New York Islanders Three Worst Trades Involving Untradble Players

Nick Leddy

This is less about a trade proposal, but about a thought about a player, the Islanders should trade. It was recently brought up by our colleagues at Puck Prose that the New York Islanders should trade Nick Leddy to make room for a John Tavares extension.

As we all know the New York Islanders will have the space to resign John Tavares this offseason. Currently, the New York Islanders have just $1.7 million left on the cap, certainly nowhere near enough to give Tavares his likely minimum 200% increase next season.

But the Islanders have four players that are on expiring deals that no expects will return. Nikolai Kulemin, Jaroslav Halak, Dennis Seidenberg and Jason Chimera are all in their final year of their contracts. That’s a total of $12.1875 million coming off the books at the end of 2017-18.

Not to mention that the NHL salary cap is slated to increase next season. That’s going to be enough to resign John Tavares. As well as other pending UFA’s like Josh Bailey, Calvin de Haan, and Thomas Hickey.

Nick Leddy and his $5.5 million cap hit through 2021-22 aren’t the issue. Certainly not when he’s a right up there amongst defensive scoring leaders with 24 points in 33 games. There’s also no way that the aforementioned Calvin de Haan is a suitable replacement for Leddy should he leave.