At some point in Garth Snow‘s tenure with the New York Islanders he decided that the team needed an overhaul. It was probably after the Isles lost in five games to the Sabres in round one of the 2007 playoffs.
The Islanders old core of Michael Peca and Alexei Yashin was done. Garth wanted to replace his core of old vets brought in by the previous regime and build around a group of young talented players.
So he went about his way torpedoing the Islanders seasons for years in order to acquire top tier draft picks.