Roster/Rumors/Speculation/Trade Talk - 2023-24: Hotel California

[4Cups Want More]

For everyone knocking the Hickey deal and blaming that as one of the main reasons that we had to trade Toews I have one question.

Who would you have signed to be our #3 defenseman behing Boychuck and Leddy at that time?

It would certainly have cost us more to sign another experienced D-man than it did Hickey.

At the time we had the following defensemen on the roster:

Pelech - total 131 nhl games played
Pulock - total 84 nhl games played
Mayfield - total 83 games played
Aho - total 22 nhl games played
Toews - 0 total nhl games played and shoulder injury

I know that you must be clairvoyant and known that Hickey would get hurt and never return to his former self and that Pulock and Pelech would turn into one of the best shutdown pairings in the NHL. Also that Toews, with all of his zero experience and injury, would deserve to get a 4+ million dollar contract in two years.

The Hickey deal was a necessary deal. If not him then who would you have signed and at what cost?

 

[MJF]

If we trade Beau because we couldn't give away Bailey I'll be pissed.

Can we give Bailey the Moulson treatment?

Not without half this board losing their shit.

I would rather lose Bailey, but outside of his skating is Beauvillier aby better? I would be fine with moving both of them. Beauvillier has not improved at all since his rookie season. Hes a streaky 15-20 goal scorer with average tools outside of his skating.

Nobody. Wants. Josh. Bailey.

Nobody wants his contract. Nobody wants the rights to his song.

 

[4Cups Want More]

I would rather lose Bailey, but outside of his skating is Beauvillier aby better? I would be fine with moving both of them. Beauvillier has not improved at all since his rookie season. Hes a streaky 15-20 goal scorer with average tools outside of his skating.

During the 20-21 season there was a stretch of games where Beau was the best player on the ice. He did not necessarily score any points in some of those games but he was dominant when he was on the ice.

In all of Bailey's tenure with this team I don't believe that I have ever heard anyone say that about him for even one game.

 

[Richie Daggers Crime]

It is also worth mentioning that they lost DeHaan and Tavares and I guess they didn’t want to lose Hickey too- but they had Toews waiting in the AHL

The deal was too long for sure.

You could definitely argue that the deal was too long. But, the team was facing the prospect of having nothing there. It would have been irresponsible to just let him go.

 

[Throttle]

The Hickey deal was a necessary deal. If not him then who would you have signed and at what cost?

Similar mediocre talent for same term to sign on the with Isles. Most UFAs that offseason signed 3/4/5 yr deals. They resigned what they knew, warts and all.

 

[IslandersFan17]

That's all you've been doing. Insufferable.

You don't want to actually have a discussion, you want everyone to say how terrible Lamoriello is for an acceptable trade.

I genuinely don’t care how anyone else feels about it. I think it was a bad trade, because of a cap crunch Lou put him self in. It’s not that deep, people didn’t have to engage in the topic if they didn’t want to.

 

[beach]

If we trade Beau because we couldn't give away Bailey I'll be pissed.

Can we give Bailey the Moulson treatment?

I won't be happy, but the draft pick return should be better.

 

[SayItAintSoJohnny]

Not without half this board losing their shit.


Nobody. Wants. Josh. Bailey.

Nobody wants his contract. Nobody wants the rights to his song.

That isn't a fair assessment on Josh at all. Sure, now they wouldn't really want him because cap space is at a premium AND they know Lou needs to clear space- but you could do a whole lot worse a month ago than trade for Josh Bailey...as a matter of fact teams did just that.

Leaving his 2017-18 outlier with Tavares out of the equation, Bailey is still arguably worth 4 million per year on a short term deal if he was on the open market. His current contract is only slightly above that (5 per) and his actually dollars owed is only 3,5 million per. He is still a middle 6 facilitator who can play special teams adequately enough...

His per82 over his last 4 seasons is 52.5,

Nino Niederreiter got 2 years and 8 million averaging 46.9 points per82 over that same time period

Ondrej Palat, who is only a year and a half younger got 5 YEARS AND 30 MILLION averaging 52.6 over that same time period

Reilly Smith, almost exactly same age as Palat got 3 YEARS AND 15 MILLION averaging 53.3 over that same time period

Artturi Lehkonen; albeit 27 got 5 YEARS AND 22.5 MILLION averaging 32.7 over that same time period

Andre Burakovksy, also just 27 got 5 YEARS AND 27.5 MILLION averaging 53.7 over that same time period

Andrew Copp, 28 got 5 YEARS AND 28.125 MILLION averaging 45.2 over that same time period

Columbus got a 2nd and 3rd round pick for Oliver Bjorkstand, who despite being only 27 has averaged only 54.4 over that same time period and is owed 4 YEARS AND 21.6 MILLION on his contract which is backloaded (22.5 cash owed)

There are a few other examples similar...

Is Bailey's 2 years and 7 million cash owed (10 million cap) even at age 33 that much worse than these deals???

Um, no....

 

[PK Cronin]

I genuinely don’t care how anyone else feels about it. I think it was a bad trade, because of a cap crunch Lou put him self in. It’s not that deep, people didn’t have to engage in the topic if they didn’t want to.

Lou caused the flat cap. Great take.

 

[seafoam]

For everyone knocking the Hickey deal and blaming that as one of the main reasons that we had to trade Toews I have one question.

Who would you have signed to be our #3 defenseman behing Boychuck and Leddy at that time?

It would certainly have cost us more to sign another experienced D-man than it did Hickey.

At the time we had the following defensemen on the roster:

Pelech - total 131 nhl games played
Pulock - total 84 nhl games played
Mayfield - total 83 games played
Aho - total 22 nhl games played
Toews - 0 total nhl games played and shoulder injury

I know that you must be clairvoyant and known that Hickey would get hurt and never return to his former self and that Pulock and Pelech would turn into one of the best shutdown pairings in the NHL. Also that Toews, with all of his zero experience and injury, would deserve to get a 4+ million dollar contract in two years.

The Hickey deal was a necessary deal. If not him then who would you have signed and at what cost?

Nick Holden signed a 2 year, 2.2M per deal that same day as Hickey.

You'll probably say who? But he's still playing in the NHL and Hickey is not, also term was huge.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

If we trade Beau because we couldn't give away Bailey I'll be pissed.

That would be a prime reason why we'd be moving him.

BEAU TO MONTREAL:
This is, of course, always the rumor. As it is with any Quebecois of note.

They have much to pay with as well. But they too are gonna need to be moving salary. And we'd only be moving Beau to create cap space.

Should it come to this, not only does Montreal have one of the deepest prospect pools in hockey, they also have 11 picks in next summer's draft, including two 1st rounders. Not to mention, they've already been drafting an average of 11 times per summer for four years now.

They'd have a lot of ammunition for a deal if they can pawn off salary elsewhere.

 

[JKP]

For everyone knocking the Hickey deal and blaming that as one of the main reasons that we had to trade Toews I have one question.

Who would you have signed to be our #3 defenseman behing Boychuck and Leddy at that time?

It would certainly have cost us more to sign another experienced D-man than it did Hickey.

At the time we had the following defensemen on the roster:

Pelech - total 131 nhl games played
Pulock - total 84 nhl games played
Mayfield - total 83 games played
Aho - total 22 nhl games played
Toews - 0 total nhl games played and shoulder injury

I know that you must be clairvoyant and known that Hickey would get hurt and never return to his former self and that Pulock and Pelech would turn into one of the best shutdown pairings in the NHL. Also that Toews, with all of his zero experience and injury, would deserve to get a 4+ million dollar contract in two years.

The Hickey deal was a necessary deal. If not him then who would you have signed and at what cost?

People always seem to forget about Toews’ shoulder injury at that time. He was an unknown commodity, certainly not what he is today. He’d played half an AHL season and messed up his shoulder. He might have looked promising, but he had a serious injury and not a single game of NHL experience.

 

[4Cups Want More]

Nick Holden signed a 2 year, 2.2M per deal that same day as Hickey.

You'll probably say who? But he's still playing in the NHL and Hickey is not, also term was huge.

OK so that is 1 player who was a journeyman and a couple of years older than Hickey.

I am not saying that I loved Hickey's contract as far as the term goes. The cost was OK if the term was less. Especially when Lou was saying that it was going to be an evaluation year. But, you cannot deny that we needed an experienced defenseman and Hickey was already part of the family. Continuity accounts for something when you are trying to build chemistry.

We also do not know if we could have kept Hickey with a lesser term deal.

 

[doublechili]

In 2018 when Lou took over the Isles were coming off a season where they finished 22nd in a 31 team league with the Garth Snow and Doug Weight leadership combo. Then Tavares left. The team/franchise was basically a laughing stock. The salary cap went up 6% ($4.5M) that summer, so teams were offering lots of dough. "Hey UFAs with loads of options, we stink, you laugh at us, we're not sure what arena we're playing in, our best player just bugged out, come on in and sign with us!"

In the prior season, Hickey had 25 points in 69 games playing 18 minutes per game and lead the team in plus-minus with a +20 (the next best was +11).

People ripping Lou are unintentionally praising him because they've apparently forgotten how bad we were before he got here. The only category we were among the league leaders in was most appearances on no-trade lists. He probably had to give term to guys to convince them to sign.

 

[The Real JT]

I see the Laffs are having trouble signing Sandin.

Any thoughts here on trading Salo and a mid round pick for him?

I’m bored obviously.

 

[PWJunior]

I see the Laffs are having trouble signing Sandin.

Any thoughts here on trading Salo and a mid round pick for him?

I’m bored obviously.

Sandin is Thomas Hickey 2.0, no thanks. Small and slow tweeners need not apply. I much prefer Salo and his skillsket.

 

[Throttle]

I see the Laffs are having trouble signing Sandin.

Any thoughts here on trading Salo and a mid round pick for him?

I’m bored obviously.

Talk about a guy that intentionally walked himself into a corner and 4 years later is still stuck there.

 

[Islander24]

Do I finally have permission to not like Lou?

 

[PWJunior]

View attachment 577642
Do I finally have permission to not like Lou?

Wow, a GM who is around for decades leads the list with other geriatrics.. another disingenuous and dip shit stat from Lou haters.

(Not trying to insult you, just a general statement to stupidity of this tweet)

 

[Throttle]

Wow, a GM who is around for decades leads the list... another disingenuous and dip shit stat from Lou haters.

(Not trying to insult you, just a general statement to this tweet)

The obsession with age of the GM and the players is kinda funny. All those in the Top 5 have led their teams to a minimum of a conference finals. All those owners seem(ed - as Wilson has moved on for health issues) just fine with that.

 

[Islander24]

Wow, a GM who is around for decades leads the list with other geriatrics.. another disingenuous and dip shit stat from Lou haters.

(Not trying to insult you, just a general statement to stupidity of this tweet)

Ill wait.. You guys will come around

 

[Mike C]

The obsession with age of the GM and the players is kinda funny. All those in the Top 5 have led their teams to a minimum of a conference finals. All those owners seem(ed - as Wilson has moved on for health issues) just fine with that.

Winning isn't everything. It's the ONLY thing

 

[The Lighthouse]

Do they still play? This was like 20+ years ago when Quake 2 was popular. Duke Nukem style graphics, haha. I was awesome with the Railgun, I could pull a head shot while swinging through the air with the grappling hook. Those were the days. We eventually moved on to Unreal Tournament, but it just wasn't the same. We were DI Clan, we meant business. We would host other companies on our server and wrecked them. I think we were a top-100 global clan at one point. I didn't even crack our team top-10, we had 20+ people in the office play... headsets, Mountain Dew, and a lot of fun.

Ah, the memories. Mobile Legends is fun, you should try it. It has that frenetic Quake 2 pace with strategy. I've gotten pretty good.

My username is PWJunior, like here. I'll mentor you. Haha.

Sorry for the late response PW. I can still remember the sound of the railgun very well, along with the sound of people jumping. I remember a lot of servers had the grapple mod so you'd hear the endless sound of jumping, the railgun, and the grenade launcher. I actually enjoyed UT but I don't know if I ever played it very much, I think I like CTF a lot though. It looks like people are still playing, which is crazy, but if you get 13 in a server now it looks like you're the top server: Quake 2 Server List | Search Q2 Stats, Rankings, and Banners - Game Tracker

I do appreciate your mentoring offer. I probably won't be downloading the game, but, I'll look for a PWJunior at the top of the charts if I do, lol.

 

[Lights911]

I see the Laffs are having trouble signing Sandin.

Any thoughts here on trading Salo and a mid round pick for him?

I’m bored obviously.

Yes, if the Isles could swing a deal for Sandin, he would be a perfect fit next to Mayfield. He's performed quite well during his time in Toronto and would be a great way to cap off our top 6.

View attachment 577642
Do I finally have permission to not like Lou?

No, no you do not. This board doesn't allow that.

 

[PJGooch]

In 2018 when Lou took over the Isles were coming off a season where they finished 22nd in a 31 team league with the Garth Snow and Doug Weight leadership combo. Then Tavares left. The team/franchise was basically a laughing stock. The salary cap went up 6% ($4.5M) that summer, so teams were offering lots of dough. "Hey UFAs with loads of options, we stink, you laugh at us, we're not sure what arena we're playing in, our best player just bugged out, come on in and sign with us!"

In the prior season, Hickey had 25 points in 69 games playing 18 minutes per game and lead the team in plus-minus with a +20 (the next best was +11).

People ripping Lou are unintentionally praising him because they've apparently forgotten how bad we were before he got here. The only category we were among the league leaders in was most appearances on no-trade lists. He probably had to give term to guys to convince them to sign.

Three years of unexpected and memorable success have obscured the fact that the afternoon of 7/1/18 (or whatever day the PJs tweet went up) was arguably the lowest depth the franchise had reached in at least a decade, as far as the roster goes.