Islanders: NHL May Look To Reform Conditional Trades Made In 2019-2020

With the season coming to a stop, the NHL may look to reform conditional trades. Here’s how that would impact the Islanders.

It’s approaching two months since we last saw hockey be played at the NHL level. Due to the stoppage, the NHL is going to have to make some changes to what they normally do, one being the NHL Draft.

As of now, they are planning to still have the draft in late June but there’s a number of factors that come into play when it comes to the draft. First, the order is going to have to be decided in a different way.

There’s a chance that they would use each team’s point percentage to determine the order of selections and honestly, that probably makes the most sense if you’re deadset on having the draft in June still.

One of the other factors brought into question is conditional picks. If the season isn’t complete by the time the draft happens what do they do for trades that included conditional picks that weren’t able to be met due to the season being on hold.

Well, according to Sportsnet, the NHL could propose solutions. The two teams who made the deal would have seven days to agree on new terms or accept the deal proposed by the NHL. This would come into play for the Islanders on the JG Pageau trade.

Impact on Islanders Trades

Ottawa received a conditional first-round pick in 2020, a second-round pick in 2020, and a conditional third-rounder in 2022. Two of the three pieces are conditional. The first-rounder is top-three protected so there’s no chance of the Isles picking in the top three so that one is going to go over.

The tricky one is the third-rounder, that would be sent over to the Senators if the Isles won the cup this year. Do they just drop the third-rounder? In that instance, it might make the most sense because the likelihood of the Isles winning the cup would be small anyway, and that’s if the season even picks i[.

The one that it likely won’t affect but it should is the Andy Greene trade. The Isles gave up a 2021 second-rounder for 10 games of Andy Greene. I don’t know about you but that value goes way down.

Yes, at the time they had to get a veteran d-man, as the team was struggling without Adam Pelech. Since the pick wasn’t conditional it probably won’t get renegotiated but I care more about the compensation for that trade than I do for the Pageau one.

Want your voice heard? Join the Eyes On Isles team!

Write for us!

It’s a unique situation and one that doesn’t have a definite answer. Just be glad you or I aren’t the one that has to make these decisions, that’s a job I want no part of.