Islanders: Josh Bailey Trade Would Be Surprising

Florida Hockey Now brought up a rumor about the Islanders shopping Josh Bailey. I would be very surprised if they moved the veteran.

The New York Islanders have some work to do with their cap, it’s the worst-kept secret in the NHL. Many have speculated that they are trying to find takers for Johnny Boychuk and Leo Komarov and now that speculation has moved to Josh Bailey.

Florida Hockey Now mentions the idea of the Islanders trading Josh Bailey and his $5 million cap hit to free up space. I can pretty confidently say that Josh Bailey is not going to be moved.

Bailey has four years left on his deal and is making $5 million. Of course, the Isles would love to free up cap space but it isn’t going to be by moving one of their most consistent forwards over the last half-decade.

First of all, how many teams are going to want to take on a contract with four years left on the deal in this climate? Boychuk and Komarov make sense because the term is half of what Josh Bailey has left on his deal.

Once you get past the four years remaining, from the Islanders’ perspective do you just want to give away a 50 point player? I certainly don’t.

He finished with 43 points last season, a pace of 52 over a full season, and the three years prior averaged 61 points a season. Yes, I know he isn’t going to score 20 goals in a season, I get it, but that’s not his game.

Bailey is a good two-way forward, and an extremely reliable second line player for the Isles. He’s worked well with Anders Lee, Anthony Beauvillier, Brock Nelson, and even at points Mathew Barzal as well.

He’s too important to this team to move on from, and they certainly won’t look to use one of their most reliable and resected forwards in a cap dump.

Just because a player doesn’t have any trade protection and has a cap hit north of $5 million doesn’t mean that they are a likely person to get moved. An additional five seconds of research could tell you that.