Months and months of rumors and speculation regarding what New York Islanders general manager Garth Snow was going to do with the No. 1 overall pick ended at approximately 7:17 p.m. EST last night. Even as late as an hour before the draft there were rumors that the Islanders were prepared to take Brampton Battalion center Matt Duchene over John Tavares, the popular pick among fans. Once Snow stepped to the podium at the Bell Centre, the 10,000-plus Islanders fans sitting inside Nassau Coliseum at the team's draft party held their breath simultaneously and were soon rewarded:

As commenter "Costa T" pointed out on Thursday, had the Islanders chosen either Duchene or Victor Hedman, fans at Nassau Coliseum would have burned the barn down and thereby sped up the whole "need for an arena" process that owner Charles Wang is currently fighting for.

After the jump, we revisit a couple of our Islanders roundtable participants to see their reactions after the Tavares pick.

Greg Logan of Newsday believes that Tavares can be the Islanders Sidney Crosby(notes) in terms of generating revenue for a team that's lost plenty of money in the past decade:

In the end, however, the Islanders gave the fans the man they wanted and gave themselves a giant boost at the box office. Having lost close to $300 million since he bought the team nine years ago, owner Charles Wang obviously would like to begin recouping his losses. The Tavares selection also could help his plans for the Lighthouse Project.

Dominik from Lighthouse Hockey believes this is the moment that cements the fact that the Islanders are heading in the right direction.

This is the moment fans have been anticipating -- depending on their perspective and degree of fatalism -- since April's lottery, or December's swoon, or October's Rick DiPietro(notes) injury, or last summer's commitment -- finally -- to the rebuild. This is the moment, everyone outside of Short Island Smurf (Rags) fans could agree, Islanders fans deserve. It's been a while since good news like this -- outside of the lottery itself. Amen.

Chris Botta of Islanders Point Blank, who's been banging the Tavares drum for the longest time, says that while Tavares is a great first move, it's what Snow does from this point on with the roster that's key.

Now on to finding a dozen more players over the next year for the rebuild. The Islanders kept this a secret for a few weeks. For their next trick, they will attempt to assemble a team that can win a playoff round and then reach that consistent contender goal.

With Tavares, they are a lot closer. The celebration in Islanders Country begins.

It didn't take long for the Islanders to begin taking advantage of their marketing opportunities with their new face of the franchise. Fans in attendance at their draft party will be given the opportunity to meet Tavares sometime next week if they purchased a season ticket last night. Also, during the Islanders rookie camp in July, fans can Blackberry message questions and comments to Tavares for one hour. 

No word yet on how many "TAVARES" jerseys or season tickets were sold since Garth Snow made the announcement, but you can sure that interest among the Islanders fan base is at a level the franchise has not seen in many, many years.

Related: Hockey Fans, NHL Draft