No fat to trim, and all of the cap increase this summer basically spoken for already. The Isles don't have a lot of wiggle room and will have to rip some band-aids off this summer if they want to try and see if they can get better - but with an older, higher variance team, they have to make sure there are a few escape hatches at the deadline if necessary.
TRADES
-Jets and Isles fans seem to agree that Pulock for Ehlers is fair value. If you wanna add pick swaps or minor prospects or whatever, fine, we can figure that out later - but that's filling in the margins. This moves out a long time Islander, with 6 years left on a deal, for a high scoring winger with only one year left on his deal. For the Jets, they get a solid #2/3 level D-man for less of a contract than they'd have to give out in free agency; for the Isles, they finally get that top-6 winger with only one year left - in other words, easy to flip at the deadline if the team is out of it.
-Used Vancouver as a sorta placeholder here, but I think retaining fully on Pageau makes it easier to move him. Again, I don't think you're gonna spend 2x$2.5M in July and get 35-40 point 3C who kills penalties, so I think swapping out a mid-rounder for him is fair value.
-Pure change of scenery trade here. Wahlstrom has one foot and four toes out the door already, and Akil Thomas is probably 7th or 8th on the Kings' center depth chart. Isles probably add something small here, I threw Skarek in as a small value add for an org without a ton of goalie depth - but I'm open to pick swaps or other suggestions.
SIGNINGS
-RFAs worth keeping are Iskhakov, Holmstrom, MacLean, and Thomas if you acquire him. UFA-wise, keeping Mike Reilly is a strong move for me - he can probably be kept without breaking the bank and he worked well with the team. I'd also resign Clutterbuck to a league minimum deal if he's coming back, and I re-signed Matt Martin to the highest AAV you can bury without a penalty - if this is my team, I want him as a potential callup option who mostly spends time in Bridgeport helping develop the young guys down there.
The only UFA need after these moves is a second pair RHD. Not enough cap space to be shopping in the Montour/Pesce/Roy tier of RD, so I think working out a pillow deal with Matt Dumba would be interesting. He needs to rebuild value to get a long-term deal, so I think he gets a smaller 1 year deal that's very easily traded with retention if the Islanders are out of it.
LINES
-Kept Cizikas on the top line; for whatever reason it worked. He can be swapped with Iskhakov if you need more of a pure offensive player.
Ehlers-Nelson-Palmieri feels like a goal scoring line - three 30 goal scorers who are also decent distributors. This feels like a sneak good line.
Lee-Iskhakov-Engvall is a power/speed line, with Lee being a goal-front nuisance while the other two can be forechecking nightmares with their speed. If you flip Cizikas and Iskhakov, you have a reasonable facsimile of the Lee-Pageau-Engvall line that had success this season.
Fourth line is another forechecking line - MacLean earned some more run this year, as did Holmstrom, and you have Hudson Fasching to spell Clutterbuck if you don't want to re-sign him.
Defense is the established Romanov-Dobson pair on top, with Pelech-Dumba being a physical second pair with some puck moving experience. Reilly-Mayfield on the third pair makes it so you have a guy who can push the puck forward on every d-pair.
Don't love the depth but there's some bodies there - and you've kept just over $1M of space in reserve to add at the deadline if things gel the way you want them to.
Jets get a local boy to pair with Josh Morrissey instead of having to re-commit to 31 year old Dylan DeMelo - and get one of the few guys who's probably fine with waiving an NTC for Winnipeg.
Islanders get the top-6 wing upgrade they've been searching for. Seems to be a lot of common ground between Isles/Jets fans on this one.
2.
NYI
2024 3rd round pick (VAN)
Additional Details:
A lot of Vancouver's bottom-6/PK are pending UFAs - this brings in a solid defender & PKer on a reasonable salary for 2 seasons. Even if it's not Vancouver, I think this is fair value for 2x$2.5M of JGP.
Buying out Pageau costs $2.75M & $2.25M the next two seasons; this costs the same amount of dead cap while getting *something* back. Picked Vancouver to give Ottawa fans a break.
Wahlstrom is a classic change-of-scenery guy and LA has more room to add on the wings than up the middle, especially if they move on from Arthur Kaliyev. Added Skarek to give them another warm body in goal - he might not turn into anything but he would be the -only- goalie under contract for next year if the Kings made this deal today.
I think the Kings want to keep Akil Thomas, who is great with the Reign this year and performed above expectations in 7 games with the Kings towards the end of the season. I would assume that they want to play him next year on a full time role, possibly in a restructured 4th line
As my esteemed friend @Robinho3799 intimates, because Akil Thomas is right-handed and has some nice skills, he may have a place on the Kings roster next season as #4RW if Trevor Lewis finally retires. Los Angeles would probably happily substitute Arthur Kaliyev here. I think that Patrick Roy is the perfect coach to unlock Kaliyev's potential.
As my esteemed friend Robinho3799 intimates, because Akil Thomas is right-handed and has some nice skills, he may have a place on the Kings roster next season as #4RW if Trevor Lewis finally retires. Los Angeles would probably happily substitute Arthur Kaliyev here. I think that Patrick Roy is the perfect coach to unlock Kaliyev's potential.
I feel honored to be called that way from you
I'd also like to see Kaliyev to be involved in there much more than Thomas
I'd also like to see Kaliyev to be involved in there much more than Thomas
Quoting: OldNYIfan
As my esteemed friend Robinho3799 intimates, because Akil Thomas is right-handed and has some nice skills, he may have a place on the Kings roster next season as #4RW if Trevor Lewis finally retires. Los Angeles would probably happily substitute Arthur Kaliyev here. I think that Patrick Roy is the perfect coach to unlock Kaliyev's potential.
I think Wahlstrom for Kaliyev is where a potential deal lands, but wanted to get the temperature on another on of the Kings’ glut of young forwards. Thanks for the input!
I am more confident that Jets management will shop Ehlers than the Isles will shop Pulock, but I don't follow the Isles. Has there been any speculation (or rumours) among beat writers about Pulock?
Edit: Couldnt get the isles *handshake* jets logo to look right so deleted it.
I am more confident that Jets management will shop Ehlers than the Isles will shop Pulock, but I don't follow the Isles. Has there been any speculation (or rumours) among beat writers about Pulock?
Edit: Couldnt get the isles *handshake* jets logo to look right so deleted it.
I mean, there’s never really any rumors around a Lamoriello team, so most of us just throw stuff at the wall and see what makes sense. Lou did have an interesting quote on clean out day tho: “We love loyalty. But it can’t impede progress.”
Pulock is one of the more move-able players in my eyes - still young enough to have more good years than bad left on his deal, with a reasonable cap hit. I could see him or Adam Pelech being moved out this summer, but lean Pulock because Noah Dobson and Scott Mayfield are already signed for next season, while LD only has Alex Romanov and Sam Bolduc under contract.
I mean, there’s never really any rumors around a Lamoriello team, so most of us just throw stuff at the wall and see what makes sense. Lou did have an interesting quote on clean out day tho: “We love loyalty. But it can’t impede progress.”
Pulock is one of the more move-able players in my eyes - still young enough to have more good years than bad left on his deal, with a reasonable cap hit. I could see him or Adam Pelech being moved out this summer, but lean Pulock because Noah Dobson and Scott Mayfield are already signed for next season, while LD only has Alex Romanov and Sam Bolduc under contract.
Good points.
For the Jets, there haven't been any rumours that have been reported but there has been plenty of speculation from local reporters (Winnipeg Sun, Winnipeg Free Press, The Athletic, Sportsnet) in their year-end assessments of the team. The way rumours get transmitted here is that Cheveldayoff will give Dreger (TSN) a heads up so he can break news. Most of the speculation is that Ehlers is entering the last year of his contract and using that situation to trade a quality forward for a quality RHD.
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