If Lou moves Varlamov, hopefully it doesn’t involve either Koskinen or Barrie for obvious reasons. If either were included, I’d hope he asks for Holloway+ and drives the price up simply because it hinders the Islanders chances of using the cap space for a true need (scoring forward/LH middle pairing offensive minded defenseman). I’ve stated it numerous times that the Islanders needs prospect-wise are forwards with scoring ability. They have quite a few defensemen in the system that are just about NHL ready so adding more would just just be throwing more into the depth chart. The issue is that Edmonton seems to look slim when it comes to forward prospects (based on cap friendly).
The Oilers are fairly rich on forward prospects imo. Holloway and Bourgault have hit, and we have Savoie, Petrov, and a couple others I believe. Holloway would be the only one that I'd figure is completely unavailable for a trade for Varly, depending on outside factors. But either way, if the D prospects are superior in your opinion, you could accept them and flip them for whatever you want. Same goes with any picks you'd get. You could even get a decent NHL proven forward with these assets, likely someone better than if you were just trading Varlamov alone, especially if in those cases it would likely be from a selling team, and Varly wouldn't agree to that trade.
I am actually fine with not sending a cap dump to the Isles, although if it were Koskinen, isn't that okay, considering the contract expires in a few months? The actual salary on Koskinen by the deadline would be around 1 million.
