New York Islanders Revisiting The Andrew Ladd Contract

On this date last year the New York Islanders signed Andrew Ladd. Looking back on the deal was it worth it or did the team over pay?

July 1, 2016, was a tough day for New York Islanders fans. They saw fan favorites like Kyle Okposo, Frans Nielsen and Matt Martin all depart in free agency. Although Garth Snow didn’t sit on his hands he made a splash of his own.

Garth signed Andrew Ladd to a seven-year $38.5 million deal. At the time it looked like a pretty decent signing. He put up 25 goals and 46 points with the Jets and Blackhawks in 2015-16, the expectation was he’d slot in with John Tavares and the numbers would increase.

Like most things for the Islanders last year, things didn’t go as planned. Andrew Ladd got off to an abysmal start. It took him 13 games to score his first goal in blue and orange. He was quickly demoted off of the coveted Tavares line and soon spent time on each and every other line combination Jack Capuano threw together.

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Luckily for the Islanders, he turned it on in the second half of the season. Once his old buddy Doug Weight took over behind the bench Ladd began to start finding the back of the net.

He finished the year with 23 goals, which was rather impressive considering that he was held off the scoresheet for the first six games and goalless for the first 13 games of the year. Although 31 points isn’t enough production out of Ladd.

One of the major downsides with this contract is the length. The Islanders have him under contract at a $5.5 million cap hit over the next six-years. Which means the Isles have him signed through his age 37 season.

At age 37 will he be giving you the production a $5.5 million cap hit should? In all likelihood, he will not be. This is not to say that Ladd can’t bounce back next year. I fully expect him to put up around 25 goals and 45 points plus or minus a few, especially if he shares a line with the dynamic Josh Ho-Sang.

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But, even with a bounce-back year, this contract will end up coming back to bite the Islanders. It might not be this year, or even next year but 2022-2023 is a long ways a way. It’s likely that Garth Snow, or whoever is running the team will have to bite the bullet on this one. It’s not Mikhail Grabovski bad, but it ain’t a good contract either.