The Magnificent Seven ride into New York to interview with Garth Snow

g more than ready to be head coach of another club.

3. Paul Maurice-I know a lot of folks will point to his cup run with Carolina but that team only had eighty three points in 2002 (thirteen behind the Isles) and were given third seed because they won the division. I know the word is he works well with prospects and gets along well with general managers (Jim Rutherford is one of the best) but what team has Paul Maurice ever made good for an extended amount of time? Since the Hurricanes' appeared in the 2002 Stanley Cup finals, their record had been horrendous with the club winning only seventeen games out of eighty before he was fired in season. His Leafs tenure was an outright failure which of course had more to do with his general manager's choice of players.

Sure he could be hired here and do a great job, but on paper this does not seem like a good hire. The relocation to Greensboro from Hartford bought him time, so did the Canes moving into it's permanent home as did the cup finals run before time finally ran out for him.

4. John Tortorella-This is a coach who had been with one club for a long time who has basically seen it all in his first full-time assignment. He has coached superstars, developed players into stars, won a Stanley Cup, finished 30th while pushing his clubs for all they can give and more with sometimes burning his clubs out as they fell apart or looked over matched come playoff time. He took a Tampa team that had done virtually nothing (aside from one playoff run) it it's history and turned them into a winner. Most of his players liked playing for him, he never had any public problems with former GM Jay Feaster and his reputation of being a troublemaker seems more of a media creation because he gives colorful interviews.

There were no complaints from Brad Lukowich or Ruslan Fedotenko about Tortorella when they signed here, despite Fedotenko's poor final season in Tampa where he was dropped on the third line.

If Charles Wang, Garth Snow and John Tortorella are all willing to take the growing pains, the criticism and buck the second year trend of head coaches around here and work in the prospects and stick with the plan, it's the right hire.

Given some of the outright strange moves by Tampa's new ownership keeping it's gm in limbo and bullying a player just signed off the roster, I'm inclined to see the club hire Tortorella as long as he can accept there will be no Martin St Louis or Vinnie LeCavalier on his first line come October. If Mr Botta is correct that DiPietro and Tortorella know and like one another that does not hurt.

He's also a big name coach for a team that desperate needs a bigger media presence and should fit right in with the club reaching out to the community.

5. Bob Hartley-If relationship with the gm here is the over-riding factor than the Isles might as well schedule the press conference. Hartley was one if not the lone outsider who endorsed Snow's hiring as general manager in 2006. Of course it will not be only about that but about track record and Hartley is another coach who has basically seen it all from Stanley Cups and amazing success in Colorado to struggling clubs rebuilding in Atlanta he did take to the next level, he's worn out his welcomes and comes well respected by many others. Will he buy into a youth movement here or did the playoff meltdown carry over or did Don Waddell's shortsighted moves catch up with him or did Hartley push for the short-sighted moves?

Either way the situation was so poor in Atlanta on a team with many talented offensive players he was gone after six games but left Atlanta as the most successful coach in team history who got a very quick hook last season. Hartley's presence did not keep Heatley in Atlanta for what that is worth and never got Lehtonen to the next level with a defense less than adequate that always played an offensive style.

This is a man who never played an NHL game for those wondering.

6. Joel Quenneville-Hard to argue with Quenneville's record as a great choice for a head coach other than that he has only taken his clubs to one conference final but is another who has long experience who is well respected but after a while organizations make changes because a coach took his club as far as management felt he could. How would he deal with a club that could miss the playoffs for years given he only had one spring without a playoff. Ted Nolan did not react well, how will Quenneville with the adversity losing can bring?

Fair to say Quenneville has had some fantastic talents, including Doug Weight during his career. He seemingly has never been part of a franchise with a lot of prospects competing for spots and has never coached in this conference.

7. Marc Crawford-A lot of long experience, a Stanley Cup in Colorado and helped turn around the Canucks with four playoff appearances but the message does grow old and coaches burn out teams and Crawford is that kind of coach. Like Quenneville has never coached in this conference but was brought into Los Angeles for a prospect team that struggled for two year and was fired by the general manager who hired him which has to raise questions for Garth Snow who did not have close to the franchise talents Crawford had with Los Angeles despite many young players producing well under this coach.

Gerard Gallant-This will likely be the least popular choice among Islander fans because of how poorly the Isles powerplay performed combined with his dismissal from Columbus, but Gallant like many Jacket coaches (including Ken Hitchcock) still has not had the right core of talent around him where he had a fair chance to show his abilities and was with Columbus for six years. He could not make it work as coach with Anson Carter and the addition of Fredrik Modin in a trade, or with Rick Nash.

Gallant took over for Doug MacLean midway through the 2003-04 season and finished with a 16-24-5 record. After the lockout the Blue Jackets went 35-43-4 in 05-06 but went 23-16-2 in the second half of the season after Nash returned from an injury but opened 5-9-1-0 when he was fired in November of 2006.

One thing for sure he will not be getting a star like Nash here nor did he get more out of Carter, Fedorov, Modin. Was his animated confrontation with former Islander Marc-Andre Bergeron be taken as a positive or negative?

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