Islanders: Best four targets on the Athletics trade deadline big board

Kyle Turris | Nashville Predators

Big Board Rank: 22
Stats: 36GP 5G,14A, 19Pts 

According to The Athletic, the Nashville Predators have been trying to move him for a year now. Which is wild because they only acquired him two years ago. How quickly things change in Nashville.

To be fair to Nashville, Kyle Turris hasn’t exactly been the 50 point center they were hoping to get. Since joining Nashville he’s played 155 games, scoring 82 points. That’s a pace of 0.53 points-per-game. In his final three full years in Ottawa, he scored 179 points in 217 games, a pace of 0.83 points-per-game.

Now to flip the argument in Turris’s favor, he hasn’t exactly played with the best linemates in Nashville. Over his 155 games with Nashville, he’s spent most of his 5on5 time next to Craig Smith and Kevin Fiala. Over that 179 game sample in Ottawa, Turris’s most common 5on5 linemates were Mark Stone and Bobby Ryan.

With Matt Duchene finally in the fold for Nashville, there is very little space for Kyle Turris and virtually no place down the middle for the $6 million center. The Predators both a spine of Matt Duchene, Ryan Johansen, Nick Bonino, and Colton Sissons.

Turris could be a good fit for the New York Islanders gap on the third line. The only issue is going to be that previously mentioned $6 million cap hit. Ideally, Lou gets the Predators to retain up to half of the cap hit.

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At that point, the deal becomes palpable for the Islanders to have him anchor that third line with Josh Bailey on his right and some combination of Michael Dal Colle or Tom Kuhnhackl this year.