Garth Snow breaks silence on John Tavares debacle in Long Island.

 Although it has been many years now since former New York Islanders captain John Tavares made the decision to leave the Islanders and sign a long-term deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the wounds caused by his departure have yet to fully heal. You can see this simply by watching the Maple Leafs when they play in Long Island, with Tavares being loudly booed every time he steps out onto the ice and every time he touches the puck, even now over 7 years later.

Many fans in Long Island will likely never forgive Tavares for what they view as a betrayal, but surprisingly one man has now stepped forward to defend his former player, former Islanders GM Garth Snow.

After many years of being silent, while he still received payments from the Islanders organization, the former National Hockey League goaltender is now speaking out about his tenure within the organization. Among the topics covered by Snow was that fateful day on July 1st of 2018, when Tavares made his final decision to leave the Islanders. According to Snow, it is not Tavares but rather current Islanders owner Scott Malkin who should be blamed for how the situation played out.

"That decision by Scott Malkin was that we weren’t gonna trade him under any circumstances," Snow said as per the New York Post. "He was totally committed to re-signing him. I think the quote I had said is, ‘Are you willing to drive the car off the cliff if you go through the season and get to free agency?’ He was comfortable with that. That’s the bottom line."

In fact it seems that Snow feels that Malkin made it difficult for him to perform his duties as Islanders GM, a mistake that Malkin himself may have learned from.

"There were things I’d recommend that got shot down," said Snow of working with Malkin. "And then I chuckled when Lou [Lamoriello] got hired and well, they’re gonna go do the things I recommended."

When it comes to John Tavares however Snow appears to have nothing but sympathy for his former player, a former player that he feels has been unfairly criticized for the decisions of ownership.

"I feel so bad that [Tavares] gets trashed for something that wasn’t his fault," Snow said. “The Islanders could have traded him if they wanted to, but that decision was made. So it’s not his fault the Islanders didn’t trade him."