Is Garth Snow the biggest dick in Hockey?

What a crazy story this Evgeni Nabokov mess has turned into.  For those of you that have been living under a rock, last Thursdays the Detroit Red Wings signed the net minder to contract to help them out between the pipes for the reminder of the season.   Since Nabokov played for the Russian KHL this season, he had to go on waivers in order to be allowed to play in the NHL.   There are a lot of other kinks to the waiver rules that apply to players that have played in Europe that wish to sign mid season in the NHL, but I will go into those at another time. 

The point is that NY Islander's GM Garth Snow pulled a series of dick moves this week that made no sense to anyone in the hockey world.  Actually not much that happens in Long Island makes much sense in the NHL these days.  

OK, back to dick move #1.   Nabokov's  agent, knowing that every other team had the option of stealing his client off waivers, sent out an email to all the GM's stating that Nabby would not report to any team that was not in serious contention for a playoff spot, and also in need of a legitimate number 1 goaltender.   The Islanders fit neither of these criteria.   Nabokov made it clear when he went to the KHL in the first place that he was getting far along in his career to play for a rebuilding team.  He wants to help a team win a cup, plain and simple.  And That is understandable.

Now Snow knew full well that he was not going to get Nabokov to come play for his pathetic team.  He was told before hand, but seeing his goal-tending situation is an utter failure at the present time, he decided to be a selfish dick and put in a claim anyways.   Being so far down in the standings, even if someone else put in a claim, due to the rules, he would have been awarded Nabby anyways.  (Dick move 1.5)

Once Garth wasted everyone's time, he was left with 2 options:  Put Nabby back on waivers (attempting a trade would result in waivers too)  or 2 was to suspend Nabokov, which means he would neither get paid, or playe anywhere else, or if he really wants to be a dick, and seeing as a dick trend is developing here, he could go the NHL and through some loopholes in the rules, have the NHL declare that Nabokov OWES the Islanders a season and HAS to play for them for a whole season next year.   Man, talk about having someone by the balls!

Well today, according to the Islanders official web site, they have decided to suspend Nabokov (Dick move #2).  Hopefully old Garth takes his head out of his ass long enough to realize that being a dick is taking money out of this man's pocket, out of his children's pockets while we are at it,  ( I know these people are millionaires, but still, the principle applies) and decides not to go and fuck this dude over next year by handcuffing him to his shitty team.   Let the poor bastard earn a living  for a contender.

I mean sure, I know you don't want to pay this guy $500,000 for nothing, but you could have just put him back on waivers and let things pan out.  You were not going to get anything form him in a trade anyway.  You fucked everyone over, including yourself, and the fact that you were warned before you pulled the trigger shows (once again) how intelligently run the Islanders franchise is run.

Or maybe next year Snow and team owner Mr. Wang (his real name, I am not even gonna make a joke here) will offer Nabby a 25 year, $3 billion contract to back up the never hurt, rock solid Rick Dipietro between the pipes.  That actually sounds plausible for this franchise.  Just please don't make it 3 dick moves in this situation.

Sorry, but I couldn't resist this ( I know I said I wouldn't make any Wang jokes, but this makes too much sense)  I guess this is what you  get when cross Islanders GM Mr Snow and team owner Mr Wang....

photo: Pavel Ševela / Wikimedia Commons.

Anyway...
That's all for now.

Till next time...

STAY ANGRY!!