The New York Islanders dumped Andrew Ladd at the corner
Arthur Staple of The Athletic: Arguably, the Andrew Ladd trade was the equivalent of a giant dump. New York gave up three draft picks to the Arizona Coyotes for cap space. Let’s be honest.
Lou Lamoriello’s drafts have not gone all that well in the past decade anyway.
It is much more about cap space for a team that arguably is built more for a pandemic than an 82-game schedule. Lamoriello dumped Nick Leddy and his albatross defensive style as well. Then, he signed Andy Greene to a cheap one-year deal at league minimum plus bonus.
New York has $12.2 million of cap space plus the $6 million when Johnny Boychuk takes up residence on LTIR.
The heck with expansion talk. July 28th is the real day for the New York Islanders and their fans.
Who they bring in or don’t sign may prove to be the real problem of the 2021-22 season. Could it be a Landeskog? Tarasenko? Someone else? No one knows yet.
New York Islanders interested in Conor Garland too…
Christian Arnold of NYI Hockey NOW: New York has an intense interest in Conor Garland and what may happen to the RFA. So do, lots of teams. There are more than eight teams intrigued — it may be as much as half the league. Garland shoots a lot, has good goal-scoring instincts, speed, and is just 25.
Let’s put this more nicely. Can Lou Lamoriello win a bidding war with a bunch of other teams for a coveted, young forward? That seems unlikely but one never knows.
The scary part is that Garland played most of 2021 hurt. He still had 39 points in 49 games. Again, New York might want to more than kick the tires here.