New York Islanders Need to Trade Josh Ho-Sang

Josh Ho-Sang’s career with the New York Islanders seems to be: “One step forward, two steps back”. It’s time for both parties to move on.

New York Islanders prospects Josh Ho-Sang has been scratched for two straight games by the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. We all thought that with way he’d played this season and with a good look at the NHL these kinds of issues would be in the past.

The saga of Josh Ho-Sang and the New York Islanders is much too long to go into detail, but the analogy of “one step forward two steps back” sums it up perfectly. Every time it seems like Ho-Sang and the Isles were making progress things get unhinged.

The Islanders need to trade Ho-Sang.

No Progress

Drafted late in the first round of the 2014 NHL draft, the New York Islanders were the only team to take a chance on Josh Ho-Sang. They even traded up from 35th to 28th to take Ho-Sang.

Through a combination of his own self-destructive actions and a stubborn approach to talent development, the relationship between the New York Islanders and Josh Ho-Sang has stalled almost from the day they drafted him.

While Sound Tigers coach Brent Thompson put on his best PR face and framed the recent Ho-Sang scratching as a positive development, it’s actually anything but;

"“I think it’s just a learning lesson,” Thompson said on scratching Ho-Sang the next night. “For me, it’s learning play away from the puck, and unnecessary turnovers. All it is is development. Every kid, like I said, has their own path, needs a little bit of a boot sometimes. This is a chance to reboot and see where it takes him.”"

A player that was drafted in the first round four years ago, and with the talent that Josh Ho-Sang has, he should be playing in the NHL. But yet here we are with him being scratched at the AHL level.

Who’s to blame here doesn’t matter anymore (though if you ask me they both are). What matters is what happens next. And that’s getting Josh Ho-Sang out of the New York Islanders system.

Broken Relationship

The relationship between Ho-Sang and the Islanders seems broken beyond repair. Giving Ho-Sang the chance to play int he NHL, albeit somewhere else is the best for both parties.

Whether that’s sending him out for a second round pick to anyone who’ll have him. Or as part of a deal to acquire a big name player. Or maybe the Islanders can send him to the Los Angeles Kings for a swap of disappointing 2014 first-rounders with Nikita Scherbak coming back the Isles way.

It makes sense for both parties to part ways, and as an RFA with some upside, the Islanders can’t just let him walk like the Buffalo Sabres did with Robin Lehner. A trade is the best way for the Islanders to send Ho-Sang somewhere where he can succeed and they can get something in return for their asset.

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Any of those three scenarios are a starting point for me. And something the New York Islanders need to be thinking about with the trade deadline now 19 days away.