New York Islander: Good Luck Shopping Around Andrew Ladd Contract

The New York Islanders worst contract is the Andrew Ladd deal. And it sounds like the Islanders are trying to move that $5.5 million deal. Good luck finding a suitor for that deal.

At a $5.5 million cap hit for the next four seasons, the Andrew Ladd deal is by far the worst deal on the New York Islanders salary cap. It’s not the cap hit itself that makes the Andrew Ladd contract terrible. It’s what the Islanders are getting from that cap hit that makes it terrible.

Since being signed by the New York Islanders in the 2016 free agency window Ladd has played 177 games for the Islanders. He’s scored 71 points in that time or 0.4 points per game. That’s a return of 33 points over the course of a full season.

That’s, of course, assuming Andrew Ladd can, in fact, play a full season. He hasn’t been able to do that in the three years since Garth Snow brought him in. He’s missed 69 games in three years. Injuries are starting to pile up, and he’s not getting any younger.

At 33-years-old, he’s already on the wrong side of 30 and is still on the books for another four years. In those four years, he has a single year (2019-20) with a full no-trade clause and three years (2020-21 to 2022-23) with a 15 team no-trade list.

That’s why Andrew Ladd’s deal is terrible. And it seems Lou Lamoriello is trying to move it.

Trading Andrew Ladd? Good Luck!

Speaking with TSN 690 on Tuesday, Darren Dreger brought up that Andrew Ladd’s contract was getting shopped around the league. (Fast forward to 4:34).

I’m sure Lou is trying to see if he can find a home for Andrew Ladd and his contract, but with everything I just wrote it’s impossible to believe a team will want any of that. Sure, Ladd has two Stanley Cup rings, but he’s nowhere near that player anymore.

And it’s not like there’s a team out there that is desperate to hit the cap floor in 2019-20. The usual suspects are in now in healthy cap situations. Florida is $275,000 from the floor, Carolina is $7 million from the floor, but they still have to re-sign Sebastian Aho. And the Arizona Coyotes are some $8 million from the cap ceiling.

And even if there was a team out there that needed to hit the cap floor, they’d still have to pay Andrew Ladd $5 million this season. That’s not much in the way of savings. It’s not a Marian Hossa type situation where his cap hit is $5.275 million but his real payout is $1 million.

And even if there was a team that, for some strange reason, was all in on Andrew Ladd, he has a full no-trade clause! It’s not impossible for Ladd to waive it, but you’d have to think if a team was interested in Ladd their trajectory is probably not as positive as the New York Islanders. (As in they probably aren’t any good.)

And even if Ladd said: “Sure” to being traded to that hypothetical team, what are the New York Islanders going to give up for it? The last time we did a salary dump (Mikhail Grabovski) we sent a first-round pick, a second-round pick, and Jake Bishoff.

If the Islanders want to get $5.5 million off the cap, their best chance of doing so is moving Nick Leddy. Not Andrew Ladd.

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It makes all the sense in the world for Lou Lamoriello to shopping around Andrew Ladd’s contract. But it also makes all the sense in the world for him to find absolutely no-one who’s interested. I hope he finds a way to get it done. But I sincerely doubt he, or anyone, can.