Thomas Vanek was traded from the Islanders to the Canadiens making a loser of GM Garth Snow.
Getty Images/Kathy Kmonicek

The Islanders traded Thomas Vanek to the Canadiens  for prospect Sebastian Collberg and a second round pick. Vanek wasn’t willing to re-sign with the Islanders forcing Garth Snow to a corner. Vanek moves to Montreal as a rental before becoming unrestricted this summer.

Considering what Snow paid the Sabres for Vanek giving up Matt Moulson, a 2014 first round pick and second rounder in 2015, it looks awful. Buffalo also turned around and shipped Moulson to the Wild with Cody McCormick for Torrey Mitchell and a draft pick. We don’t know what pick they got back. But you can add it to a 1 this year and 2 next year for Vanek.

Analysis: The Islanders had no choice. Vanek already rejected an extension and wasn’t returning. At the time, I understood the gamble Snow took hoping to catch lightning in a bottle with a healthy John Tavares, Frans Nielsen and an improved Kyle Okposo. However, he never addressed the goalie situation if Evgeni Nabokov got injured. That along with a thin defense that needed Lubomir Visnovsky to stay healthy doomed them. Josh Bailey has been a huge underachiever. At least Michael Grabner has come around and might reach 20 goals.

Snow did a better job retrieving two picks from the Flyers in exchange for Andrew MacDonald yesterday. Calvin de Haan has at least emerged into a top four defenseman the organization believed he could be. A lot of upside there. But the Islanders come away big losers this season.