Yesterday Islanders General Manager Garth Snow traded the teams best Defenseman James Wisniewski to the Montreal Canadiens for draft picks. Here's the story from nhl.com:
The Montreal Canadiens added a level of offense to their blueline Tuesday, acquiring defenseman James Wisniewski from the New York Islanders in exchange for a pair of draft picks.
The 26-year-old Wisniewski is having a career offensive season for the Islanders, with his 21 points tying him for the team lead. He also has a team-best 18 assists.
Wisniewski automatically becomes the highest-scoring defenseman in Montreal in the absence of Andrei Markov, who is out for the season with a knee injury. Markov had 1 goal in seven games prior to his injury; as a team, the Canadiens have just 11 goals from their blue line.
Roman Hamrlik's 3 goals and 16 points currently lead Montreal's defensemen.
Wisniewski will join his fourth team in six NHL seasons. A 2002 fifth-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks, Wisniewski was dealt to the Islanders during the summer after posting a career-best 30 points in 69 games with the Anaheim Ducks.
In 286 NHL games with the Blackhawks, Ducks and Islanders, Wisniewski has 20 goals, 118 points and 282 penalty minutes.
The Islanders will receive a second-round compensatory pick the Canadiens were due to receive at the 2011 Entry Draft. If the Canadiens make the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs and Wisniewski plays in at least 50 percent of the Canadiens' playoff games, the Islanders will receive the Canadiens' 2012 fifth-round pick; if that pick is unavailable the Islanders will get a fourth-round pick in 2013.
This is starting to make me wonder what is going through the mind of Garth Snow. I can understand this from Montreal's perspective, in that they need a good solid defenseman who can move the puck well and put points on the board. The Canadiens needed the help, with the loss of Andre Markov for the year with a knee injury. But the Islanders got basically nothing back in return for him but draft picks. I can understand Snow wanting to try and build his team through the draft and things like that but I mean come on. I would think that Wisniewski might have been able to draw a little more than just draft picks away from the Habs. I would think he would be worth a little more than what the Islanders got for him.
And what makes this move even more questionable is the timing of it. Most already know that the Islanders are a banged up hockey club as it is. But trading away one of your better players, and right now your best healthy defenseman isn't exaxtly a smart idea. Not only that, but the timing of the trade is also a bit off because it comes 1 day before having to face the Pittsburgh Penguins who are one of the hotter teams in the NHL right now and have by far the hottest player in the game in Sidney Crosby come in riding a 25-Game point scoring streak. In the overall scheme of thinngs the trade as a whole just dosen't make much sense.
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