What Ryan Pulock‘s new deal means for Mathew Barzal
Matt Larkin of The Hockey News: It might take at least $8 million per season on long-term deal to lock up Mathew Barzal. Pre-Covid it might have been closer to $10 million.
Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello moved out defenseman Devon Toews and re-signed Ryan Pulock yesterday to a $5 million per season deal for two years. $5 million for Pulock is a good deal for the Islanders, but he’s going to cost them more when that deal is up.
The Islanders are left with about $3.9 million in salary cap space, so they’ll need to find a way to move some salary out to fit in Barzal. The Islanders do have a buyout window coming up.
Buying out forward Andrew Ladd or Johnny Boychuk won’t give them much cap relief. Buying out Jordan Eberle‘s contract would create a good chunk of space, but wouldn’t make much sense to do that.
Will Lamoriello be able to LTIR Ladd? Ladd did play during the playoffs?
NHL Network: Arthur Staple on what Ryan Pulock’s new deal with the New York Islanders means for RFA Mathew Barzal.
** NHLrumors.com transcription
“You know it’s a little different just because Barzal doesn’t have arbitration rights but I imagine everything the Islanders did from trading one of their other key RFA defensemen in Devon Toews, signing Pulock, they’ve got some other deals that they’ve kind of had in the drawer. It’s all kind of geared around, what are they going to pay Mathew Barzal and how are they going to use up the remainder of their cap space?
They only have about $4 million left right now, he’s not getting $4 million a year to keep them under that cap. So, it’s going to be a pretty big number. I would imagine it’s going to also be a short-term deal where he can get another bit at the apple before he turns an unrestricted free agent in a few years.
If it comes in around $7 million, I don’t really know what they have been talking about but if it’s in that $7 million range, that’s probably a win for the Islanders because they have a lot of other things they need to do. They have some contracts they’d like to get rid of and at least now they know the parameters are now that they know Pulock’s in at five.”