Former Isles GM clears up Tavares free agency debacle, provides clarity on what actually happened

In the five years since his departure from Long Island, John Tavares has endures boos and thrashings from Islander fans and the vitriol hasn't softened over time. Many believe Tavares played them and knew he was going to leave when the time came. However, his former GM in along Island, Garth Snow, spoke to the New York Times and explained the entire situation, even defending Tavares.

"He didn't do anything wrong," said Snow. "I feel so bad that [Tavares] gets trashed for something that wasn't his fault. The Islanders could have traded him if they wanted to, but that decision was made. So it's not his fault the Islanders didn't trade him."

Snow revealed that the decision to keep Tavares and not trade him at the deadline came from ownership.

"That decision by Scott Malkin was that we weren't gonna trade him under any circumstances. He was totally committed to re-signing him. I think the quote I had said is, 'Are you willing to drive the car off the cliff if you go through the season and get to free agency?' He was comfortable with that. That's the bottom line."


Snow also admitted that the Islanders were willing to offer Tavares $10M per season during the summer of 2017, but that talks never went very far, which is somewhat surprising. The Islanders had been trying to sign Tavares for a year before hopped north of the boarder to Toronto. With the decision to keep him and risk losing him for nothing coming down from ownership, it makes his treatment from the fanbase even more embarrassing.

Source: NYPost