New York Islanders Ryan Strome Jordan Eberle Trade Still Looking Great

In the offseason, the New York Islanders took a big step forward by acquiring Jordan Eberle from the Edmonton Oilers for Ryan Strome. And it seems like the Isles can’t stop winning the trade.

On June 22nd 2017, the New York Islanders acquired Jordan Eberle from the Edmonton Oilers for Ryan Strome. Straight up. One-for-one. The Isles wanted top a top line winger for Tavares and the Oilers wanted to shed some cap space. Win-win.

Both teams got what they needed. But the Oilers got a little less in the deal. At least for now.

With training camps underway around the NHL, word has emerged from Edmonton that new boy Ryan Strome isn’t working hard enough to warrant his original spot in the team’s lineup. That spot was on the top line alongside Conor McDavid.

You know. That NHL phenom that scored 100 points in only his second year in the league? Yeah. That guy. That’s who Strome was playing with and he still couldn’t put in a full effort.

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No Effort

As New York Islanders fans we’ve all been there with Ryan Strome before.Taken fifth overall in the 2012 NHL draft, he had a ton of potential straight out of the gate.

We saw him put up 50 points in his first full season in the NHL. The sky was the limit back then. And then two years later and a 30 point season was a real stretch for Strome.

For the past two seasons, Ryan Strome faced criticism for his level of play from coaching. First, it was a two-week stint in the AHL in November of 2015. Then later that year, then head coach Jack Capuano called him out publicly (as well as others).

We all thought it was Jack Capuano (and to an extent I’m sure it was), but it’s clear that Strome has a majority of the blame here. He had the biggest “carrot” you could possibly want dangling in front of him; playing with the best player in the game. And he couldn’t make it work.

Unlike the Islanders, the Oilers didn’t acquire Strome to play on the top line. They have other guys that can fill that role. They wanted cap savings. They got it, to the tune of $9.5 million across the two seasons Eberle is still under contract.

What they’d hoped for is that Strome could be that 50 point player once again. So far it seems that won’t happen. It’s early I know. But attitude issues at training camp can’t be a good sign of things to come.

Next: Ton of Confidence in the Isles 2017-18 Forward Group

Meanwhile, Jordan Eberle seems to be doing well for the Isles. He’s linking up with Tavares and trying to recreate that chemistry they had all the way back in 2009. But mainly it seems that his head is in the right place, tossing aside a stock question about Barclays Center ice quality with a simple positive answer.

So chalk that up as an early 1-0 on the Jordan Eberle-Ryan Strome trade score tracker.