New York Islanders Best Deals to Make With Vegas

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Mar 25, 2016; Tampa, FL, USA; New York Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock (6) passes the puck against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the first period at Amalie Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

Take This Guy Instead

It’s no secret that the New York Islanders have more assets to protect than slots available to protect the with. Especially when it come to the blue line.

With Nick Leddy, Travis Hamonic, Calvin de Haan, Thomas Hickey, and Ryan Pulock not automatically protected and Johnny Boychuk locked up thanks to his no move. The Islanders have six defenders to protects and only eight slots.

John Tavares is a lock, even if he didn’t have an auto lock thanks to his no-move clause, he’s the fist name Garth Snow writes down. And then Andrew Ladd gets an auto lock because of his no-move. That’s eight.

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Anders Lee, Josh Bailey, Brock Nelson, Ryan Strome all are left exposed for Vegas to take.

So what if the Islanders do exactly that, but send their first round pick to Vegas for “Future Considerations”? A future consideration that would manifest itself as the Golden Knights taking Casey Cizikas in on June 21st.

The Golden Knights get a great third to fourth line center. A guy who can kill penalties with the best of them, and can even get you upwards of 30 points in a season.

Cizikas is a good player and all, but at his contract and with what the Isles might have to give up. This seems like te best case scenario. I’m not saying that Alan Quine is better than Casey Cizikas, but he looked pretty good on that fourth line last season.

Not to mention the $2.74 million the Isles would be saving on the cap this season alone.