Roster/Rumors/Speculation/Trade Talk - 2024-25: Re-Tool, Re-Group, Re-Mix, Re-Build

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Does an Engvall buyout really make all that much sense? If we bury him in Bridgeport, it saves us a bit over $1 million on the cap vs. buying him out and saving $2 million but having him on the books for four more years. Just keeping him and putting him in the minors basically costs us the same amount as an entry level contract more than buying him out.
 
Does an Engvall buyout really make all that much sense? If we bury him in Bridgeport, it saves us a bit over $1 million on the cap vs. buying him out and saving $2 million but having him on the books for four more years. Just keeping him and putting him in the minors basically costs us the same amount as an entry level contract more than buying him out.
Yup. Makes no sense to buy him out. Using him as a bottom line forward vs. burying him comes to much the same.
 
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I completely agree with the general argument here about how to build rosters, but disagree that Tsyplakov is not a defensive liability. He is definitely a defensive liability - and Roy even called him out on it last night. That second goal was due to 2 poor defensive plays by Tsyplakov on the same shift, and he does stuff like that every single game.
The fact that we managed to snag a sought after Russian should not blind us to the fact that he’s simply not that good, and could be replaced in any given offseason by signing a fourth liner. In fact, I’d bet that if we’d simply played Foudy this season in place of Tsyplakov, there would be no meaningful difference for the Islanders this season.
It was a great shot bringing him over, and for 1 million certainly has a spot on the roster - but if he’s in the 3-4 range, that continues the awful roster construction we’ve come to expect from Lou.
Several teams have dumped Foudy already, he’s not a late bloomer or puts in a consistent effort, so just going ‘oh, he can be replace by this guy rather easily’ doesn’t work in the real world. Heck, Foudy can’t even beat out Fasching.
 
EP40 sucks EP40 sucks EP40 sucks. Say it again. He is not the player he once was. He is damaged goods. Stay far away from him. I’m ok trading Dobson, but if you can’t get a top line player back get top tier prospects/picks. Go get Perfetti, Lambert, and a first round pick. Opens up a ton of flexibility and gets us a huge injection of young talent.
He doesn’t suck. Stop.

The isles have a leg up here in that Horvat grew up in the organization, the ownership, media, knows the management, etc. He also would know what’s the deal with EP40 across several seasons - you know Lou (unlike head in sand GM in Carolina) would do his due diligence with Horvat on EP40 before making such a deal.

The Isles need talent. If they could get Marner for free, go for it. The probability that happens is .001%.
 
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You can bury Engvall in the minors or just buy him out.

This logic of, well the cap is going up, is the same crap we heard from isles management. Then you turn around and we have salary cap issues AGAIN.

You can throw all the numbers and stats, but I use my eyes and listening to his GM, past and present players. I don't want him. For $11.6M, I'll look elsewhere where there are no red flags.

The question of what to do with Engvall (and Mayfield) will likely come down to how you turn them into the lowest cap hit possible. Is Engvall in BPort the best way to go? Are buyouts the best way to go?

***
I thought this deadline would have been a prime time to see if a contender needing solid 3rd pairing depth would bite (say, Winnipeg - DeMelo will be a UFA this summer) in return for nothing other than perhaps a bit of contract for the here and now, which the team could have exorbed easily enough down the stretch.

Otherwise, if management would happen to have a few days of creativity in the summer, maybe a different kind of forward in Engvall's situation elsewhere who is earning a tick more for fewer years could be brought in in exchange, if indeed management feels that said player CAN play and help here. There might even be a pick to be had in the process.

For example, does Montreal give you Anderson (5.5 MM in each of the next 2 seasons) and a 4th in the process?

Is that a route to take?

It just doesn't seem like you want to be filling up your buyout slots with sub-4 MM per players within two years of having signed them.

***
Sadly, to date, we've seen Lou move out the unwanted contract here or there by attaching them with draft picks.

And as we've also seen for many years now, Lou seems to operate on the basis of a team not really needing to pick more than 5, maybe 6 times, per summer.
 
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It seems like Lou and Roy cannot get together on roster construction. How they have not called up anyone from Bridgeport when MacLean is sick doesn’t make any sense.

Feel bad for Mayfield. Looks like he just doesn’t fit with Roy’s game plan. Wonder who goes first Lou or Roy?
What an off-season.l that was. Signed 2 players to excessively long term contracts in a desperate move so we could get pumped by Car. 6 million on the books for pretty much nothing. I’m sure at a time Mayfield would have brought in a decent haul. Now we might have to buy him out so he’s on the books for a decade. Mind blowing how Lou has a job. It’s also apparent why this team is just slowly fading away. Bad off-season after bad off-season. I’m sure duclair will be great though.
 
its unlikely to happen but right about now would be a good time to fire both Lou and Roy and head into the spring with a fresh set of eyes towards the future . By now , Ledecky and the Collins fella have probably had a morning coffee or two by themselves writing some names down on a napkin who they can see as the next gm
With the TDL past they may as well wait for the season to end, but I agree about the names on the napkin and hope they move on that. If the top guy is not working for a playoff team it could happen soon after the final game. And yeah, let the new guy pick his own coaching staff, so clean house.
 
I completely agree with the general argument here about how to build rosters, but disagree that Tsyplakov is not a defensive liability. He is definitely a defensive liability - and Roy even called him out on it last night. That second goal was due to 2 poor defensive plays by Tsyplakov on the same shift, and he does stuff like that every single game.
The fact that we managed to snag a sought after Russian should not blind us to the fact that he’s simply not that good, and could be replaced in any given offseason by signing a fourth liner. In fact, I’d bet that if we’d simply played Foudy this season in place of Tsyplakov, there would be no meaningful difference for the Islanders this season.
It was a great shot bringing him over, and for 1 million certainly has a spot on the roster - but if he’s in the 3-4 range, that continues the awful roster construction we’ve come to expect from Lou.

Yes - I should have clarified that Tsyplakov hasn't been a defensive liability for most of the season. Recently he has been...And that probably can be at least partly contributed to Roy kind of mailing it in.

That said even more of a reason to trade Tsyplakov or just let him walk before giving him 3M+/year. There's nothing special he offers that a minimum wage player couldn't...And it's about time to maximize the use of our cap to improve the roster - Not just use the cap to the max.
 
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Burying Engvall might actually force his hand somewhat. Does he want to waste his career playing the next five years in the AHL making lots of cash, or does he want to return to Europe and have good career at home? I'm sure they can organize a buyout of sorts (contract termination) when he's been down there for a while.
I think that's exactly what you do. I know people think he'll just collect his $3M for 5 years, but I agree that you take a chance to force his hand. Even if he does stay in the AHL for 5 years, it's worth a shot for the extra $850k of cap hit.
 
Several teams have dumped Foudy already, he’s not a late bloomer or puts in a consistent effort, so just going ‘oh, he can be replace by this guy rather easily’ doesn’t work in the real world. Heck, Foudy can’t even beat out Fasching.
I think you misunderstood the point of my post; it was not that Foudy is good and should have been on the roster; it’s that Tsyplakov is easily replaceable by most journeymen fourth liners.
 
Send Engvall and Fasching down. Sign Finley to his ELC and let him play to see what he’s got.

Nah - Don't do a thing the rest of this season. Pray that Lou and Roy get fired and we can start fresh with a GM that knows how to build a team and a coach who is fully invested and not pulling goalies with 12 minutes left.

Last thing I want to do is let Roy get his hands on a young player - Much less burn a year of any ELC to watch a rookie be learning how to play on a team that is essentially Titanic on ice.
 
EP40 sucks EP40 sucks EP40 sucks. Say it again. He is not the player he once was. He is damaged goods. Stay far away from him. I’m ok trading Dobson, but if you can’t get a top line player back get top tier prospects/picks. Go get Perfetti, Lambert, and a first round pick. Opens up a ton of flexibility and gets us a huge injection of young talent.
Perfetti isn't available, Jets first round pick will be 30-32nd overall, and Brad Lambert has 4 goals over 40+ games this season in the AHL.
 
He doesn’t suck. Stop.

The isles have a leg up here in that Horvat grew up in the organization, the ownership, media, knows the management, etc. He also would know what’s the deal with EP40 across several seasons - you know Lou (unlike head in sand GM in Carolina) would do his due diligence with Horvat on EP40 before making such a deal.

The Isles need talent. If they could get Marner for free, go for it. The probability that happens is .001%.

For 5 million a year EP40 would be decent. For 11+ million for 8 more years he blows beyond belief.

Perfetti isn't available, Jets first round pick will be 30-32nd overall, and Brad Lambert has 4 goals over 40+ games this season in the AHL.

We don’t know who is available for Dobson. If not Perfetti shoot for high end young talent that is just breaking into the league, not a guy that is damaged goods that is just starting a boat anchor of a contract. The EP40 contract is quickly turning into the worst contract in the league.
 
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For 5 million a year EP40 would be decent. For 11+ million for 8 more years he blows beyond belief.



We don’t know who is available for Dobson. If not Perfetti shoot for high end young talent that is just breaking into the league, not a guy that is damaged goods that is just starting a boat anchor of a contract. The EP40 contract is quickly turning into the worst contract in the league.
Who?
 
For anyone wondering what a real rebuild looks like, the Flyers have 3 first round picks and 4 second round picks in this years draft. They also have Michkov! I'm so envious. How Lou didn't more Palmieri and JG at the trade deadline is still eating at me.
The Flyers need to invest heavily in goaltending and defense. I don’t get their love affair with Samuel Ersson. I think he’s brutal.
 
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For anyone wondering what a real rebuild looks like, the Flyers have 3 first round picks and 4 second round picks in this years draft. They also have Michkov! I'm so envious. How Lou didn't more Palmieri and JG at the trade deadline is still eating at me.

Gosh, your post makes me all nostalgic for 1999 when the Islander had 4 first round draft picks and Ziggy Palffy!
 
In all likelihood the plan is to replace Nelson and Pageau internally with Ritchie and Nelson over the next 2 seasons. Lou has already said Ritchie is going to play next year, and my guess is that they're going to play him between two vets, Lee and Palmieri next season. That leaves Barzal-Horvat-Duclair and Tsyplakov-Pageau-Holmstrom as the other two lines barring a monumental change. Lee's spot could end up Eiserman's after next season.
 
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