The NY Islanders owners feel spurned. They were the final call on whether the Isles would trade or not trade John Tavares at last season’s trade deadline. They are angry and frustrated.
Isles owners and team management were already highly pessimistic on retaining Tavares by mid-day last Friday. The more they were strung along, the more it was clear he would not be staying on Long Island. Suddenly, their realization that NOT trading him had cost them dearly.
The bigger issue is that there really is no Plan B. Without John Tavares it is even harder to attract free agents despite Lou Lamoriello’s legendary reputation and Barry Trotz respect as the coach. No help is coming via free agency besides the depth signings so far. We can hope that changes. But it's very thin at best.
According to an NHL source: The NY Islanders are pushing hard for Karlsson: "If this (Karlsson) doesn’t happen it will be completely due to him wanting to play somewhere else. It won’t be being outbid OR not giving enough in trade."
Lou is pushing hard for some deal to happen to offset the loss of
John Tavares. One way to do that is to land Erik Karlsson from Ottawa, who is an elite top defender. The trick is that they would need to get him to agree to an extension.
In the end, the Vegas Golden Knights are likely in the driver’s seat for landing him over the Isles. But don’t discount the Isles, who could overpay AND take on Bobby Ryan’s bloated contract.
If it can be done, hope that Lou has some magic ways of persuasion to get Karlsson to extend.
Because this is the BIGGEST sticking point of all.
Yes, losing Tavares hurts. Not a doubt about it. But the Isles have Barzal and kids in the pipeline.
What they have been missing forever is a true elite puck mover on defense.
Nick Leddy is a solid #2 guy forced into a #1 D role.
In speaking to the excellent
Sean Tierney of the Athletic (
@ChartingHockey on Twitter, make sure to give him a follow)… he agrees.
“There are a couple of ways to look at it. The Goals Above Replacement stat is great because it equalizes across positions. By that measure, Karlsson and Tavares were about equal last year (Tavares with the slight edge...~18 GAR vs Karlsson's ~16.5)”
“In both cases, we're talking about clear-cut, elite, top-of-their-position performers. If NYI could find a way to get in on Karlsson, they would essentially balance out having lost Tavares.”
“In my opinion, Barzal can be a 1C next year and NYI has holes on defense. In that way, NYI could be in a really okay spot if they landed Karlsson (and they could use Ryan too, if he's attached to the deal)”
Of course, Isles fans might ask the Isles to check Karlsson’s bedsheets first.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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