Neil Smith slams Islanders’ offseason: Haven’t ‘improved at all’
NY Post
A former Islanders and Rangers executive seemed to be less than impressed with the Isles’ offseason moves with the NHL season quickly approaching.
Neil Smith, the general manager who built the 1994 Stanley Cup-winning Rangers and infamously spent only 40 days in the GM’s chair on Long Island before being fired by former Isles’ owner Charles Wang, believes that the Islanders are “stuck in park” after a relatively quiet offseason.
Smith was discussing the Islanders on the “NHL Wraparound Podcast,” which he co-hosts, when he made the comments on the Metropolitan Division preview episode.
“I don’t see this team having improved at all,” Smith said. “I don’t think they’ve moved. I think they’re stuck in park to be honest with you.”
The Islanders are going into their seventh season with Lou Lamoriello as general manager and are coming off a relatively quiet offseason in which their biggest addition was signing free agent forward Anthony Duclair to a four-year, $14 million contract.
Even that addition seemed to raise some questions for Smith.
