NY Islanders: Making the CSA look functional

[marktci]

Neil Smith is no longer general manager of the New York Islanders.

Sources tell TSN the Islanders fired Smith, but it's unclear at this point why. The team is expected to make a formal announcement shortly.

Smith was hired as GM of the Islanders during the Stanley Cup final, at the same time the team hired Ted Nolan as head coach.

He replaced Mike Milbury, who announced in January he would step down from the position after helping find a replacement. Milbury assumed a position as vice president of Islanders owner Charles Wang's sports properties.

Smith was the New York Rangers' GM from 1989-2000 and assembled the team that ended their 54-year Stanley Cup championship drought in 1994. He worked as a television analyst after being fired by the team after the 1999-2000 season. He first served as a scout with the Isles and owns a Stanley Cup ring from the 1981-82 season before taking a job as scout with the Detroit Red Wings.

Over the last three weeks, Smith worked to make quick improvements to the Islanders lineup by adding free agent forwards Chris Simon, Mike Sillinger, and Andy Hilbert, as well as defencemen Brendan Witt and Tom Poti.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=171632&hubname=

The two themes of the comments below the article are "Milbury the new GM?" and "Did Ted Nolan throw him under the bus already?"

Update: Garth Snow has been named as the new GM. Curiouser and curiouser.

[sstackho]

Wow, I'd heard Nolan labelled as a "GM Killer" before, but this is impressive!