When the New York Islanders were founded in 1972, one man was trusted to build it into a winner. Bill Torrey. He’d be the one entrusted to make sure this expansion franchise would be successful. That he could make a name for a team entering the largest sports market in North America with established brands on all fronts.
Torrey succeeded in standing out from in the New York sports market and to one day own New York outright.
To do so, Torrey employed a simple solution. He’d build his team not from the scraps he’d get in the expansion draft, but through the NHL Entry Draft.