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Snow on Vanek trade: Isles ‘need to take the next step’

garthsnowgetty

However you feel about Matt Moulson, the New York Islanders made a statement trade by giving up the winger and two quality draft picks to land Thomas Vanek. Isles GM Garth Snow didn’t deny the impact to TSN’s Bob McKenzie.

“We had opportunity to acquire an elite player and given where we we are right now, you go for it.” Snow said. “If we hadn’t drafted so well, if we didn’t have good prospects, we couldn’t afford to take the risk.”

The Islanders currently find themselves in the bubble area of the East at eighth overall with 11 points (4-4-3), a mediocre record that prompted Snow to make a big trade, as Newsday’s Arthur Staple reports.

“I didn’t like the way we’d been playing,” Snow said. “We’re better than our record indicates and we need to take the next step.”

“Thomas is an elite player in this league and he’ll help us now and in the future.”

The “in the future” part is interesting, as Snow admitted they hadn’t started contract extension talks with the 29-year-old sniper. Then again, maybe the Islanders GM is thinking more big picture. This team hasn’t made many splashy moves, with their boldest ones sometimes earning protest-like responses from eventual converts such as Lubomir Visnovsky and Evgeni Nabokov.

As fans imagine how Vanek might work with world-class center John Tavares, others can’t help but wonder if Snow has anything else up his sleeves.

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins