by all accounts the NYI should ahve been a power house in the mid/late/early 2000s.
looks at their picks from 1991 onward.
Zigmund Palffy
Darius Kasparaitis
Todd Bertuzzi
Bryan McCabe
Tommy Salo - G
Wade Redden
J.P. Dumont
Zdeno Chara
Roberto Luongo
Eric Brewer
Tim Connolly
Raffi Torres
Frans Nielsen

obviously the 1999 draft killed them. having the 5, 8, 10, and 28 picks should be good but....
actaully the entire 1999 draft sucked, other then the sedins

This just proves how a bad front office, and owner who was more concerned about the land around the arena can be detrimental to a team.

I remember a story that was done by HNIC about this team. they had all the tools to be a very very good team. They showed how the team would look like if they didnt trade these players away and it was staggering how good they would have been done.
But the NYI have been like this. dominate in the 80s then lost in the woods till JT came, but now....I have no idea where they are going. A few nice pieces and the Lou/Trotts factor helps.

I know that it is very early on, but I feel like they will trend up. I respect Snow for what he did, he did a lot better than Millbury ever did for the Isles, but he just couldn't pull the trigger when it was needed. I think it had a lot to do with the Vanek trade. Losing JT is a huge set back for the franchise, but if Barzal is groomed the right way I honestly can see him better than JT. Hopefully Lou can bring this team to a competitive level in a few years.