Let’s turn the clock back a hair over three years.
Hamstrung by the imposition of the flat salary cap, the coinciding expiring contracts of Ryan Pulock, Mathew Barzal and Devon Toews and unseemly cap hits for Johnny Boychuk and Andrew Ladd, Lou Lamoriello orchestrated what might have been the most-criticized move of his tenure as Islanders general manager, dealing Toews to Colorado for a pair of second-round picks.
Even at the time the deal was made in October 2020, it seemed clear the Avs got Toews for 60 cents on the dollar. This was about clearing space, so judging the deal as merely A for B isn’t particularly fair.
Because Toews just made his annual return to UBS Arena with the Avs, though — just a couple weeks after inking a seven-year, $50.75 million extension to stay in Colorado — now does feel like an appropriate time to look at the deal as an inflection point.
Judging the deal based on what we knew at the time and doing so based on what we know now are different exercises.
At the time, the immediate concerns for the Islanders were getting Pulock and Barzal re-signed.
Pulock was half of one of the best defensive tandems in the league, alongside Adam Pelech. Barzal was, as now, a dynamic, young offensive star.
Toews and Pulock both filed for arbitration, though neither made it to a hearing. Toews was traded and signed with Colorado for four years and $4.1 million annually — a large raise from the $700,000 annual salary he was on with the Islanders.
Pulock inked a two-year bridge deal at $5 million per, days before his hearing was scheduled. Barzal’s bridge deal eventually came in for three years and $21 million total.
Whether the Islanders would have been able to afford all three without the imposition of a flat cap is hard to say. Remember, the flat cap also affected the asking prices for players — it is not as simple as just raising what the team could afford and keeping everything else the same. So it likely would have made doing so more feasible, not automatic.
As for the aforementioned problem contracts, it took Lamoriello another season to offload them. Boychuk was placed on Long-Term Injured Reserve after retiring following an eye injury, with the last year of his $6 million cap hit eventually being dealt to Buffalo for future considerations in Nov. 2021. Dealing Ladd that July required attaching a 2021 second-rounder, a 2022 second-rounder and a 2023 third-rounder so the Coyotes would take his $4.375 million cap hit.
If you’re asking what else Lamoriello could have done at the time, the answer probably is: Try to move Pulock or Barzal instead.
Trading Barzal, obviously, would be a nonstarter. As for Pulock, it’s important to remember how he compared to Toews in the fall of 2020 as opposed to how he compares now.
Pelech and Pulock were a bedrock of the Islanders’ success and considered one of the best defensive pairs in the league.
Pulock was also 25 — he’s slightly younger, in fact, than Toews, who was a late bloomer. Pulock, at that point, had three full seasons in the league; Toews had just one, in which Pulock outscored him and played more minutes.
If there was an argument Toews would get better, Pulock also looked to be on an upward trajectory and had a better track record to that point. (It also definitely hasn’t hurt Toews to play next to Cale Makar, who might just be the best defenseman of this era.)
Furthermore, let’s not forget how good Pelech and Pulock were together the season after the trade. By expected goals rate, they were fourth in the league in 2020-21 among D-pairs with more than 300 minutes together, and played more than double the minutes of anyone ahead of them.
Even with Pulock dropping off since sustaining a lower-body injury in the fall of 2021, the Islanders were one play away from a Stanley Cup Final in 2021. Had they made it and beaten a Montreal team that likely would have been overmatched, there’s not much question the deal would be viewed as a win-win.
That’s not to defend a move that, three years later, is still hurting the Islanders, who have been in a perpetual state of “could use another puck-moving defenseman” ever since.
But these things are more nuanced than they look.
Match games
The swap made early in Tuesday’s loss to Colorado — bringing Cal Clutterbuck to the third line and Oliver Wahlstrom to the fourth — raised the question: Why not simply start in that configuration?
Islanders coach Lane Lambert said before the game he thought a line of Simon Holmstrom, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Wahlstrom “absolutely” could be used as a matchup line. Afterward, he said the change was made so Pageau’s line could match up with Nathan MacKinnon.
The revamped line played decently enough, out-shooting its opposition, scoring twice and giving up a goal. That’s a good night’s work, especially when matched against Artturi Lehkonen, MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin, with a healthy dose of Makar and Toews on in defense.
It was confusing, then, that things had reverted back to normal at Wednesday’s practice.
Want to catch a game? The Islanders schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.
Litmus test
Thursday’s would-be Josh Bailey Bowl against Ottawa (3-3-0), another middle-rung playoff hopeful, should give a pretty strong idea of how the Islanders (2-2-1) stack up in the race right now.
The Senators, like the Islanders, come in on a losing streak propelled by poor defense, having allowed five and six goals to the Red Wings and Sabres, respectively.
Since the Islanders changed up their lines to match with MacKinnon, it is worth wondering how long into this Senators game they get before doing the same to match up with Vladimir Tarasenko, Ridley Greig and Mathieu Joseph — that line is outscoring opponents at a perfect 5-0 margin — or Brady Tkachuk, Claude Giroux and Tim Stutzle.
Credit: Source link
