New York Islanders Calvin de Haan Linked to Detroit

He might already be out to door in the Expansion Draft, but there seems to be interest in New York Islanders defenseman Calvin de Haan from the Detroit Red Wings.

Losing something for nothing isn’t how you build a championship team. So losing Calvin de Haan in the expansion draft wouldn’t do the New York Islanders any favors as they look to rebound from this season’s disappointing finale.

With 25 points on the season, this was a career year for the 26-year-old production wise. More importantly, though, de Haan took a big step up in the Islanders defensive depth chart.

Alongside Dennis Seidenberg, de Haan pushed up from a bottom pairing player to second pairing. His 48.2% Corsi-For is third on amongst Isles defensemen, behind only Johnny Boychuk and Scott Mayfield. Although the later only player a total of 25 games this season.

In today’s 30 thoughts, Elliotte Friedman puts out this tasty rumor mill nugget for our undying consumption:

"Could see Detroit with interest in Calvin de Haan from the Islanders, who would be worried about losing him in the expansion draft. He’s been very solid at the Worlds."

Obvious Interest

At the World Championships, de Haan has helped Team Canada accumulate a 6-0-1-0 record. That “1” is an overtime loss to the Swiss. Yeah, the Swiss.

With de Haan amongst its defensive ranks, Canada is tied with Russia for the least goals against with 10 through the preliminary rounds of the tournament.

More from Editorials

• Islanders: How worried should we be with Noah Dobson?
• Islanders: Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock Could Be Olympic Bound
• Islanders key to success: Load management with goalies
• Islanders Zdeno Chara trending in the right direction
• Islanders: Semyon Varlamov Deserves Benefit of the Doubt

For a team like Detroit that was second last in goal differential with a -37 and 244 goals against (worst in the East). Getting solid defensive play is a must if they’re going to make last season’s seventh in the Atlantic an anomaly.

So the link to de Haan makes sense. Especially when you consider the Islanders precarious position in terms of the number of defensemen they’d obviously like to protect in the expansion draft.

They have to protect Johnny Boychuk thanks to his no-move clause. You’d assume that Nick Leddy gets the nod as well. Same goes for Ryan Pulock. That’s three already. If they protect just one more that means they can only protect another two forwards.

John Tavares and Andrew Ladd are auto protected thanks to their deals. You’d have to assume they’d lock up Anders Lee and Josh Bailey. And that’s that. So de Haan isn’t getting protected.

The question becomes, what do that Isles get in return? Assuming they actually want to trade him.

What’s the Deal?

So I’m assuming the Isles bite. A second round pick in 2017 has to be the minimum return for de Haan. A first just seems like too much considering where Detroit picks ninth overall in 2017 and the player in question. A second seems right, even a combination of later picks could work.

But the idea here isn’t to pick up another roster player. That just makes the whole expansion dilemma starts over again.

Next: 2017 NHL Mock Draft

The Isles don’t necessarily need that second round pick. Their prospect pool is already fairly deep. But when faced with losing an asset for no return it’s best practice to see what you can get before you lose him.