Due to past choices, the Islanders left themselves little room to maneuver. But in that context they did fine on July 1.
Money flew freely at the beginning of NHL free agency on July 1 as teams partied like it was 1999. (Er, there were only like five teams that spent in 1999, and they spent five times what everyone else did, which is why we have a salary cap today. But I digress.)
The first meaningful salary cap increase since before the pandemic had teams partying like sailors on shore leave, with agents and players all too happy to oblige.
Along the way, the New York Islanders were…conservative and dare we say smart?
Granted, the Isles didn’t really have any other choice, as their past Seven Years For Everyone ways left them with very little cap room to play with (and still more to cut, somehow). So they don’t get credit for being in that situation, but they made the most of the situation they found put themselves in.
If you accept that these two are givens and they are not changing…:
- Lou Lamoriello is not going to tear down, he’s going to try to get them into the postseason and make whatever changes he can along the way, and
- That means the Islanders are going to attempt incremental improvements wherever they can with what little cap space they have.
…then in that context, you’d probably agree that signing Anthony Duclair and Mike Reilly to those deals was good work. Especially when you see the cost of everything else that went down on Monday was 1) crazy and 2) cost prohibitive for the Isles, given their cap constraints. Duclair may not be what you think of as “first-line winger” — though he performed well in his brief time in Tampa in that role — but on the Isles roster he is an upgrade.
And that’s what you look for on July 1. Unless you’re just wanting to tank and tear down, but that’s … see 1 and 2 above.
Islanders News
- So yes, the Isles added Duclair and retained Reilly. [Newsday]
- Is that enough? Of course not. [Athletic] (But it’s where we are so, just as I wish I were younger, I’m not going to post 84 comments complaining about it.)
- Seven facts about Duclair. [Isles]
- With a call from old junior coach Patrick Roy, Duclair could not say no. [Post]
- “This team needed speed and scoring in the top six and that’s something Duclair should provide in spades.” The Duclair and Reilly deals were consistently seen as winners by pundits — mainly because they weren’t exorbitant, long-term overpays. [Athletic]
- Shane Pinto contract talks have “stalled,” though form Isle and current Sens GM Steve Staios said the Long Island native has not asked for a trade. But could the Isles and Senators find a match? [THN]
Elsewhere
It’d be silly to chronicle and list all the $1 billion in free agent signings (saw that number somewhere, have not verified but it captures the spirit of the thing), but here’s a list worth commenting on, perhaps:
- The most “screw it, I just want the money” move of the day was probably Tyler Toffoli going to San Jose for $6M AAV. [NHL]
- More on this later, but the Lightning chose Jake Guentzel over Steven Stamkos. Cold but rational. [NHL]
Break up the Panthers
Of chief interest was the Panthers, the Cup champs with lots of UFAs. How their day went kind of reflects the reality of the league right now: Some guys will get a loyalty reward for fitting themselves in to a cap team trying to win, and others will chase the money. Either approach is defensible, I guess, but personally I’d be happy with a winning team and the chance to have a bottle of wine, a loaf of bread and a lump of cheese on the beach for the rest of my life. Six-bathroom homes are overrated.
- The Panthers lost a few Cup contributors but re-signed Dmitri Kulikov for four years. Yay I guess? [NHL]
- Their big score was keeping Sam Reinhart — although I’m not sure treating this as a “bargain” after his 57-goal season is correct, because, well, I mean, never in his previous nine seasons was he perceived as a 57-goal scorer, probably because he was a 20+ scorer on bad Buffalo teams and a 30+ guy on good Florida teams? [Sportsnet]
- But they lost Brandon Montour for seven years and $50(!) million from the Kraken. Now that is a guy who said “I got my Cup, now I just need money.” [NHL]
- And they lost Oliver Ekman-Larssson to the Maple Leafs, who forgot that whole lesson about why OEL was a reclamation project after the Canucks bought him out. Seriously, this is your answer? [TSN]
- Hey, it’s the price of winning. “Guys get paid. We do well, they get paid, you move on.” [NHL]
The Metro: Break up the Hurricanes, Marvel at the Capitals
- Carolina also lost several key guys. Excellent. F those guys. [NHL]
- The Flyers signed Matvei Michkov to a three-year ELC. They are really high on him, and his highlights coming out of the KHL are a regular Twitter thing. Annoying if good. [Flyers]
- Speaking of annoying…the Hurricanes. They let Brady Skjei walk for all the millions in Nashville, but they made several re-signings including Jordan Martinook. [NHL]
- The Capitals acquired Jakob Chychrun for not very much but also signed Matt Roy for quite a lot. [NHL] Combined with their earlier Pierre-Luc Dubois and Andrew Mangiapane trades, you can definitely say they are doing things!
Bruins and Canucks Trade Rosters
- Forever disrespected Jake DeBrusk signs with the Canucks for seven years, $38.5 million. If Rick Tocchet reaches him, that might just work out. [NHL]
- Meanwhile, Boston went big, deep and long for two Canucks who had nice playoff runs but have You Will Regret This baked into their contract asks. Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov signed seven- and six-year contracts, respectively. Big mistakes. [NHL]
Barry Goes Big
- Ol’ friend Barry Trotz made a splash with three prime free agent signings, but you can’t help wondering if Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei are big ticket but mid-tier additions. [NHL]
- I get the feeling Stamkos has not experienced a Nashville traffic jam. That’s okay, his in-laws can deal with that, it’s the price of getting gobs and gobs of money. [NHL]
- The Tampa Bay situation in a nutshell: “Obviously, ‘Stammer’ is sincere in all of his statements that he wanted to stay in Tampa. That shouldn’t be questioned. At the same time, it was clear throughout our process that he also had financial expectations that he expected us to meet.”
Their Elusive Cup Runne(r)th Up
- Corey Perry stays in Edmonton for $1.4 million, which is both cheap yet also feels like an overpay. [NHL]
- The Oilers will feel they have solved a problem by nabbing Viktor Arvidsson for two years at $4 million per, but that is only if he can stay healthy and be as effective as he once was. [NHL]
- And they got recently bought-out Jeff Skinner for one year at $3 million. Nice move there. [NHL]
The Wh*res on Seventh Avenue
- Larry Brooks says his previous reports on a pending Jacob Trouba trade were wrong; and the defenseman and his wife — in a medical residency — blocked trade options. [Post]
- But they did send a couple of futures to the Penguins for Reilly Smith. [NHL]
Canada
- The Canadiens skipped the bridge deal and went straight to an eight-year, almost-$61 million extension with Juraj Slavkovsky. [NHL]
- Nick Robertson wants out of Toronto, which makes him totally relatable. [TSN]
- But the Maple Leafs added to their defense, including getting their man Chris Tanev on a — whoa! Six years (to age 40!), $27 million and a no-trade. What could go wrong? [NHL]
Let’s Pretend
Steve alluded to this yesterday, and this Friedman post is from four hours before free agency officially “opened,” so it’s just interesting how many of these came true. I would love to know what the NHL considers true tampering and what it considers just normal pre-July 1 conversation. [Sportsnet]
Quietly, the NHL chose the day when 100 signings were making news to announce that Joel Quenneville, Stan Bowman and some other guy are officially reinstated following their indefinite suspensions for looking the other way/giving job recommendations to a sexual assaulter. I will always believe the NHL didn’t so much object to the ethics/morals of their behavior as they did object to the liability it created. [NHL]