Now that the New York Islanders’ great playoff run is over, the focus turns to the offseason.
A clear challenge for the Islanders this offseason will be clearing cap space. They have three key restricted free agents to sign and with not a whole lot of room left to do it, some players will need to be moved.
One potential trade option is Josh Bailey. Jordan Eberle, Anders Lee and Brock Nelson each have a no-trade clause, Jean-Gabriel Pageau was just acquired, and besides Mathew Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier, the majority of the other members of the forward group are on bad contracts. Nick Leddy is an option to move on defense but just moving his contract alone likely won’t create enough space for the Islanders. Bailey is one of the few players that it could make sense to trade, based on the value that he could bring back for the Islanders while clearing cap space at the same time.
Bailey’s value hasn’t been this high since the 2017-18 season, after scoring 20 points in 22 playoff games this year. So with that in mind, teams will likely look at his contract, which carries a $5 million AAV for the next four years, and have some interest. Plus, at nearly 31 years old, Bailey’s play will likely have declined before his contract is up and the Islanders could probably get some pretty good draft picks and/or prospects back in exchange for Bailey right now.
Of course, there are some major cons to dealing Bailey as well. For starters, his contract is actually quite reasonable for the Islanders, based on his production to dollar ratio. On top of that, he was one of New York’s best forwards in the playoffs and a team that has trouble scoring really can’t afford to lose a top-six forward. The second line has also developed quite a bit of chemistry and was the team’s best line throughout the majority of the playoffs.
However, the fact is that the Islanders have been backed into a corner with some brutal contracts and they don’t have a ton of options to clear cap space. They can get out of this cap crunch without dealing Bailey, but it would likely mean trading away draft picks and/or prospects in order to move their bad contracts.
I don’t want to see Bailey dealt, as it would put New York’s forward group in an even worse spot but the Islanders may need to cash in while his value is high.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Will the Islanders trade Josh Bailey this offseason?
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