Ex-Islanders GM shares the truth about the John Tavares free agency turmoil in 2018

In the five years since his departure from Long Island, John Tavares has endured a tremendous amount of verbal abuse from the Islanders' fanbase and the vitriol hasn't softened over time. Many believe Tavares played them and knew he was going to leave when the time came. However, his former GM in along Island, Garth Snow, spoke to the New York Times and explained the entire situation, even defending Tavares.

"He didn't do anything wrong," said Snow. "I feel so bad that [Tavares] gets trashed for something that wasn't his fault. 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."

Snow revealed a shocking detail this week, offering up the information that it was ownership's decision not to trade Tavares under any circumstances.

"That decision by Scott Malkin was that we weren't gonna trade him under any circumstances. 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."

Snow stated that the Islanders were engaged in negotiation talks with Tavares an entire year earlier and were prepared to offer him $10M per season during the summer of 2017. Per Snow, the talks never went very far.

This is some eye-opening information and hopefully the Islanders fanbase, upon learning these details, will ease up on John a little bit. He was open to being moved, as Snow had clearly stated. He's not a snake, he's not a traitor, he's just a guy who caught a fade from fans after ownership dropped the ball.

Source: NYPost

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