New York Islanders Free Agency and Trade Predictions 2.0

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GLENDALE, ARIZONA – DECEMBER 20: Alex Galchenyuk #17 of the Arizona Coyotes during the first period of the NHL game against the Montreal Canadiens at Gila River Arena on December 20, 2018 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /

Trade

There’s no question, the Islanders need top-six help and going out and acquiring Alex Galchenyuk would do just that. He has one more year left at a reasonable $4.9 million cap hit and is just 25 years old.

Galchenyuk, who can play center or on the left side, would be perfect for the Islanders second line. Since Alex is weak on faceoffs, just 45.5 percent over his career, he would be brought in to play on the wing with Brock Nelson.

A straight up Nick Leddy for Alex Galchenyuk deal doesn’t make too much sense a third-round pick mixed in seems to be enough to even it out a little bit. Galchenyuk is very solid on the power play, 21 of his 41 points last year came on the man advantage so the hope is that he would help improve the Isles in that regard too.

Free Agency

The Islanders are only going to bring back Anders Lee and Robin Lehner in my scenario. That would be “boring” on July 1 but it might be the best way for the Islanders to build their roster.

A five-year $5 million AAV deal for Robin Lehner is pretty fair value while I predict Anders Lee ends up taking a five-year $7 million AAV deal as well.

In this scenario, Anthony Beauvillier gets two-years at $1.5 million AAV while both Josh Ho-Sang and Michael Dal Colle get two-years at $800,000 AAV.