Was Lou Lamoriello's Promise Worth it for the Islanders?

The trade deadline on Monday was a very polarizing time for the New York Islanders. With them out of the mix for the playoffs, many fans wanted them to sell off some pieces. They did not. Instead, they extended Cal Clutterbuck and Zach Parise.

In Lou's press conference with the media after the deadline, he also said that he kept his promises to Zdeno Chara and Andy Greene that they would stay with the team for the entire season. Even Elliotte Friedman said in his 32 thoughts that there was interest there on Zdeno Chara.

So my question is was it worth it?

Was Lou Lamoriello right for not trading off either Andy Greene or Zdeno Chara and keeping his promise? Hot take, I'm going to say yes.

I know, neither of these guys are going to be back on the team next year, at least they shouldn't be but maybe with Lou I shouldn't speak in absolutes. So in theory, why wouldn't you try to get an asset back for Chara or Greene?

Well, it's not like the return was going to be something amazing on either of those guys. Lou Lamoriello and Barry Trotz building a culture where veterans want to be is more important than a 2023 sixth round pick, I'm sorry.

For every one Anders Lee find in the six-round there are a million Andong Song's, Kyle Schempp's, Blake Kessel's, and Brian Day's. The point is that the likelihood of a sixth-rounder ever having an impact for you is slim to none.

Dobber Prospects did a study where they found that 7.9 percent of sixth-rounders ever play more than 100 games in the NHL. So Lou's options were burning a bridge and potentially hurting the Islanders reputation amongst the league for a less than eight percent chance of hitting on a pick or doing "the right thing" by his player. He chose the latter, and I don't blame him for it.

For years Islanders fans complained that they were a second rate organization and run poorly and then when a Hall of Fame General Manager comes in and tries to do right by his guys and actually get people to want to come here it's suddenly bad. Shall we go back to the Garth Snow times? That was fun for nobody.

You'll have to excuse me if I don't lose sleep over a late round pick, my hope is that guys like Zdeno Chara, Andy Greene, Zach Parise, etc. coming here and having a good experience leads to them being able to recruit players this summer, when it matters most.