New York Islanders: Four Teams Who Need A First Round Pick

(EDITORS NOTE: caption correction) Jun 24, 2016; Buffalo, NY, USA; Kieffer Bellows shakes hands with Islanders owner Chalres Wang after being selected as the number nineteen overall draft pick by the New York Islanders in the first round of the 2016 NHL Draft at the First Niagra Center. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports /

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Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /

Vegas Golden Knights

The New York Islanders are going to have a tough time protecting all the defencemen that they seemingly want to keep. They have to keep Johnny Boychuk thanks to his no-move clause. So that leaves Nick Leddy, Travis Hamonic, Calvin de Haan, and Thomas Hickey. Oh and Ryan Pulock.

So what if the Isles make a deal for the Vegas Golden Knights to look the other way on their defensive conundrum and take a player that they wouldn’t mind losing.

Say the Islanders can convince George McPhee and his staff to take their 15th overall pick to take Nikolai Kulemin in the expansion draft?

Kulemin is still a valuable player. Our friends and Pitchforks and Pucks recently included him in a deal for Ilya Kovalchuk.

Must Read: Interesting Trade Proposal For Kovalchuk

Kulemin has been a great third and fourth line player for the Islanders since acquiring him as a free agent in 2014. He’s put up alright number, although never hitting the highs he had in Toronto back in 2010-11 where he had 57 points.

But Kulemin’s $4.1875 deal this year chew’s up a big part of the Islanders cap space. Space they could use when trying to acquire a top level talent like Matt Duchene.