Lou Lamoriello after the Travis Zajac and Kyle Palmieri deal
Arthur Staple of The Athletic: Again, Lou Lamoriello acquired the one center he wanted a year after the fact and got one of this year’s best commodities. Yes, he gave up a first-round pick but did get New Jersey to retain 50% salary on two players. Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac are members of the New York Islanders now. And yet, it feels like Lamoriello is not finished. So, now what?
Adding two more right-handed shots likely means Zajac will have to play wing on the checking line and Kyle Palmieri will play on the top-line left wing. After that, this means the top two picks in the 2022 draft are likely off-limits. They do have a few assets err picks after the Devon Toews deal so New York could be aggressive at next year’s deadline.
Lou could sign both players or sign Palmieri and make Zajac wait a bit. The player this affects most is Leo Komarov but he probably wasn’t coming back next year. The plus was the two forwards could play right away as well.
Are the Philadelphia Flyers sellers already?
Ed Barkowitz of the Philadelphia Inquirer: Could Scott Laughton and Michael Raffl be two of the names headed elsewhere by Monday or sooner? That remains a possibility as poor starts and poorer defense have doomed the Philadelphia Flyers’ once-promising season. Even Erik Gustafsson could fetch a late-round pick perhaps with the right dance partner.
Constantly falling behind has killed Philadelphia over the past 20 games. They have led twice after the first period. That’s it. It is difficult for a team to always play from behind especially in a compressed schedule. This is partly why Philadelphia has gone from buyers to likely sellers this trade deadline.
Philadelphia is too many points out chasing Boston. That becomes a more and more unlikely scenario to end well. Six points away and Boston has two games in hand. The answer may already be reality. Selling is an almost imminent reality.