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Facing a frightening summer slump amid a fixed salary cap, the New York Islanders have lost major salary cap commitments for the second time in two days.
On the eve of the expansion draft, general manager Lou Lamoriello forwarded Friday night’s trade from Nick Leddy to the Detroit Red Wings with a much more impressive feat: finding someone to take on Andrew Ladd, who didn’t. has not been loaded with a roster spot in the past. two seasons.
The Arizona Coyotes deal was expensive but necessary, burying a heavy debt (Ladd’s $ 5.5 million cap) inherited from the Garth Snow / Doug Weigh era.
With Ladd – whom the Coyotes intend to use as a veteran forward and mentor if he “wins” a spot – the Islanders sent the Coyotes:
- A 2nd round pick in this summer’s draft (2021, 60th overall, Avalanche native in last summer’s headache pill, Devon Toews trade)
- A conditional 2nd round pick in the 2022 draft (on condition that he’s the better of the two they currently have, according to Arthur Staple)
- A conditional 3rd round pick in the 2023 draft (on condition that the Coyotes get it if Ladd appears in at least 1 game in 2022-23, according to Cap Friendly)
Wow is that some kind of escape from a bad situation. Paying assets to make bad deals go away is far from ideal, but given everything the Islands have faced in the offseason, they have done well to collect some assets while trading Leddy and spread the assets they have. they had to use for someone else to take Ladd’s contract.
Awesome, Ladd was traded for nothing other than the “consideration” of someone else actually taking their contract. This is not a shot at Ladd, who had injuries to both knees from which he never seemed to come back (although he is considered perfectly healthy). But man, that adds another horrible story to his 2016 free agent class, possibly the worst decision-making days in NHL history.
The Isles also completed other essential business by signing a defenseman to meet expansion draft exposure rules as they needed another defender by this afternoon. This resulted in Andy Greene re-signing for a $ 1 million deal.
What does it mean ? Lamoriello avoided losing one of his favorite pieces in the expansion project for nothing, cleared a lot of ceiling space, and now has the flexibility to not only keep most of the core from last season (minus Leddy, of course) while still having room to add.
As Staple summarized in a post-trip post to Athletic:
That leaves the Islanders with $ 12.2 million in cap space, plus the alleged $ 6 million from Johnny Boychuk’s deal when he enters the Long-Term Injury Reserve at the start of the season. This $ 18.2 million safely covers potential deals for Anthony Beauvillier, Adam Pelech and Ilya Sorokin; it also covers a decent deal for Casey Cizikas and maybe even Kyle Palmieri, given Leo Komarov’s $ 3million is currently on the books.
Names like Vladimir Tarasenko (who demanded a trade from the Blues) and Gabriel Landeskog (an unrestricted free agent that the Avalanche have yet to progress) have been thrown – and the two coveted wingers apparently have the Islanders on their roster. of “acceptable wishes”. There’s the much-discussed possibility of always exhibiting Jordan Eberle or including him in a trade. But really, there are all kinds of options now, including filling in the hole on the left side of the blue line created by Leddy’s departure.
Given Lamoriello and Trotz’s history, they’ll want to consolidate that blue line, but these main winger names are also fun to ponder, and today’s decision gives them much-needed flexibility.
Just days after the start of the much-promised eventful mid-July in the NHL, he lives up to the hype.
Tomorrow, we’ll officially know who’s on Seattle’s unprotected list of expansion picks.
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