There's a good chance that the New York Islanders will lose defenseman Nick Leddy in the NHL’s Expansion Draft next week.
Leddy has been with the team for the last seven years and this season, he scored 31 points in 56 games. If Leddy is the player selected, the Islanders will have to work to find a replacement in the top-four of their defense group.
After improving defensively over the last few years, Leddy’s offensive production finally bounced back as well this past season. He led all defenders on the team in points, played the second-most minutes of any player on the team in the regular season and was an important member of the team’s power play. He’s still not great in his own end but he can usually hold his own and given his offensive output, he was a key part of the team’s defense group.
Leddy’s offensive abilities are counted on quite a bit, based on the lack of scoring in New York’s lineup. If you look at the blue line, Ryan Pulock and Noah Dobson are the only two others that have solid offensive upside, but even Pulock’s offensive production was down this year and Dobson still isn’t ready to take on much of a larger role at even strength. Losing Leddy would mean less offense coming from the blue line, which is an issue for a team that struggles to score.
The thing is, there probably isn’t an alternative where the Islanders keep Leddy. It’s highly unlikely they’d use a 4-4-1 protection format and losing Scott Mayfield, who’s signed at an excellent price for two more years, would do just as much damage to the defense group.
With Devon Toews having been traded last offseason, if Leddy also heads elsewhere, it doesn’t seem as though there’d be anyone in the Islanders’ organization who could immediately play in the top-four on the left side. This means there’s certainly a good chance the Islanders would have to go out and find a replacement for Leddy, but it would mean giving up key assets in a trade or spending money in free agency, without much cap space to work with.
The Islanders are one of the teams who will be hit hard by the expansion draft and losing Leddy will likely force the team to make moves, in order to offset the loss.
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Do you think the Islanders will look to add a defender via trade or free agency if Nick Leddy is selected by Seattle?
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