T1B

Islanders to hire coach and GM
By IRA PODELL, AP Sports Writer
June 7, 2006


Neil Smith built one champion in New York, now he'll try to do it again.

Smith, who constructed the New York Rangers championship team that ended a 54-year Stanley Cup wait, will be introduced as the general manager of the New York Islanders, a person with knowledge of the hirings told The Associated Press on Wednesday night.

He is not coming to Long Island alone. The Islanders also hired Ted Nolan -- a former NHL coach of the year -- to lead the team from behind the bench, the person said on condition of anonymity because the official announcement won't be made until Thursday.

Smith was GM for the Rangers from 1989-2000, putting together the team that won a Stanley Cup in 1994. He's been out of the NHL since being fired by the Rangers, working as a television analyst. He was in Raleigh, N.C., on Wednesday night for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals but was unavailable for comment.

Smith was chosen by the Islanders in the 13th round of the 1974 draft but never made it to the NHL. He later served as a scout and was part of the organization during its run to four straight Stanley Cup titles in the early 1980s.

Nolan last coached in the NHL in 1997. He won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year in his last season with Buffalo, but he and the Sabres parted ways following a contract dispute.

He was a finalist for the Islanders' coaching job in 2001 when New York hired current Carolina coach Peter Laviolette. Laviolette, who is unsigned past this season, emerged as a potential candidate for one or both Islanders positions in recent days.

But he is expected to remain with the Hurricanes, who took a 2-0 lead in Stanley Cup finals by beating Edmonton on Wednesday night.

"I don't have any conceivable reason why he wouldn't be back," Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos Jr. said shortly before the game. "And if you could tell me what the market value of a coach is, I'd be very interested."

The 47-year-old Nolan coached the Moncton Wildcats of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this past season.

The Islanders' regime change started in January, when longtime GM Mike Milbury announced he would step down from the position after helping find a replacement.

The same day, coach Steve Stirling was fired and Brad Shaw was brought in on an interim basis.

Shaw, who was in Ottawa, said Wednesday night he read online reports of the hirings and had received many phone calls asking about his status. But he hadn't heard any official news from the Islanders.

"You'd like to find out before the general public, but sometimes it happens pretty fast," Shaw told the AP in a phone interview. "Sometimes the word leaks out.

"Enough people are talking about it that I have a lot of faith that it's going to happen. I don't really question it."

Last week, the Islanders hired Bryan Trottier as executive director of player development.

Screw_Michigan wrote:i'll always rack the fuck out of oln for having western michigan university alums comprise two-thirds of their nhl studio coverage. RACK THE FUCK OUT OF THAT!

On Tuesday afternoon, there was a collective laugh around the NHL. New York Islanders owner Charles Wang, the nutty professor of new wave sports management techniques, got back to his screwball roots, firing general manager Neil Smith on just the 41st day of his tenure.

Wang, the guy who authorized the league's first (and only) 10-year player contract and seriously considered sending team execs to Japan to scout Sumo wrestlers with the idea of turning them into NHL goalkeepers, explained his decision by saying that he and Smith had "philosophical differences."

seriously considered sending team execs to Japan to scout Sumo wrestlers with the idea of turning them into NHL goalkeepers,