No, the New York Islanders have not officially announced any contract for Casey Cizikas, but details of the expected deal are starting to drip out. Earlier this month, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet heard that the Islanders had a six-year deal with Cizikas that would carry an average annual value of $2.5MM. The insider was clear that he couldn’t confirm it though, something that has become par for the course in the Lou Lamoriello era.
Today, Arthur Staple of The Athletic tweets that the report from Friedman appears to be accurate, he is also hearing that Cizikas has signed a six-year contract with an annual average value of around $2.5MM. Staple notes that the AAV could end up being slightly higher, something that won’t be known until the contract is actually filed (and even then there’s no guarantee from this Islanders front office).
Cizikas, 30, is pretty obviously not leaving the Islanders, given there would have been plenty of interest in him elsewhere on the open market. Though he is a true bottom-six option, likely unable to play any higher than that on a contending club, there’s real value in what he brings to the ice every night. A strong defensive presence, a physical player, and a lynchpin of the Islanders’ four-line structure, he represents a fixture of the team even scoring just a handful of points each season.
In 2020-21, he had seven goals and 14 points in 56 regular season games but was a huge part of the team’s success in the playoffs. Cizikas won 142 of his 232 postseason faceoffs (61.2%), including a huge chunk of them in the defensive end. His presence frees up the team’s more talented offensive players to do exactly that–play offense–while neutralizing the opposition’s best as much as possible.
A six-year deal may seem like a lifetime for a player that resides near the bottom of the lineup, but it’s likely the only way that the Islanders could keep his cap hit down. A $2.5MM salary will allow the team to spend money elsewhere, like on free agents Kyle Palmieri and Zach Parise, who are both expected to also have deals signed with the team but not announced.
Even if Cizikas’ play falls off a cliff, there’s not a ton of risk here for the Islanders. Nearly half of his expected cap hit could be buried in the minor leagues if necessary, leaving around $1.35MM each season on the books near the end of the deal. That obviously doesn’t cripple a team’s finances, but keeping his cap hit relatively low over the next few years will only help the Islanders in this window of Stanley Cup contention they have opened.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Why is Lou holding back on reporting contracts?
@tjettman – Why? It’s just Lou being Lou. It’s what he does. His motive is his, alone. Plus, it gets more than a few commentators’ and analysts’ shorts in a knot when he does this.
I hate the way Lou operates and I can’t wait until that dinosaur is gone. How he won GM of the year is beyond me considering he backed his club into a corner with terrible contracts. They lost Eberle, had to trade away a boat load of assets to move Ladd, had to trade away Leddy for the terrible Richard Panik, gave up a first round pick for a borderline top 6-winger in Palmieri, traded away Toews for 2 second rounders (which subsequently only became 1 since they traded the other pick to Arizona), gave up a 1st and a 2nd for a third line centre in Pageau… here we are, almost September and he hasn’t signed Beauvillier, Palmieri, Cizikas, Sorokin, Zajac, Bellows, Koivula or Golyshev, let alone any free agents… wtf has he been doing all summer?
I’ll take one Lou over ten Dubas any day. The Isles were a pile of Garth Snow’s breakfast before Lou got there.
100% agreed. Dubas was never qualified to be a GM, let alone the GM of arguably the biggest franchise in the sport. He inherited an incredible pool of talent and has no idea what to do with it. Only guy I can think of worse than Dubas is the guy you mentioned, Garth Snow lol
Cizikas is a great example to explain the difference between depth and role.
He’s an ELITE fourth line center, but that does not mean you can play him higher in the lineup. He has a role. He fills that role perfectly. That doesn’t mean you can ask him to play a different role just because he is good at his.
SMH… not this again?!!! Hahaha
I’ll point out examples until the light switch flips.
Actually, that whole line is basically the epitome of it and how a fourth line can have a massive impact on the game and setting it’s tone.
Cizikas is better at his job than Brock Nelson (a pretty good but not great 2C) is at his, but you can’t just flip them. Role, not depth.