Islanders General Rumour, Trade, FA, & Waiver Speculation 2018-19 Part II

[ekill08x]

I refuse to believe the plan is to go into the season with Pelech, Hickey and Mayfield as three of the top 6 everynight regular defensemen. This cannot be Lou's plan. At least one, if not two of those spots had to be upgraded. This was literally the only thing that needed to be done this offseason, especially once Tavares left, this should have been priority number one. Even without Tavares, our offense is still in the top half of the NHL. This was the worst defense in the NHL last season BY A MILE and we have the exact same unit as last season? This is an indisputable failure by Lou if this is the plan. I dont even know how it could be argued.

Retaining Hickey for 4 more years was such a failure on all counts. Hes an okay player, but 4 more years? I think the only thing Lou does well here is put better people in place and makes this organization run like a professional franchise for once. As far as personnel, its been just as bad as Garth Snow. Lou needs to be the President, but definitely not our GM.

 

[danteipp]

I know he is small, but I would welcome Toby Enstrom, for however long he remains healthy. Maybe the Isles could get a full season out of the combo of Boychuk and Enstrom. Obviously different players but at least they are both solid when in the lineup.

 

[beach]

Retaining Hickey for 4 more years was such a failure on all counts. Hes an okay player, but 4 more years? I think the only thing Lou does well here is put better people in place and makes this organization run like a professional franchise for once. As far as personnel, its been just as bad as Garth Snow. Lou needs to be the President, but definitely not our GM.

I disagree. If used as a 5-6, Hickey is a great signing. If used higher than that, then it's a problem. Right now they're talking about slotting him on the second pairing; let's hope they find someone for the first or second pairing.

 

[buud]

I disagree. If used as a 5-6, Hickey is a great signing. If used higher than that, then it's a problem. Right now they're talking about slotting him on the second pairing; let's hope they find someone for the first or second pairing.

Pelech and Pulock both earned more TOI last year, than Hickey. i don't see that changing, without extenuating circumstances.

Hickey is an acceptable 3rd pair, but i want better. hopefully, Trotz doesn't use him on the PP or the PK. facepalm every time Weight put Hickey out on a PK. we need a stay-home type, on the LH side. thankfully, he is cheap. easy to move. perfect kind of guy for the expansion draft. by then, i would guess that one of our youth has surpassed him.

 

[Jester9881]

Retaining Hickey for 4 more years was such a failure on all counts. Hes an okay player, but 4 more years? I think the only thing Lou does well here is put better people in place and makes this organization run like a professional franchise for once. As far as personnel, its been just as bad as Garth Snow. Lou needs to be the President, but definitely not our GM.

That signing had Garth Snows "free toy" fingerprints all over it.

Slightly OT, Isles Buzz Podcast had Adrian Aucoin on who had an interesting tidbit about Milbury/Wang. He said they had Blake/Weimer/Scatchard as a line and they were one of the toughest lines to play against when out of nowhere MM puts Weimer on waivers. When he asked MM why, his answer was that Wang thought he skated too slow.

 

[Jester9881]

OMG... just finishing up that podcast, you guys need to listen to it. I don't even know what to say right now except if you listen to it and still defend Charles Wang you're an idiot. Flat out idiot.

AA and MM agreed to a 4 year extension and Wang nixed it and forced him to go to arbitration. I don't even... eh

 

[Bill Herlyn]

Wang was a terrible owner no doubt about it and I didn't even have to listen to the podcast to know this sad Islanders fact!!

 

[xECK29x]

OMG... just finishing up that podcast, you guys need to listen to it. I don't even know what to say right now except if you listen to it and still defend Charles Wang you're an idiot. Flat out idiot.

AA and MM agreed to a 4 year extension and Wang nixed it and forced him to go to arbitration. I don't even... eh

I loved Aucoin and hearing Charles cheap out like that because he already paid for a flight to Toronto just boiled my insides.

 

[Jester9881]

And he ended up getting more in arbitration to boot. What an imbecile Wang is..... no wonder he couldn't get his project built.

 

[seafoam]

I know he is small, but I would welcome Toby Enstrom, for however long he remains healthy. Maybe the Isles could get a full season out of the combo of Boychuk and Enstrom. Obviously different players but at least they are both solid when in the lineup.

He’s the best defenseman remaining on the market, but I read his wife is ill and that might be affecting his decision. He is Swedish so if she is receiving treatment, it will likely be there and he might want to be close to her.

He’d push Mayfield to the pressbox if he did come here, however.

I’d assume the pairings would look like this..

Leddy-Boychuk
Hickey-Pulock
Enstrom-Pelech
Mayfield

He’s at least buy them 40 or so games until Toews ready to see some games.

 

[SI90]

I’d kill for a prime Adrian Aucoin on this team

 

[Riseonfire]

I remember a few years ago when we all said we would stop bitching about our 5 6 7 D men, if they were better than Streit and Jurcina.

Here we are. Much better bottom pair guys. Posters still bitching. I understand it's not all the same people, just a comical anecdotal.

 

[IODCPiper]

That signing had Garth Snows "free toy" fingerprints all over it.

Slightly OT, Isles Buzz Podcast had Adrian Aucoin on who had an interesting tidbit about Milbury/Wang. He said they had Blake/Weimer/Scatchard as a line and they were one of the toughest lines to play against when out of nowhere MM puts Weimer on waivers. When he asked MM why, his answer was that Wang thought he skated too slow.

When is that podcast from

 

[YearlyLottery]

That signing had Garth Snows "free toy" fingerprints all over it.

Slightly OT, Isles Buzz Podcast had Adrian Aucoin on who had an interesting tidbit about Milbury/Wang. He said they had Blake/Weimer/Scatchard as a line and they were one of the toughest lines to play against when out of nowhere MM puts Weimer on waivers. When he asked MM why, his answer was that Wang thought he skated too slow.

Well, Wang at least knew the NHL was going in a direction where you needed to skate fast!

 

[Jester9881]

When is that podcast from

I believe it was from today

 

[A Pointed Stick]

OMG... just finishing up that podcast, you guys need to listen to it. I don't even know what to say right now except if you listen to it and still defend Charles Wang you're an idiot. Flat out idiot.

AA and MM agreed to a 4 year extension and Wang nixed it and forced him to go to arbitration. I don't even... eh

You don't say. Like all those times you said I was off the rails with my anger at Wang destroying everything he touched in this organization? Hah, not a told you so moment Jester. Just saying so now maybe you can partly forgive me my absolute animosity towards him as an owner. He was a meddler. A destructive ruinous meddler.

 

[BMOK33]

That’s remarkable that the Aucoin thing never leaked. It shows you how strong twitter is. There isn’t a chance that story doesn’t break today and it’s more likely they offer him a bigger deal today 2nd time around as well because the whole story would have been exposed to the fans already

 

[Isles72]

Retaining Hickey for 4 more years was such a failure on all counts. Hes an okay player, but 4 more years? I think the only thing Lou does well here is put better people in place and makes this organization run like a professional franchise for once. As far as personnel, its been just as bad as Garth Snow. Lou needs to be the President, but definitely not our GM.

I thought it was time to move on from Hickey too ; nice guy , good attitude and fair salary so perhaps its a moveable contract in a few seasons when he gets passed on the depth chart .

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

I disagree. If used as a 5-6, Hickey is a great signing. If used higher than that, then it's a problem. Right now they're talking about slotting him on the second pairing; let's hope they find someone for the first or second pairing.

The thing here is - and it may be Hickey's saving grace - that he not only accumulated 25 points and a +20 in 69 games, but once he was placed together with Pulock, Pulock's game took flight.

It happened and it's one of few bright spots on the season.

I can't say whether a 4 year contract is a good or bad thing. Gotta think he's fairly easy to trade or even buy out, if he'd fall off the planet.

But for now, there's really no reason to pull him apart from Pulock and whether its pair 2 or 3 isn't really all that important as long as they continue to enjoy success together and Pulock continues growing into OUR John Carlson. Don't laugh - you can bet your bottom dollar that that is EXACTLY who Trotz wants to turn him into. But Pulock's shot is clearly more lethal.

Speaking of Pulock, one thing I'm sure of is that he and the team are ready to make much better use of him as a PP weapon. That shot alone has got to see a good bit of PP time.

Depending on how the PP is set up, he could put up 10 goals this season solely with the man advantage.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

I thought it was time to move on from Hickey too ; nice guy , good attitude and fair salary so perhaps its a moveable contract in a few seasons when he gets passed on the depth chart .

I think he was primarily kept, because management just realized it was going to be very hard to retain de Haan and he'd be easier to re-sign than to acquire one of the few Dmen on the market.

And of course due to his successful partnership with Pulock...

 

[CREW99AW]

I cannot believe all the complaints about Hickey's 4 yr/modest salary deal.

Play him in a 3rd pairing role and he is fine . If in a couple of seasons a younger, cheaper option emerges, then Hickey's contract is very moveable.

I am a lot more unhappy with the deadweight that we are getting from Ladd/Clutterbuck. One blogger (over at eyes on isles I believe), suggested Lou has already explored dumping Ladd. I do not know if this blogger has actual sources or it is just wishful thinking, but I would like to see both off the roster. Maybe some team playing cap fl tricks takes Ladd's remaining 5 yrs/$18m.

 

[crasherino]

I cannot believe all the complaints about Hickey's 4 yr/modest salary deal.

Play him in a 3rd pairing role and he is fine . If in a couple of seasons a younger, cheaper option emerges, then Hickey's contract is very moveable.

I am a lot more unhappy with the deadweight that we are getting from Ladd/Clutterbuck. One blogger (over at eyes on isles I believe), suggested Lou has already explored dumping Ladd. I do not know if this blogger has actual sources or it is just wishful thinking, but I would like to see both off the roster. Maybe some team playing cap fl tricks takes Ladd's remaining 5 yrs/$18m.

In a vacuum, Hickey is not a bad player to have. He's not a game changer, but he's turned into a solid, dependable loyal soldier. Limited in some respects, but most players are. Its more of the surrounding players, in their totality, that is the issue. If we signed Hickey and retained CdH, this blue line would look so much better with the bottom two pairings of 6-14/44-50....in whatever format. 6-14 is a perfectly fine pairing to roll out. It just would be nice if we upgraded at least one spot on the blue line so we would be extremely solid across the board. Because, lets face it, Leddy-Boychuk is not really the prototypical #1 pairing for the league. And that's fine....if our MO is to instead roll 3 solid pairings out. Right now (if we are going to assign #s to pairings) we have a #2, #3 and #3.5ish....

 

[saintunspecified]

I am a lot more unhappy with the deadweight that we are getting from Ladd/Clutterbuck. One blogger (over at eyes on isles I believe), suggested Lou has already explored dumping Ladd. I do not know if this blogger has actual sources or it is just wishful thinking, but I would like to see both off the roster. Maybe some team playing cap fl tricks takes Ladd's remaining 5 yrs/$18m.

LL would basically need a mind control device to achieve this before summer 2020. After summer 2020, especially given a revised CBA, who knows?

I also agree on Hickey. The contract is fine. The Mayfield contract otoh is horrific.

 

[crasherino]

LL would basically need a mind control device to achieve this before summer 2020. After summer 2020, especially given a revised CBA, who knows?

I also agree on Hickey. The contract is fine. The Mayfield contract otoh is horrific.

I can't help but think that IR will serve as an extra roster spot or two for us again this season. The cap space isn't the issue - its the roster spots. First guy of Filppula/Komarov/Ladd/Clutter/Martin/Nelson to tweak a hammy/groin, goes on IR until its evident who the next underperforming guy is next to go.

I'm sure other teams do it in the same vein that we do (we just don't follow them all that closely), but Snow was pretty good at creating that extra spot. I think its called being Boulton'd.

 

[leeroggy]

I refuse to believe the plan is to go into the season with Pelech, Hickey and Mayfield as three of the top 6 everynight regular defensemen. This cannot be Lou's plan. At least one, if not two of those spots had to be upgraded. This was literally the only thing that needed to be done this offseason, especially once Tavares left, this should have been priority number one. Even without Tavares, our offense is still in the top half of the NHL. This was the worst defense in the NHL last season BY A MILE and we have the exact same unit as last season? This is an indisputable failure by Lou if this is the plan. I dont even know how it could be argued.

For crying out loud . . . there's still TWO MONTHS until Training Camp!