The New York Islanders have made quite a few moves this offseason, re-signing Anders Lee, Jordan Eberle and Brock Nelson as well as adding goaltender Semyon Varlamov to their franchise, but the team may not be done yet.
Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post mentions that the team may seriously consider trading defenseman Nick Leddy later this offseason. The 28-year-old Leddy has three years on his contract at $5.5MM per season and with several teams in need of help for a top-four blueliner, the team might be willing to unload him if they can add more offensive talent, especially with prospects Noah Dobson and Bode Wilde not far from arriving in New York.
- In a roundtable discussion on what the chances are that the Tampa Bay Lightning might acquire Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, The Athletic’s Joe Smith (subscription required) writes that while the Lightning has had interest in him in the past, the only way the team would be interested in acquiring him now would be if it were an upgrade and with no obvious trade candidates on their defense, a deal between Buffalo and Tampa Bay seems unlikely. Throw in the fact the team still has to sign restricted free agent Brayden Point to and the chances of acquiring Risolainen seems unlikely.
- There were many moving parts two week ago when the Ottawa Senators acquired Nikita Zaitsev from the Toronto Maple Leafs for Cody Ceci. The Senators acquired forward Connor Brown, but also picked up forward Michael Carcone as part of the deal, a 23-year-old restricted free agent who has battled his way through three AHL seasons and might be ready for a bottom-line role with the Senators now that the team acquired him. The Athletic’s Chris Stevenson reports that he hears that the Senators and Carcone are close to a new deal and could be a name to watch at training camp this fall. The Vancouver Canucks were received quite a bit of interest from Carcone at the trade deadline by both Toronto and Ottawa. He ended up going to Toronto in the Josh Leivo trade, but has since been traded again.
- The Tampa Bay Lightning look to be bringing one of their 2019 draftees over to North America sooner than they had expected as a Russian website, spartak.ru (translation required), reports that Mikhail Shalagin, the team’s 2019 seventh-round pick, is expected to play in the Tampa Bay’s system, presumably with the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL, although nothing has come from the Lightning yet and it’s unknown whether the team will offer him an entry-level deal right away or offer him an AHL deal. The 6-foot-4, 185-pound forward scored 48 goals in the MHL and was the MVP of the league last year.
The Sabres are loaded on defense now, and Tampa Bay is loaded with forwards.
So the obvious deal would be to trade him for a forward with similar talent and salary. Couldn’t be simpler.
Trading Leddy makes no sense…unless Lou is playing to sign Jake Gardiner.
Perhaps Louis Domigue and some salary relief on Rasmus might work. Looks like Sabre goaltending is below average and Domingue had a breakout year and deserves a shot at number one.
Lol
Tampa Bay hasn’t signed Brayden Point yet! Buffalo pays some of that contract , for Dominque that may work out.
No chance would botterill trade Risto for a goalie lol. About the same chance Risto is traded for Brayden point! It’s known they want a #2 center for Risto. Not cap relief to help out the president trophy winners they wanna catch.
I never said Buffalo would trade Risto for Point, I was saying with salary cap this year Tampa Bay has yet to sign Point to a new contract. they still have some work to do with moving a few players , Stralman, Girardi, and most importantly wait til Point sign new RFA contract. and as in article trading for Ristolainen either way is unlikely. I was just quoting on comments mentioned above. regarding what you said, that Botterill want trade for goalie, There want be no trade between Buffalo and Tampa Bay , if it happens regardless who involved I will eat my hat.
So the fact that a player named Wilde is in this article makes it be included in the Minnesota Wild Rumors page? Really? In Eastern Notes? I figured it would be because of the convoluted Nick Leddy connection, but no, just the robo-editor at work.
Tyler Johnson or Ondre Palat For Risto makes sense.
Bode Wilde is a prospect for the NY Islanders mentioned on second paragraph in case they move Nick Leddy , the Minnesota Wild aren’t even mentioned in this storyline.
Josh Toronto maybe doing something with Gardiner sooner , since story on Rotoworld.com that Toronto has in just released story that Marner signing an offer sheet maybe good news for Toronto, now they can move on and take care of other team and players to get things set for the upcoming season.
link to rotoworld.com
What will Ottawa do with Veronneau, Balcers, Batherson with the move getting Connor Brown who is a right winger, or does he move to left wing?