Confirmed with Link: Toews to Avs for 2021 and 2022 2nd rd picks.

[GoIsles1]

All the people blaming Lou, I think that’s nonsense. You can put the blame squarely on Covid. How on earth could Lou know that a pandemic would happen that would cause the salary cap to stay exactly where it was. It was supposed to go up. We know what happened. That’s what you can blame the Toews trade and the salary cap issues on. Certainly not Lous fault.

 

[Newsworthy]

If there were a team that should know the value of intangibles, it is the Islanders. Komarov was probably signed a year too long, but given when Lou took over the Islanders, and how the summer went, when the Islanders were led astray, lucky we were by a certain free agent. He recognized the team needed new culture. Matt Martin and Leo Komarov were keys to this. Though the on ice stats will not bare this out, and thankfully some spreadsheet GM's will not recognize this, Lou does. It's why the Islanders are a head of many teams the past 2 seasons. Leo is a tough player to play against, he also keeps the room very light, there is a certain bond he brings to a team. It is not always measured in corsi, or other analyics, but it sure seems to follow him around. Right now, contracts signed 2 -3 years ago, may look expensive, the cap is tough for all teams. But I think the Isles can get through another 2 years with Leo. All things considered, that's not a long time.

The problem is we have enough fourth liners. Guys like Martin and Leo are redundant. We needed upgrades in our top six. That is where Lou has failed.

 

[MJF]

People don't talk about the Islanders because they're the Islanders.

The stigma and the stench is still on this franchise. And that's why we have to overpay to get FAs to sign here.

 

[ThreeLeftSkates]

Yeah my bad I forgot Lou has done such an amazing job in acquiring all this tremendous talent on our current roster. So many all stars. How do we keep all these future Hall of Famers?

Lou came in needing to sign a top 4 d man, had to choose between CDH and Hickey. It turns out he was right, but overpaid a declining Hickey. Lee? The new mindset of the Isles is important. Discount his salary by 1,000,000 for his invaluable leadership ability(after, well, you know), and you have a guy with size and grit who will score at least 25 a year, who erased questions about scoring in the playoffs. The swing and miss on Panarin is not Lou's fault. Could we have beaten Tampa for all of it with him?

 

[buud]

Also, are we really going to start to pretend that Toews was always overrated and we didn't really like or need him anyway?

I am not going to, and I will tell you the reason.

I KNOW that he is replaceable, for cheaper. Even if he is awarded $3 mil/per (low, IMO). I believe that both Greene and Dobson (even Aho) can effectively replace him. For cheaper.

Greene is better defensively and Toews is better offensively, although overall, I would say it's a wash. Greene's age is troublesome for sure, but we (all teams) have to think of value. Greene's experience and cool under pressure is a definite bonus for the team.

Dobson, while young and inexperienced, could potentially be better than Toews, overall. And as possibly as soon as this year. His calm under pressure was impressive. Not only that, his decision making/head for the game, was better than Toews', IMO. The ONLY thing that Toews was superior at, was skating.

So, even if Greene and Dobson were used alternately, i feel like this is a win overall.

It was my opinion that our D was a bit too soft in our own end, and IMO, that was one of Toews' weaknesses. I am all for Greene replacing Toews, and even looking for a gritty, younger, 3LD, in the mold of a Mayfield. We only need so many 'offensive minded D'. Two is ideal, if you ask me, and we already have Pulock, Leddy and Dobson.

In short, I am going to miss Toews, but I know that we can live, AND thrive, without him.

 

[Newsworthy]

Lou came in needing to sign a top 4 d man, had to choose between CDH and Hickey. It turns out he was right, but overpaid a declining Hickey. Lee? The new mindset of the Isles is important. Discount his salary by 1,000,000 for his invaluable leadership ability(after, well, you know), and you have a guy with size and grit who will score at least 25 a year, who erased questions about scoring in the playoffs. The swing and miss on Panarin is not Lou's fault. Could we have beaten Tampa for all of it with him?

We are gonna agree to disagree again. We didn't need Hickey or CDH. In fact Aho could have played that role sooner than later. Lou could have signed any cheaper vet during the time to a one or two year deal to be the guy. No one was knocking down Hickeys door. Need vs. depth.
Anyone who watches Thomas play carefully sees an underwhelming physical player who's skating isnt great and offense is meh.
Easily replaceable even at that time. I really don't know what film Lou was studying him or who gave him the advice.

 

[ThreeLeftSkates]

We are gonna agree to disagree again. We didn't need Hickey or CDH. In fact Aho could have played that role sooner than later. Lou could have signed any cheaper vet during the time to a one or two year deal to be the guy. No one was knocking down Hickeys door. Need vs. depth.
Anyone who watches Thomas play carefully sees an underwhelming physical player who's skating isnt great and offense is meh.
Easily replaceable even at that time. I really don't know what film Lou was studying him or who gave him the advice.

You can disagree all you want, but Lou came here not knowing the players, and short a top 4 d man. Bitching about moves when we went as far as we did seems like sour grapes to me. Toews? We can live without him.

 

[aronjudge11]

Toes needed to go either way. Watching him refuse to shoot the puck in the playoffs a few times, I can't watch those kind of players. You put up with it for Barazal for now because you don't have other high end talent asking to come here. But let's be honest if other high end talent was trying to get here, and barzal needed his big paycheck, they would move him too. 2 second rounders for a #5 or #6 defenseman who doesn't like to shoot the puck and needs to start getting paid, great job by Lou. If dobson is not better than toews the team is in trouble to begin with. They drafted him, refused to trade him, he needs to be a #2 defensman.

 

[Newsworthy]

You can disagree all you want, but Lou came here not knowing the players, and short a top 4 d man. Bitching about moves when we went as far as we did seems like sour grapes to me. Toews? We can live without him.

Toews isn't going to be replaced by Greene or Dobson.
Leddy doesn't shoot the puck when he should either and Pulock who has a rocket misses the net half the tine. Players need to play to their strengths. Toews was one of my favorite Islander players.
We went this far with TOEWS while Hickey was on sabbatical. All this does is make the team worse.

 

[ThreeLeftSkates]

Toews isn't going to be replaced by Greene or Dobson.
Leddy doesn't shoot the puck when he should either and Pulock who has a rocket misses the net half the tine. Players need to play to their strengths. Toews was one of my favorite Islander players.
We went this far with TOEWS while Hickey was on sabbatical. All this does is make the team worse.

Dobson is going to be a far superior player to Toews, but he plays on the other side. If he is that crucial to your fanhood, then goodbye.

 

[Richie Daggers Crime]

If he is that crucial to your fanhood

Yeah, but does he bleed blue and orange?

 

[Newsworthy]

Yeah, but does he bleed blue and orange?

My loyalty has been with the Islanders my entire existence. I was like six years old since we one our last cup. I didn't live the glory days. I'm a long suffering fan that is why this is so very frustrating.

 

[Newsworthy]

Dobson is going to be a far superior player to Toews, but he plays on the other side. If he is that crucial to your fanhood, then goodbye.

Crucial?
The Islanders traded LaFontaine. Ouch. Not such a bad return at the time I might add especially with Pat's injury history. But than afterward the awful Turgeon move. And than of course my favorite Islander of all time Palffy. Traded for Yashin and gave up Hall of Famer Chara in another awful move by Milbury. JT than walks.
Who's next?
Barzal.
If that happens let's just say as a fan of this team I'm used to it.
Not comparing the Toews move to any of the above transactions. Just saying.

 

[ThreeLeftSkates]

Crucial?
The Islanders traded LaFontaine. Ouch. Not such a bad return at the time I might add especially with Pat's injury history. But than afterward the awful Turgeon move. And than of course my favorite Islander of all time Palffy. Traded for Yashin and gave up Hall of Famer Chara in another awful move by Milbury. JT than walks.
Who's next?
Barzal.
If that happens let's just say as a fan of this team I'm used to it.
Not comparing the Toews move to any of the above transactions. Just saying.

I came on board in the late 70's Cablevision hits Connecticut. Been a fan throughout, the horrible years actually sting more when you have seen the top of the mountain. Toews is just a covid19 casualty. Life will go on, and watching Dobson next year is going to be a treat.

 

[Joedoggy]

The problem is we have enough fourth liners. Guys like Martin and Leo are redundant. We needed upgrades in our top six. That is where Lou has failed.

Would have to strongly disagree...Guys like Marts and Leo got it done in the playoffs/...the top six were the problem...not a failure on the Gm's part...more a failure to perform on the guys making the big money....a tweak is needed but in performance.

 

[JeffNYI]

If we REALLY wanted to keep Toews and nobody would give anything for Leddy then all we had to do was buy out Leddy.. save $4.25M this year, $4.75M next year and use that money to pay Toews.. yeah the cap penalties 3 and 4 years from now of $2.25M would have sucked but we'd have time to figure it out..

In the most recent episode of his podcast Staple said the Islanders made it clear to him that Trotz wants Leddy on the team, so that's that. One of them had to go -- it's that simple. We made the best move we could under the circumstances.

We just made it to the ECF for the first time in decades.. let's give our braintrust the benefit of the doubt here...

 

[MJF]

My loyalty has been with the Islanders my entire existence. I was like six years old since we one our last cup. I didn't live the glory days. I'm a long suffering fan that is why this is so very frustrating.

Each of the last 3 years has ended better than the previous one. If you call that frustrating I feel sorry for you. Your pessimism is eternal.

 

[ML19]

We made it to the conference finals and you are all acting like we were a bottom feeder. Toews had to be dealt. We could not afford him, Pulock, and Barzal. Pulock and Barzal are much more valuable. We have Dobson, Aho, Wilde, maybe Greene...one of them will step into that Toews role youre so worried about.

 

[MJF]

We made it to the conference finals and you are all acting like we were a bottom feeder. Toews had to be dealt. We could not afford him, Pulock, and Barzal. Pulock and Barzal are much more valuable. We have Dobson, Aho, Wilde, maybe Greene...one of them will step into that Toews role youre so worried about.

Greene will never be asked to step into Toews’ role. It’s not in his toolbox. But yeah Dobson and maybe Aho will be looked to for that.

 

[PWJunior]

Greene will never be asked to step into Toews’ role. It’s not in his toolbox. But yeah Dobson and maybe Aho will be looked to for that.

Dobson has all the skills that Toews has with considerably more upside and it's not a small thing that he's a RH shot. Our LHD group had all the puck moving and our RHD group had most of the muscle and brawn. Dobson is the one RHD that brings the PMD dimension to the right side.

Aho is similar to Visnovsky, we can only hope he's a fraction as effective. In the small NHL sample size, he looked pretty good.

 

[Richie Daggers Crime]

My loyalty has been with the Islanders my entire existence. I was like six years old since we one our last cup. I didn't live the glory days. I'm a long suffering fan that is why this is so very frustrating.

They're not sending their best.

 

[seafoam]

Pelech-Pulock
Leddy-Mayfield
Greene-Dobson
Aho

Would think they are still working on a Boychuk trade and Hickey will be waived over Aho since Hickey won’t get claimed.

 

[Throttle]

If we REALLY wanted to keep Toews and nobody would give anything for Leddy then all we had to do was buy out Leddy.. save $4.25M this year, $4.75M next year and use that money to pay Toews.. yeah the cap penalties 3 and 4 years from now of $2.25M would have sucked but we'd have time to figure it out..

In the most recent episode of his podcast Staple said the Islanders made it clear to him that Trotz wants Leddy on the team, so that's that. One of them had to go -- it's that simple. We made the best move we could under the circumstances.

We just made it to the ECF for the first time in decades.. let's give our braintrust the benefit of the doubt here...

A little bizarre this story keeps surfacing -that the Isles called out Leddy publicly with praise. Like, it’s more than what it is, the player had some concerns on his status, or it’s really just people grabbing onto a simple comment.

 

[ScaredStreit]

All the people blaming Lou, I think that’s nonsense. You can put the blame squarely on Covid. How on earth could Lou know that a pandemic would happen that would cause the salary cap to stay exactly where it was. It was supposed to go up. We know what happened. That’s what you can blame the Toews trade and the salary cap issues on. Certainly not Lous fault.

We were in trouble before Covid came though. Let's say the cap goes up bt $3million. That still leaves up with roughly $12million to re-sign Barzal, Pulock, and Toews. Still not enough.

Komarov and Hickey's deals are his fault 100% his fault. Those were bad deals at the time they were signed and are bad deals now.

Overall I like Lou a lot and think he's been great for our franchise but that doesn't mean he's infallable.

 

[IslandersGER]

We were in trouble before Covid came though. Let's say the cap goes up bt $3million. That still leaves up with roughly $12million to re-sign Barzal, Pulock, and Toews. Still not enough.

Komarov and Hickey's deals are his fault 100% his fault. Those were bad deals at the time they were signed and are bad deals now.

Overall I like Lou a lot and think he's been great for our franchise but that doesn't mean he's infallable.

it is not only that we would have +3m, but every other team also would have +3m more to spend and therefore unloading players would be easier under normal circumstances with higher cap this year