looking back on it now, I should never have done it. I should have said no to the whole thing and said I’ll just wait for a proper opportunity and not be so um you know so smitten with this situation of going back to New York again, right? Um you uh you were on a podcast with a friend of ours, Sean Kuthbird, last year, hockey night in New York, and you said you you knew you were in trouble right away. And that that’s kind of a little shocking to me. Also, frankly, a I felt a little bad that, you know, it seemed like you knew right away that this was probably not going to be a good situation. Well, I did and I did and I knew right from the first day because of the fact that we had to have these meetings with everybody else in there. And so, they were making decisions that that the GM should make, not that a committee should make. And I knew I was in big trouble. And this went on for that month that I was there or month and a half, whatever it was. And it got to the point where I was so depressed and seriously depressed that I had trouble getting out of bed and going to the coliseum because it was just like I can’t do this like this. I’ve been in control of the New York Rangers for over a decade. Like complete control and now I can’t have make the decisions for the Islanders. Yeah, it was craziness. That that’s unfortunate. I’m really sorry to hear that. But I I hear you like, you know, when you when you don’t feel you’re you’re not being supported, you’re not kind of like being your true self, not doing what you know you can do, uh it’s rough. It’s it’s very rough and I’m I’m really sorry to hear that. Um but like you alluded to before, um despite these issues and despite your feelings at the time and and the sort of handcuffs that were on you, you were actually incredibly productive during this time, both at the draft and at the free agent table. and some of the players that you selected during these periods ended up being Islanders for quite some time and again having very productive careers. We might as well start with the draft and your first pick at the draft was Kyosa who would is still a beloved figure amongst Islanders fans went on to play many years. Up next it’s the New York Islanders Ted Nolan and Neil Smith with their first selection in the new regime from the Islanders. Well, Neil Smith’s the new GM, but he’s no stranger to this. Of course, he was the director of scouting for the Detroit Red Wings back in ’89 when they drafted, among others, Nicholas Lstrom, Sergey Federov, and others. Prior to that, he was a scout for the Islanders, who has come full circle. Ted Nolan, of course, is the coach. I don’t think even the Islanders had any idea as of a couple of days ago who they were going to take. So, Tony Felt is the head scout there and the man in the middle between Neil Smith and Ted Nolan. And obviously, they’ve got to work off of his list. The New York Islanders would like to say hello to all the great hockey fans of the new National Hockey League all over the country and all over Canada and the United States. And especially the great fans back at the Nassau Coliseum watching the draft [Applause] today for the New York Islanders first round selection. On behalf of Tony Feltrin and the scouting staff, the selection will be made by our new head coach, Ted Nolan. Thank you. New York Islanders are very proud select from De Moine of the USHL. Right-winger Kyle Ousen. [Applause] Well, this isn’t a surprise, Bob. You had Kyle Aoso ranked eighth overall. He goes seventh to the Islanders. That’s right. He wears number eight, as a matter of fact, and uh wears it because his favorite player is Alexander Ovuchkin. This guy is a bull in a china shop. So, what what made him the guy? Like, what made I mean, you were drafting seventh overall. Um, I don’t know what other players were available at the time, but like what made you think Kylo was the right guy for what your vision of the Islanders would have been? They were gonna take when I got there, they were going to take the defenseman that the Rangers ended up taking out a junior. Um, and I uh, Seanetti Saguanetti. Oh, Bobby Saguanetti. Okay. Bobby Saguanetti. Is that who they were taking? And I said, “No, I I’ve looked at all the paperwork and looked at all the testing results and stuff and I believe a lot in psychological inventories and seeing where a guy’s at in his in his thought process and so on. Pittsburgh picked Jordan Stall and and so Kyoso had numbers that I was looking at that were close to Jordan Stall and I’m going like, “No, this is the guy. this is a big strong guy out of college and I I this is the guy we’re gonna take. So we so we took uh Kyle and I’m very proud of him and I I actually called him when he retired after the Stanley Cup last year and I said because I I had not talked to him since the day of the draft. Wow. Yeah. And I said, “Kyle Neil Smith, I’m so happy. You know, I’m so proud of you and the the great career you’ve had and the fact that I’ve had something to do with your career is really great and um I wish you well and congrats on the cup and and so on.” And then we got talking a little bit about the Islander days and all that stuff. But um yeah, he was uh he was a real good a real good pick and a real good player for the Islanders. And as I said, I was I could always look and see him playing for them and and and I was proud of the fact that um I’d had a a hand in that decision. Yeah. No, he I mean that worked out fantastically. I mean he uh was again just a guy that was a real avatar for us in that that sort of rebuild era alongside John, Josh Bailey, all these other guys. But it didn’t stop there. You also drafted a couple of other guys that were around for the Islanders for a long time, namely Andrew McDonald, Jesse Yoensu, uh, and guys that would would hang around. Uh, you know, McDonald um, he took a lot of heat from the from the team for uh, but you know, being a defenseman in that that era of the Islanders could not have possibly been easy, but uh, I mean, do you have any memories of of picking those guys? I know they’re like sort of late in the draft and and maybe at you know, some No, I I I remember them very well. Yes, he owns Su. I I just remember that we had good reports on him and that there was a decision between a couple guys, but to be to be uh completely honest with you, I I didn’t see these guys play. Remember, I was doing TV right up until the until the the final. And so, I can’t lie to people and say, “I went out and saw them and that’s who I thought was the best player.” You can watch video, you can do things like that, but I mean, yes, Yansu was just picked over guys. Now, the truth about Andrew McDonald, how was he picked? He played for Ted Nolan in junior. And Ted Nolan said to me, “I can’t believe these guys from the league are already been picked.” And Andrew McDonald hasn’t been picked. Like, he’s way better than them. So, he said, “Okay.” And we took them and and that’s the truth. That’s so it’s Ted Nolan’s uh credit that they ended up with him. Wow. Yeah, that’s right. I think I remember that. But uh yeah, that’s right. And uh you know it’s it’s amazing like as a general manager when you pick a guy I mean you know obviously you do all the intel you do all the scouting you do all the reports and all that stuff but like when you look back and and you see a player like a Kylo Poso a thousand games in the NHL. I’m pretty sure McDonald was well over 500 with both the Islanders and Flyers. And you know that that’s got to be incredibly satisfying for you to know that you took a guy that had some real longevity because not a lot of players, not every player gets to that level. Forget about a thousand. Some people don’t even get to 500. But like as a general manager, how does that feel to look back on some of these drafts? Even with the Rangers, even with the Red Wings, who you you know were the director of scouting of even before all of this, you have to look back and be like, “Wow, these guys really had great careers.” And like you said, you were a part of that. You were the guy who kind of brought them in. Yeah. As a GM, what you do is you you your real talent is finding the right people to find the players, right? Because you can’t go out and do it yourself. So you get, you know, you get the right people, you get people that know more about it than you do, and you put them in a place to give you advice on what they what we should do with the next move. And that’s um what was going on with the Islanders for that short period of time. Definitely. When I was with the Rangers, that’s what went on. Now, even having said that, you still end up making mistakes. Sure. Uh because, you know, you’re being told, for example, with the Rangers, we picked in 99 um very high in the draft, Pavl Brendle, and I was being told by the scouts, he scored 92 goals in Calgary, the Western League. He can put the puck through the net, through the goalie, through the boards. I mean, he’s that good. And and I saw him play and I thought, well, you know what? this might be a Mike Bossy. This might be our Mike Bossy and didn’t turn out that way and and then it was a, you know, a mistake. Well, you know, it it’s it’s not like as if I went and saw him 15 times and then decided that he was who I was going to take. So, but but you you take the you take the um you either take the credit or take the blame, you know, you that’s what you’re paid to do. Now, in in Detroit, the best pick I ever made by far, nothing even close to it, was Nicholas Lidstrom in the third round, who went on to win seven Norris Trophies. So, that was um and that was very much a different type of pick because my scout in in Stockholm, Christ Rostrom, knew Nicholas Lidstrom and the rest of the league didn’t know about him. and we hit it and hit it and hit it and then you know and then got him in that draft. Um and then of course I we take him in ’89 and that summer I go to the Rangers. So I don’t get anything out of it other than people that know the truth know the truth about it. Um but it it’s very satisfying when you when you see something I’ll tell you for example Adam Graves. I drafted Adam Grace for Detroit and then I took a big leap of faith on him in 1991 and signed him as a uh group one free agent much to the chagrin of all the older GMs in the league that were pissed off at me. And to have faith in a kid, see something in him, and then him turn in to be Adam Graves is I can’t tell you how satisfying that is. Yeah. It’s the It’s Anybody can sign a free agent. Anybody can go and throw money at somebody and say, “Come to my team.” That’s the least satisfying of all the different ways of doing things. A trade is very satisfying. Signing a free agent is not satisfying. And especially if he doesn’t live up to his billing, then you’re getting crucified for it. So, um it it’s the the scouting and the developing is is the most satisfying part. Yeah. Yeah. I I gotta say uh as an Islanders podcast and Islanders fan for 40 years, there’s not a ton of Rangers that I like, for lack of a better word. Adam Graves is one of those though. Like Adam Graves is was a great player, but just a super great guy. I don’t think there’s a charity in New York that Adam Graves has not shown up for at some point, right? Like he’s just one of these guys that is constantly doing charity work and all kinds of stuff and just just a terrific dude all around. And that comes from his family upbringing because his family had foster children in the home with him and his sister and they they looked after a lot of people. His dad was a police officer. Um and they they were a very outstanding family and uh they had a he does bring those virtues that he has uh from his upbringing. Yeah. Yeah. No, I just always I was always very impressed with with the charity stuff he did. Uh but you mentioned free agents and again this was where you did a lot of work uh in this time and and you signed guys who managed to stick with the Islanders for quite some time. Uh five guys in particular Mike Cinger, Brendan Wit, Andy Hilbert, Tom Cody, Chris Simon. Of those five guys, Pody is the only one to have spent only one season with the Islanders. Everybody else is at least two. And in Wit’s case, geez, he almost played like 250 games for the like the guy was indestructible basically. Um, but Cylinger, I mean, I I’ll go through them one by one. Cylinger is a is a personal favorite of Mike’s, my co-host. And, uh, he’s, you know, the the Islanders were his 12th and final team, and he got a three-year deal, which I don’t think he probably had from any of those other teams. What made you see in Cylinger? Um, like what what attributes do you think he brought to the team? because, you know, as a guy who who moves around a lot, you almost wonder like what’s the deal here? But he found real stability here, which was really kind of amazing to see. Well, I drafted Mike for the Red Wings uh back in the 80s and and so I knew Mike as a person. And you know, I players get moved around a lot for one of two reasons. They either get moved around because they have talent, but all of a sudden there’s something there that you don’t want on your team. or they get moved around because they bring an intangible to the locker room everywhere they go. It may not show up on the ice as a star, but it shows up in the locker room and they’re a guy you can win with, even though not the most talented guy in the world. And I think that’s where Mike Zillinger fit in. He was a guy who wasn’t the most talented guy in the world, but had great work ethic, was a great team guy, and any coach in the league would love to have him. But of course along comes a more talented guy and they got to move Mike out to the next team. And I think that’s why he moved around so much. But I’ve seen others uh who have been on, you know, nine teams in 11 years and there’s always got to be a reason why they they don’t stick around for very long. Um and and so that happens as well. But um yeah, I knew Mike uh for a while. Uh so that that was I knew I knew what I was getting with him. Yeah. No, it it was a really interesting case, too, because like he had had such a great season the year before uh playing for Nashville and I forget the other team, but uh you know, and you might have thought, wow, that that’s uh that’s kind of an outlier season, but he came to the Islanders and he was terrific for three seasons. He was absolutely terrific and uh was really, you know, became a real a real important piece to that team. Uh that and and you know, and the other guys like on Tom Pod, they needed a good offensive defenseman, point man type of thing, a a latter-day Douggee Hamilton type uh as of today’s thing. And even though Tom Cody got run out of the Rangers, um and people wondered why I was signing him. Mhm. Well, I was signing him because he wasn’t going to be under the spotlight in in the island that he was in the in the Garden and and I knew he had a lot of talent. Um, as I told you, Chris Simon was something that um Teddy Nolan wanted. Um, and Brendan Wit was just like he he was a a hardnosed Washington Capitals defenseman for quite a while and we needed defense that year and so we were able to talk him into coming um coming over to the Islanders and it it turned out to be a good free agent summer for the Islanders for sure. and Whit, I mean I remember at the time he was one of the sort of top available guys and you know those guys generally didn’t sign with the Islanders but I remember like he was available and and he signed with the Islanders. I was like wow that’s actually a really big get for them because guys who with name recognition didn’t often you know sign with the Islanders and he brought I mean it’s he’s almost the exact opposite of Tom Pod. He’s the He’s like the defensive, you know, the gnarly kind of gritty type. And uh nothing was more gritty about Brendan Whit than that time he actually got hit by a car on the way to a game in Philadelphia. And that that legend will live on. And he played that night because you know that’s the kind of guy Brendan Whit was. But uh well, you know, the thing is is that I think that summer too, not to pat my own self on the back, but I think it wasn’t it was I was there. I had, you know, it wasn’t that long since we’d won the cup in New York and they knew who I was. I was well known and I think they thought, “Oh, it’s not so bad to sign with the Islanders. They’re they’re going in the right direction now. They’re going to turn in the right direction. I want to be there. I I I’ll consider them like I would anybody else.” And it was one of the few summers where it wasn’t a clown show. So, um, you know, and I think that’s why I was able to get those guys. Of course, unfortunately for those guys, they didn’t know that the circus was right around the corner and coming back in again. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I was going to say it’s it’s that’s a perfect segue because the clown show did eventually resume and this would have been on July 18th. It was a prime time run, even shorter than Joanie Loves Chachi. Neil Smith didn’t love Long Island and before the New York Islanders could even play a game under his leadership. His tenure as GM is over. He was hired along with new coach Ted Nolan June 8th and fired today, said Smith. Quote, “It was one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen in sports.” But maybe he should reevaluate that statement because how about his replacement? Gar Snow has retired as a player to become the new general manager of the team. Owner Charles Wang said that he spoke with Gar at length throughout the spring about the GM position and was really impressed with the goalie’s passion and knowledge. Last season was Snow’s fourth with the Isles and 12th in the NHL. He won 135 games in 368 appearances. [Applause] Unbelievable. 40 days after you were hired, you were let go by the Islanders over philosophical opposition to our business model, according to Charles Wong. And for from what it sounds like, he he wasn’t wrong, but like you said, that was never going to work. Like a committee a committee approach to managing a hockey team just ain’t going to work. No. And he claims that he had told me that before I got the job, which is all BS. He didn’t tell me that. As Brian Burke said, who who testified. They said, “Did Neil ever tell you that it was going to be run by committee?” And and he said, “No, cuz if you had told me, I would have told him never to go there.” So he says, “You can’t run a team like that.” And and and you know, Wong just wanted to do everything different than everybody else. Yeah. And you know, he didn’t he I I don’t know what he thought, but he he was um I was just happy to get out of there. Like I really was because I I couldn’t do it. I as I told you, I was depressed. I couldn’t do it. There was no way. Yeah. Did you go to like arbitration or something? Is that why Brian Burke? Yeah. because he didn’t want to pay uh Juan didn’t want to pay me after I this thing blew up. I hadn’t signed my contract. Why didn’t you sign your contract? Because I was too depressed. I didn’t want I didn’t know whether I wanted to stay or not. Wow. And so, but then he had to pay me something and he didn’t want to he didn’t want to pay me the contract. He wanted to just uh I don’t know what he wanted to do. And it ended up we went to arbitration in front of Gary Bman for all intents and purposes. Of course, the owner won. Uh cuz you’re, you know, but that’s okay. That’s the money’s the least of it really. It’s um I looking back, I’m glad I got out when I did, right? Um because life’s too short to to do stuff that you’re right depressed about. Yeah. Oh, for sure. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like you got out of there with your sanity, which is probably more valuable than whatever they would have paid you, but Yeah. I know. I I know. And it’s it’s great. I I mean I really appreciate you being as candid as you are here because you don’t often hear this like you know how how like mentally taxing a situation like this would be for somebody in this position. I mean there’s already a lot of pressure right? You’re a general manager of a hockey team. Like that’s a big deal. You got a lot of decisions to make but like even in this situation it’s just it sounds like it was really really rough on you and it’s well you have you have pride in your work. You have pride and you’ve honed your craft since 1980 and at that time it’s 2006. I’m you know I’ve been with Al Arbor been with Bill Tory. I’ve been with Bill Denine and Jimmy Dealano and on and on and on and now all of a sudden you’re going to tell me that I got a I’m only one of five that’s going to make decisions and and people that don’t have my experience are going to be like no that’s not happening. that is not happening because I I have too much pride in myself and I don’t want to be and this is the truth and I’ve said it before I’m not I will not be part of a clown show. Yeah. And that’s what it came down to. And I think that in fact I know that you know this all got back to Charles and I was not happy and that I was you know sort of bitching about the way things were there. And he’s right I was because I wasn’t going to do it. There’s no way you could and you couldn’t win running it that way. And guess what? I was proven right. The only re the only season they made the playoffs was a season that I did all the free agent work and they snuck in by the skin of their teeth at the last day on a penalty shots. And not penalty shots, sorry. Shootout. And um after that it was like back to the good old, you know, bottom of the league. Yeah, we talked about that. And what’s funny too is like the committee thing just went away and Gar was I mean Gar and Charles I guess were kind of in charge at that point. Well, I think that I think that G uh for some reason Charles had interviewed Gar to be GM while he was assist while he was backup goalie. Yeah. And then of course he decided, oh, I guess I can’t I guess I can’t make the backup goalie the GM. So I’ll hire this guy Smith. So then when he thought, I got to get rid of Smith because he’s bitching and whining too much. I’ll just go back and get G because he’ll do anything to be the GM, which he would. And so, you know, then then all of a sudden it was like, well, Gar didn’t know what he was doing. So, I’m sure he was saying to Charles, what do you want me to do here? What do you want me to do there? Because he had no clue what he was supposed to do. So, it was um as I said, it was a clown show. Just a just a clown show. Did you ever like talk with G about this? Because I mean, he’s been around ranks. No, never. No, I know G. I I I actually when he played in the league, I I was out with him a couple of one one night I remember in particular and he was he’s friends with some of my friends. Um but I’ve never spoken to him since uh since that happened. And now a word from our sponsors. First is always vintage icehockey.com where you can get t-shirts, hoodies, jerseys, and more featuring over 100 classic hockey logos. Vintage Ice Hockey now carries a full line of Islanders Anxiety merch featuring our blue and orange brain logo as well as our Al Arbor and the Island shirts. And as always, our portion of the sales go directly to the Center for Dementia Research. That is vintage [Music] icehockey.com. Try wines from the Pino Project. They offer a rosé, a penog grigio, and a pino noir that was named a top 100 best buy by Wine Enthusiast magazine. All are delicious, priced at less than $15 a bottle, and available at local wine shops and at ubs arena. Learn more at thepenorro.com. Please drink responsibly. But you mentioned before uh that you had known Bill Tor and Al Arb and Jimmy Dealano and this is where it gets back to what I was saying off the top which is this your association with the Islanders wasn’t just this 40 days in 2006. You go back to the island with the Islanders back to 1974 which was when they drafted you out of Western Michigan University. Before I go any further, how does it feel to be an NCAA champion with the Western Michigan Broncos? Yeah, I know. I’m happy for them. Uh it took it only took 50 years. Um you know I played on the very first Western Michigan Division One team. I was captain of that team in 1975. So at 2025 is 50 years later and they win the NCAA championship. And I’m very proud of the fact I didn’t realize it until I started thinking about it that I played in the first division one game as the captain for Western Michigan University and now they’ve won the national championship. So, as as a player, I’m very proud of that. But but I want to tell you something that I actually go back with the Islanders to 1972. Oh. And the reason for that is because I was friends with Jimmy Dealano. Jimmy ended up getting hired as a scout for the Islanders in 1972. And so, right from the beginning, I was Islanderentric because he was there and and you know, I was following them. And as you know in the in the first year when they were ravaged by the WH and they they were just horrible uh which led them to be a dynasty because they got Billy Harris in the very first draft uh when Atlanta got Jacqu Rashard second. Um they got Dennis Botman first in the the next draft, their second draft in the league. They got Clark Gillies and Brian Troche in their third draft in the league. And so you had the makings of a dynasty right there. And then you add to it Bossy and all the rest of them. The other part is that I I watched was Bill Tory uh hired a very popular guy to be the first coach of the Islanders, Phil Goyette, a former Ranger. And Phil Goyette came in and and uh when the team struggled the way it did that first year, struggled is a nice term actually. Uh it was worse than struggled. So then he decided that Earl Ingerfield was on the staff. So Earl would finish the year as coach of the Islanders. And then it was Jimmy and and some others that said, you know, Al Arbor was a really good coach in St. Louis and you can get him from from St. Louis. He was a good player, won multiple Stanley Cups as a player. And Bill Tory was smart enough to hire Al Arbor and away we go. You know, it’s just uh it’s it it was phenomenal. So I know the history of the Islanders extremely well and I know a lot of players like Jerry Hart and Jean Potvin and others that we’ve we’ve lost Spinner Spencer and Clark Gillies and uh you know of course Bossy and and others and I go way back with them. So I’ I’ve got a very much of a you know when you grow up someplace but you like let’s say you grow up in the town wherever that is and that’s home but then you know you go off to a bigger city somewhere and you work at a company or you do something and then they all think that you’re from there but you don’t you’re not really from there. You feel comfortable when you get back to that little town where you grew up. Right. And that’s me and the Islanders. Yeah. I’m comfortable when I’m back at the Islanders because that’s where I grew up. And uh Rich Tory, Bill’s son, is a very good friend of mine. Jay Arbor, who’s Al’s son, is a very good friend of mine. Sam Rosen I’ve known since way back then. Uh he was never the Islanders guy, but I just talked to Jigs McDonald yesterday. Um Eddie Westfall’s a friend. I mean, I go back with everybody. I can name everybody from those years. So you can see that I’m very very comfortable around the Islanders. Yeah. No, that that’s that’s amazing. And it’s funny because all this time, even when you were the Rangers GM, I knew that the Islanders had drafted you, but I didn’t realize that it was in 74, which was, like you just said, was the same draft as Gillies, Traier, uh I think Dave Longeran was also in that draft, like Stefan Stefan Pearson. Stefan Pearson. Like that’s an amazing that is one of the foundational drafts of this team. like you said, it helped build a dynasty. Like that’s amazing that you were part of that that draft class. I mean, we’re going to talk about, you know, your your playing career in a minute, but like again, that’s got to be just incredibly like satisfying to just be like, man, I was drafted in the same draft as Brian Trace. Like that’s crazy. And then the fact that you would go on to know Traier and know Gillies and all of these guys must make it feel like you feel like part of the club, bro. Well, and I pale in comparison as a player to those guys. So, I don’t even want to for one moment think that I was comparable to any of those guys you just mentioned, but I’m very proud of the fact that Troche and I are good friends. I’m I was friends with Clark. I’m I’m friends with Dennis, uh, friends with Ken Morrow. And in fact, I I’ll I’ll tell you for your listeners, my partner Vic Morren and I just did a 45th anniversary special with Dennis Potvin, Ken Morrow, and John Tanelli on the 45th anniversary of the 1980 Stanley Cup. And it’s coming out on May 24th. Oh, and that’s how comfortable I am with the Islanders that we would do that. So, it’s um it’s it’s really I’m very very proud of that time in my life and that that that’s was part of my life. I’m probably prouder of I’m I’m proud of my time with the Rangers, of course, and being able to accomplish something that no other live human beings have been able to do. But, um my d days with the Islanders were my foundational days and my upbringing as as a hockey person. Yeah. No, that that that’s amazing to hear. And I’m I’m so fascinated by that era. I mean, it’s before I was born in 76, so like a lot of this stuff is sort of before my time. When they won the cup, I was very very small. But that those sort of foundational years are so fascinating to me. We we did an episode of this show with an author named Greg Prao, who wrote about the first year of the Islanders. He has a book called Hless Islanders. We just did an episode with Alan Creda, who co-wrote the book with Ken Morrow. And it was just it’s just fascinating to go back and like all those foundational players and stories and stuff. I’ll never get tired of hearing that stuff. It’s amazing. Um, you so you were drafted. You played all four years at Western Michigan. You played a couple of seasons in the IHL. Uh, and then you joined the Islander scouting staff in 1980, and this would kind of kick off your your executive career. And some of the players drafted in this time, again, foundational players for the Islanders going forward. Brent Sutter, uh, Kelly Rudy, uh, Gordon, Pat Flattley. Um, I know you were new to the staff at that point. the guy running the those drafts. We’ll talk about again in a minute. You already mentioned him. Jim Devalano. What are your memories of of that that era? I mean, it’s different now. Like obviously now the draft is a big show and all the there’s a big table with all these people sitting there, but it wasn’t like that. But I mean, did you do you have any memories of kind of the decisions to take guys like Sutter, Rudy, and these other players that would go on to play for a long time? Well, again, full transparency, I was doing pro scouting for Al Arbor. I was doing uh pregame scouting. So I was in the trenches at NHL games all the time and not doing amateurs. Jimmy D, Jerry Eman, uh Henry Sarasino, uh Earl Ingerfield and others were doing the amateurs and Jimmy was was running that staff. And so I I might have been at some of the drafts, uh but I certainly wasn’t a decision maker in them like I was in Detroit. Um, I was I was just starting in the business, lucky to be with the Islanders, like falling out of heaven to fall into go from being a struggling IHL player to suddenly working with Al Arbor. Um, so, uh, those were really formative years for me, but I I do want to be honest, I I was not the guy that’s saying, “Yeah, we should pick Brent Sutter.” I I I didn’t have anything to do with it. That’s all right. I appreciate your honesty because you could have just said you were and I would have totally believed you. So, I appreciate that. Do you know how many times I’ve been asked, did I play in the NHL and I’ll and I’ll say no, never played a game, you know, because it and it would be so easy to say, oh yeah, I played for the Islanders, you know, and and unless they knew to look up on Hockey DB or look up on some site. Um, but I can’t do that. That’s not who I am. I’m I’ve got enough to say that that I don’t need to claim false things. I can claim the truth and still be good. Yeah, I I think I think being the only general manager since the advent of World War II to lead a team to the Stanley Cup, it’s probably a big enough deal that you don’t need to pick anything up, right? That’s pretty impressive. Um, but after a couple years with the Islanders, you did join the Red Wings staff, which you mentioned before, and this was when Jim Deano was the Red Wings GM. I read his book, uh, by the way, uh, which was terrific and went into a lot of those those early drafts and those early years for the Red Wings when they were really really struggling. But, um, this is, you know, again, a a different dynasty and it took a while for them to get there. But you’re talking about players that were drafted along the lines of Steve Eisermanman, Bob Probert, um, who else? Steve Chason, a lot of these Joe Murphy. Yeah. Joey Koser, Adam Graves, you can go on and on. There was, we had some real good drafts. And 89 was coined by Sports Illustrated as the best draft in sports, not hockey, sports history, because we ended up with five or six longtime NHL players in one draft. Yeah. Four guys that all played over a thousand games. Cylinger, Lidstrom, Fedorov, and Dallas Drake. And I mean, you took Nick Ledstrom in the third round and Sergey Feder in the fourth round. That’s just absurd. like you can’t like that’s a that’s un like again and this is th this is back in a time when like you know foreign players in one cases in Sweden or the Soviet Union this was a pretty rare thing like was there like was there a discussion about bringing these guys over was there a worry that maybe like you know they weren’t going to make it over here uh or was were you pretty confident that Sergey Federov was going to you know be kind of a big deal well you’re sort of confident that you knew if they ever did get out they’d be your best players. There was no players like them over here. And so um and it was different with Nicks for me was a Swede and we were at that time entering into the Finnish Swedish checks and Russians coming in and I was very young and I love going to Europe and that was part of the thing that helped Detroit because normally scouts are older guys. When I say older, I mean they’re, you know, they’re not in their 20s. And I was in my 20s and enjoying my time in Stockholm and Helsinki and Moscow and so on. So, um, that really helped us um, you know, be able to find find players and compare them to guys back uh, in North America. Um, and and again about the Russians, I think society was sort of headed in that direction, but you you knew to wait and that if you waited and you got them, they’d be tremendous. Yeah. Yeah. No, for sure. And that that was proven time again. We saw them here with the devils, you know, when with Yeah. And that’s who really started it, right? when Fetisoft came to the Devils and was allowed to go to the Devils by the government, um that sort of opened the door to getting more and more out of there. Yeah. Yeah. No, it was it was a wild time and and again c certain teams were able to take advantage of that. Like the Red Wings, like the Devils, the Islanders, not so much. They got a couple of good players out of it. Well, they got Casperitis. Yeah, they got Casperitis. Yeah. 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A lens personalized to you by an SLRO expert. Discover Verilux XR Track and enjoy instantly sharp vision in motion and seamless transitions from near to far. Find your local Eselor expert today at eselor.com. Um, but real quick on on Jim Devalano, you know, we we talk a lot about Bill Tory Al Arbor. Obviously, you mentioned Henry Sarasino before who was, you know, instrumental in drafting Mike Bossy. So, we have these guys that sort of come up, you know, the non-players that come up and uh and make a a big impression on the team. Jim Dealano, unfortunately, hasn’t been that. I mean, I think it’s because he spent more time in Detroit. He’s with he’s still with in Detroit now and you know maybe at that point he people kind of think of him as a Detroit guy but you obviously go back with him even before you know coming to the Islanders like what what was working with him like and and you know what was your relationship like with him or is your relationship like with him because again he’s a very important play person in Islanders history it just doesn’t come up that often. No. And that’s because he left, you know, he left after the third cup, right? And so, you know, I mean, I I think that, you know, that the the credit goes and rightfully so to Bill Tory and Al Arbor. Um, Jimmy D should be in the Islanders Hall of Fame because he’s still around and he still made all those great picks or helped make them all. You can never say one guy made the pick, but he helped uh make make some tremendous draft choices uh in the entry draft and um really was a huge asset for Bill Tory in my opinion because Bill Tory was not a pure hockey guy. Like he wasn’t a guy that had spent his life honing his craft just in hockey. He’d been ice capes in Pittsburgh and done other things. um obviously was a very bright uh guy, a very bright businessman, a really quick learner, but I think Jimmy Dealano um and his work ethic and his every night at games along with Jerry Eman and Earl Ingerfield and others um that that was where they really excelled. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree that that whole group was again I can just I could hear stories about those guys. the uh the Henry Sarcino story again about you know saying con you know he was so adamant that they should draft Bossi that he just basically convinced everybody else I forget who who they wanted well that story here’s how that story goes so uh Henry Sarosino goes to Lavel every Monday night to watch the Lavel national that was the name of the team when Bossi was there and he’s telling Jimmy and everybody all season you got to see this kid Michelle they call him Michelle Bossy back then you got to see this guy he can score he can score and Jimmy had a guy in the OHL named Dwight Foster that was playing for the Kitchener Rangers. And so, you know, of course, the guys from the East wanted the Dwight Foster, but Henry Sarasino said, you know, you you’re not going to find a guy like this. So, Al Arbor at the draft table said, “Tell me about these two guys.” They told him, and Al said, “Let’s take the guy that can score goals. I can I can teach him how to play better defensively, but I can’t teach a guy how to score goals.” Yeah. And so if he’s a natural goal scorer, let’s go with him. And that’s how they took Mike Bossy. That’s crazy. Yeah. It’s still crazy to this day. The Leafs and Rangers each passed him twice. He went 15th. It’s crazy. Just much like, you know, again, drafting Lstrom third in the third round and Federov in the fourth. Like it’s just it’s just crazy that these these guys are just there and they’re just there and then boom, you they’re in the Hall of Fame, multiple Stanley Cups and all that kind of stuff. Um just a few more for you, Neil. And again, I really really appreciate you staying on with me and all these great stories. Um, the Islanders currently, as you and I are talking, it’s May 13th. The Islanders have the first overall pick. Uh, nobody expected them to leave Sakus with that pick, but they’ve got it. And there’s a few guys that, you know, they can take. Although, one guy, uh, Matthew Schaefer, the defenseman, seems to have uh, kind of the the inside edge as far as first overall picks go. Uh, there’s a sentimental pick obviously in there as well. when you have a first overall pick, like how does that change the sort of, you know, uh the metrics for you as for a team, I should say, as either a general manager or as a head scout? Is is there anything different there that you can do as opposed to like when you have say a seventh overall pick or, you know, a 10th overall pick or a 28th overall pick? Like this is the first pick. It seems like there’s a lot more pressure involved here than just, you know, taking the best player available. Absolutely. And unfortunately for the Islanders, according to what I’m hearing, and not what I’m seeing, but what I’m hearing is there’s no real generational player here. There’s no Bard. There’s no Conor McDavid. Um and so, you know, you’re going to get a good player maybe, you know, like Lefrenor is in um New York. Uh not you’re not going to get a Jack Hughes. Yeah. Um so, but you’ve got to get it right. And when I say get it right, you know, in a year like this, you could pick first overall and the guy picked third overall ends up being a better player. That could happen very very easily. But you got to make sure you get a player who’s going to play for a long time. He might he might it might end up he’s the best guy, you know, long term that came out of the draft. It might end up that he’s second or third best, but he’s got to be in that group. You can’t make a mistake. and when you’ve got this one chance. And so, um, unfortunately what I find with fans, and it happens a lot in the city in New York, uh, with the Rangers, they’re unmerciles on like Capo Kako, who is second overall to Jack Hughes. Yeah. Because they were always disappointed that he wasn’t nearly as good as Jack Hughes in their view. Well, you know what? Kappo Kako is an NHL player. Kappako is a contributing NHL player and there there was nothing wrong with Kappako being drafted there and and then but they they basically ran him out I think from what I watched and um you know they’re they’re now they’re down on Lefren too because of course um he slid backwards this year but the whole team slid backwards like a slipping into quicksand. Um, so this is what can happen. Going back to the Islander pick, they just got to get it right. And when I say get it right, you know what? just you don’t necessarily have like it’s so close that you know and if and if and if here’s the other thing I say is that if your scouts and your people think that it’s very close it’s a tossup between the kid from Long Island and the kid from some place else take the kid from Long Island because let the fans and the thing have a local guy on the team and but if it’s not close then you can’t take the guy from Long Island. You have to pick the best guy. Yeah, that that seems to be about right. Uh Mike and I, we recorded as soon as that the lottery was over and we were all about James Higgins and then you know after hearing people talk I I didn’t realize I had never heard of Matthew Schaefer before that moment. Like we had only ever talked about Hagens because we didn’t think you know the Islanders would ever have a shot at getting him. And so it’s kind of funny that uh here we are and all of a sudden it’s like yeah maybe Higgins isn’t the right guy. Maybe Schaefer is the right guy. But we won’t know uh for for another few weeks. Alan, and then just to throw one last comment on that. And here’s the problem. So, this is going to be the draft of 2025. And if in if they don’t take the kid from Long Island, and in 2028, he’s a great player somewhere else, the they’re going to say, “Can you believe they had a kid right from Long Island in the draft and they overlooked him to take this guy?” Yeah. That’s what’s going to happen. Yeah. Oh, don’t worry. We we’ve gone through that scenario on the show. Yeah, it’s possible. But, uh, yeah, you know, if yeah, if he’s playing in Nashville or some of that, my my only hope is if that does happen, it is nowhere on the East in the Eastern Conference. If it’s Nashville, okay, great. If it’s San Jose, great. If it’s Chicago, great. If it’s Philly, not so great. Uh, but no, that Yeah, that’s uh No, that that’s great insight and and you’re right. You know, if it’s close, yeah, maybe. But this one doesn’t sound It sounds sort of close, but maybe not too close. But again, we’ll have to see. But it’s just uh there’s a lot of pressure there. Um, just a couple more for you. Um, we have been dancing around your Stanley Cup with the Rangers. It wasn’t just a Stanley Cup with the Rangers. Uh, it was three Patrick Division titles, two President’s Trophies, uh, obviously an Eastern Conference Championship and, uh, a cup. So, I mean, and plus two, uh, very decisive playoff series victories against the Islanders. We don’t need to go into the details of those. We already have a couple episodes of this show. Um, but and this is where I do some very deaf podcasting here, uh, where I turn a Rangers question into an Islanders question. Uh, when you were hired by the Islanders, you said that the Islanders showed me what it takes to whip, uh, again through your your long, uh, time with them. So, what lessons did you take from observing the Islanders, you know, working with the Islanders, playing, you know, in the minors for the Islanders? What lessons did you take from that group that did help you get the Rangers over the hump in 1994? You know, I I think it it was just the attitude that you had to have to ultimately win. And the attitude that the only thing that’s good enough is a Stanley Cup. Nothing else is good enough. We don’t want to end in we don’t want to we don’t want to get to the second round, third round. No, we want to win the cup and we have to win the cup. And when I was there with Al and Bill, that was all they that’s all they thought about. We have to win the cup. And the year before I got there, which was 1980, I’d been at training camp in 1978, and Al Arbor came into our locker room uh into, you know, at racket and rink. And he said, um, well, he said, uh, obviously there’s, uh, some some opportunity here. He says, we can’t be that great because we haven’t won anything, so there’s a chance. And then he walked back out. And I thought to myself, holy moly. I mean, there’s the attitude is that like, you’re no good until you won. And and that was my attitude and still is to this day is that you know what? There’s only there’s only one thing I want to do, and that’s win the cup. And I was like that in New York, too. And I I it seemed like a far-fetched dream to be able to do it in New York because so many had tried and nobody had been able to do it. Um, but through some luck and through some smart things I guess we did, we were able to do it. And I’ll give you a secret here that u people wouldn’t know. Greg Gilbert was on that Ranger team. And Greg Gilbert I knew from his rookie year with the Islanders. And Greg Gilbert and I associated each other with the Islander days. And when I went onto the ice when we won the cup for the Rangers, I looked at Gibby. I grabbed him by the arms. I said, “Gibby, we did it for these Can you believe it? We did it for these assholes.” And that’s the God’s honest truth. That is absolutely amazing. That’s one of the most amazing things I’ve heard on an episode. That’s unbelievable. Well, and and it was said in it was said in in justest, but in sort of like where we came from, right? And and we had come from there. Now we’re here, the hated rival that we had. Yeah. And we worked so hard to get our hated rival, the Stanley Cup, and it was just seemed approp. But it was in laughter, you’re saying. You know, it wasn’t it wasn’t like I mean, I love the Ranger fans, of course, they love me, but but it it was more like, can you believe it? We did it. I know. You know, it was the unbelievable dream. Yeah. I mean, you spent how many years working in and around the Islanders, and here you are with the Rangers, winning the Cup. And again, the first Cub for the Rangers since the, you know, before World War II. That had to have been unbelievable. And uh uh that that’s so funny. I’m sure you guys had a had a great laugh after that and uh and enjoyed the cup. Uh Neil, this has been so fantastic. I cannot thank you enough. Uh you you’ve been just so gracious with your time and so candid. It it’s really mind-boggling to be honest with you. Um tell everybody where they can find the NHL wraparound podcast. I know everybody’s going to be on the lookout for this Islanders 45th anniversary uh episode that’s going to come up on May 24th. Again, perfect timing. But please tell everybody what it’s all about and where they can find it. Well, NHL wraparound podcast is is really um uh about what’s going on in hockey today, but also associating with it with what’s gone on in the past and trying to draw some parallels from a couple of old guys that have been around a long time and um really enjoy today’s hockey, but also have a great affection for the past. So, um, this is not a podcast that you want if you want to sit around and listen to guys talk like locker room talk and talk, you know, about, uh, their days in playing and running around trying to get girls and all that. This is more about trying, you know, if if you want to catch up on what happened last night in the NHL in in the Stanley Cup playoffs, we have a thing called Stanley Cup dates, which we do every day about what’s gone on, opinions, you know, different things. We have great guests on every week. Uh today we had Dave Jackson on from ESPN, you know, the referee that is the analyst. Uh that will come out uh tomorrow. And um uh we really have a lot of fun doing it. And what our hope is is that you’ll learn something each and every episode that you wouldn’t have known had you not listened. And I think even in doing this with you, we’ve given your listeners a couple of things here that they wouldn’t have known had they not listened to your podcast. So that’s our goal and I think that should be the goal of every podcast and every show is to deliver to people something that they wouldn’t have known because that makes it worth listening to. So you can find NHL Wraparound on Apple, Spotify, uh Amazon, YouTube, everything. It’s everywhere and we’re hoping to get more subscribers. We don’t have enough. We’re only in it 15 months, but we know it’s a long-term play. Yeah. No. Uh, it’s great. I’ve listened to it. I’ll put a link in there uh so people can find it. But I think we’ll get you some more subscribers. But no, it’s great. And like you said, it’s about learning stuff and getting different perspectives and that’s what we do, too. Like, you know, it’s all about finding different perspectives. And your perspective on all of these topics throughout Islanders history and even modern day, you know, what they should do with their pick have been fantastic. We have just another minute and I have to ask you this question because sometimes you see stuff on the internet, you’re not sure if it’s real or not. And I have you here and so I have to ask you this question and I hope it’s true. I read on a an old scouting report thing here that in 1983 you played a hockey player in a TV miniseries called Range of Angels starring one of my favorite Charlie’s Angels, Jacqueline Smith. A is that true? and B, what can you tell me about the filming of this and your uh, you know, kind of associations if if any with Jacqueline Smith? Well, it is true what happened was that summer um the uh Armand Asante was in that movie with Jaclyn Smith. He was the male star and they were at a hockey game supposedly. This was part of the screenplay. And they got Billy Smith to dress up in his in his uniform as an Islander and they got Rich Tory and me to be the skaters as Rangers. Oh wow. And they they they froze half the ice at Nassau Coliseum so that we could uh film this part. And what it was was when you watch the movie, you’ll see that Jacqueline Smith and Arman Desante were in the stands and Billy Smith came out and hit me and supposedly a big fight broke out and it was just part of their scene in the movie that they were talking or whatever they were [Music] doing. Oh my god. Yeah. You see see number three. Number three right here. Yeah. That’s the Rangers policeman. You guys are not out there. He’d get killed. No. Every team is a policeman. It’s a player who’s sitting just as an enforcement. I see. An enforcement. The player is sitting by the coach. Players are getting roughed up. In goes a policeman and it uh generally it ties over the other team. So why are they fighting? Both teams sending their policemen. Come on. Come on. Get out of here. I got my picture with Jacqueline Smith. I still have that. Um she was beautiful. A beautiful woman as you know. Yeah. Um and uh I got to meet Armand Sante. And you know I don’t know if we even I don’t know if we got paid anything to do it. I got to ask Rich Tory. Yeah. But it was but it was it isn’t it though insane that they cast me as a ranger. Yeah. I know. I was going to say that’s really funny. Like that’s really that’s it’s insane. It’s insane that these things that happen earlier in life that that uh show up later in life and uh yeah. No, that’s all true. Wow, that’s crazy. Uh it’s even not only is it crazy that you played a ranger in that movie, but how was Rich Tory even allowed back in his house after having to wear a Rangers jersey in a TV movie? He must have been like, “Dad, it’s just a TV just I swear it’s just for the movie.” Uh this has been fantastic, Neil. Thank you so much. Uh I normally I would throw it to Mike at this point, but any final thoughts on your very brief, but frankly very productive and uh memorable, shall we say, for lack of a better word, uh time running the Islanders? I can only tell you this. I would love to be with the Islanders today. I would love to be around the Islanders, not in not necessarily as a GM, not necessarily as anything, but a as as part of the Islanders. And um I it’s sad that that didn’t work out. I’m glad that I did what I did and I left and I I’m I’m glad that I have on my resume the fact that I was able to do for the Islanders what I did in a very short period of time. But I would I would love to contribute to see the Islanders go back and and succeed again. I enjoy my my uh role with UBS and being able to go to the games uh and and see all the Islander fans and and a lot of people that whisper in my ear, I’m really a Ranger fan, you know. Uh but uh no it’s it’s it was not enjoyable being there then but what’s enjoy what was enjoyable was seeing that what I did was productive and it was and uh and we remember it and again we we thank you for some players that we came to know and love as Islanders. We really appreciate it. I really appreciate you coming on with us. Thanks again. Uh become a member of patreon.comersanxiety for ad free episodes and bonus content. Find us on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Audible. You know all the drill. Our theme song is Knuckles by Bjorn Faulk. Listen to more of Bjornne’s music on Band Camp and Spotify. Relight House hockey every single day for your most upto-date islanders news and discussion. Islanders anxiety podcast are part of the fans for sports network. Shop icehockey.com. Try wines from the pino project. Until next time, keep the islanders weird and we’ll talk to you soon. Take care. Bye-bye. [Music] Cookie. Wow.
Dan is joined by former Islanders GM Neil Smith, who talks candidly about his his long association with the club and 40-day tenure in the front office.
While he is still mostly connected to their chief rival, Smith has been part of the Islanders going back to their very beginnings. He was a draft pick (https://www.hockeydraftcentral.com/1974/74204.html) , a player and a scout before finally getting his chance to be their GM (https://www.espn.com/nhl/news/story?id=2475855) in the summer of 2006 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybw045OJAtQ) . But the unorthodox ideas of owner Charles Wang clashed with what Smith (and everyone else) knew was the proper way to run an NHL team. Although he was let go after just month-and-a-half (https://www.espn.com/nhl/news/story?id=2522886) , many of his decisions would benefit the Islanders for years to come.
Smith speaks very plainly about getting hired by Wang, the personal distress the job caused him and his acrimonious dismissal, as well as his relationships with fellow “committee” members Ted Nolan and Bryan Trottier, and the acquisitions of players like Kyle Okposo, Mike Sillinger, Brendan Witt and Chris Simon. He also tells us how the dynasty Islanders figured into the Rangers 1994 Stanley Cup championship and how the Islanders should approach having the first overall pick in this year’s draft.
We also hear some great stories about helping build another champion in Detroit, being the first D1 captain for the current NCAA champion Western Michigan Broncos and working with Jaclyn Smith and Armand Assante on a TV miniseries in 1983 (https://youtu.be/ovTMbIC8ahE?si=x-N4xXQaY405l2bX&t=2479) . We cover a lot in an hour so buckle up.
Thanks again to Neil for coming on and being so open and honest. Be sure to check out his NHL Wraparound podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nhl-wraparound-podcast/id1723760398) , especially their upcoming special celebrating the 45th anniversary of the Islanders’ first Stanley Cup, which releases (appropriately) on May 24th.
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