The 2014 draft, in retrospect, is one of the most fascinating moments in recent Islanders history.

Armed with the fifth and 35th overall picks, the Islanders came away from that weekend in Philadelphia with two franchise players: Ilya Sorokin and Devon Toews.

Only they had been taken 78th and 108th overall.

With their top two picks, the Islanders took Michael Dal Colle at No. 5 and traded up into the late first round to snag Josh Ho-Sang at No. 28.

Both players have since washed out of the league. Dal Colle logged just 112 games with the franchise over five seasons, and the off-the-ice issues flagged leading up to the draft ultimately sank Ho-Sang’s career.

But the Isles nearly went another direction with their top pick, then-GM Garth Snow told The Post in a recent interview.

“The Dal Colle one is my fault,” Snow said. “My scouts at the time, they wanted Nikolaj Ehlers.”

Ehlers, who ended up going to Winnipeg ninth overall, would not have been the best-case scenario with the pick — William Nylander, Dylan Larkin and David Pastrnak came off the board later in the first round. But he would have vaulted the draft class to another level and helped plug holes that still exist for the Islanders today.

The 27-year-old has played more than 500 games with the Jets, proving to be a valuable middle-six forward. Though he’s dealt with injuries the past two seasons, Ehlers is capable of producing around 60 points a year when healthy — which would place him as one of the better scorers on the current Islanders.

The permutations here are impossible to track. If the Islanders were dealing with Ehlers’ cap hit, which runs $6 million annually after he signed an extension in 2018, they would need to sacrifice elsewhere. But there is no doubt a player like him would make them better.

At the draft, though, there was a roadblock to picking him that Snow couldn’t get over. His name was Andre Rufener — a Swiss agent who represents two NHL players: Ehlers and Nino Niederreiter.

A year prior, Niederreiter had forced a trade from Long Island to Minnesota, and Rufener played a central role in what turned into a public saga.

“It was such a bad experience with Nino Niederreiter’s agent when it came to coming out of the lockout, 2012, the shortened season,” Snow said. “And we really didn’t have a spot for him in the role we were looking. And his panties got in a bunch. You only have a five-day camp, right?

“We had brought up Casey Cizikas, but that was a different role than what Nino was gonna play. Guess the agent had a temper tantrum, demanded a trade and it just was like, there was no patience. And you know what? At the time we were below the [salary cap] floor and I think the year prior, we had kept [Niederreiter] up to stay NHL-compliant.

“And maybe that didn’t serve him well mentally long-term. He thought he should have been here. But that falls on me.”

As for Ho-Sang, Snow and then-owner Charles Wang both felt the talent was good enough that the Islanders could navigate other issues. But it wasn’t to be, with things going south from the outset when Snow was caught on NHL Network’s draft feed saying on stage, “He’ll fit right in. They s—t on me, too.”

Nine years later, Snow said, “Once we drafted him, you always think you can work with someone. You can guide them. You can be either a parent figure or a big brother figure. I credit our player development and all the work they put in. It goes back to you gotta draft character players.

“I was the only one on my staff that wanted him at 28. I was the only one on my staff that said, ‘Alright, we’re drafting this guy.’ And they all looked at me like what are you doing? They were right.”

For all the heat Snow took over those picks, though, Sorokin and Toews likely both would go in the top 10 in a redraft.

Toews turned into a salary-cap casualty for the Islanders — Lou Lamoriello dealt him to Colorado for a pair of second-round picks in 2020 — and has since become one of the league’s standout defensemen.

Sorokin, though, inked an eight-year, $66 million deal to stay on the Island through 2032 on July 1, and was the team’s unequivocal MVP last season.

Though the Russian did not make his NHL debut until after Snow was out of the job, picking him could end up being the best moment of the former GM’s tenure when all is said and done.

“We knew he was a high level in his peer group, but sometimes that doesn’t always translate to success at the NHL level,” Snow said. “That doesn’t even really come into my mindset, ‘Oh, he’s gonna win the Vezina.’ You know what I mean? We knew he was special. There’s a lot of things that can happen. Kid can get a girlfriend. Kid can make a wrong decision in life. There’s a lot of things that need to fall into place, and that’s why it’s so important you look for character people.”

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The last Islanders netminder to get a big payday prior to Sorokin was Rick DiPietro, who signed for 15 years at $67.5 million total right after Snow was made the GM.

The deal was essentially done before Snow officially took the job in 2006, but was officially completed by him.

Though DiPietro played 62 games that season, he got hurt making a poke check on Steve Begin in March 2007, portending injury problems — namely hip and knee issues — that ultimately doomed the contract.

“If Rick had stayed healthy, I still think it would’ve been a great deal for the team,” Snow said. “Which by the way, everyone would always give grief to the Islanders, to Charles, but look where the league went [with giving term over annual dollars]. Maybe before anyone even thought of doing it. So, in one respect he was a visionary when it came to doing deals that keep the cap hit down with longer years.”

Rumors around the 2015-16 season suggested the Islanders were in talks to send Travis Hamonic to Edmonton for Taylor Hall.

Snow said a deal was never that close at the time.

“I’m sure there was conversations about Edmonton with Taylor Hall but … we would’ve had to throw in a high pick or another prospect,” Snow said. “There was nothing that was really any traction.”

The Islanders ultimately hung onto Hamonic for another year, trading him to Calgary with a fourth-round pick attached for a first-rounder and two seconds. That eventually turned into the 12th and 43rd overall picks in 2018, which yielded Noah Dobson and Ruslan Iskhakov, along with the 57th pick in 2019, which became Samuel Bolduc.

Hall would go to New Jersey in exchange for Adam Larsson, win the 2017-18 Hart Trophy as the league MVP, then deal with injuries the next season. Since then, his production has tailed off.

Dobson has become a major piece of the Islanders’ blue line — and the team hopes Bolduc can establish himself there this season.