Following a tough but overall incredible offseason, the New York Islanders have loaded up for a cup run once again. The Isles landed the third pick in the contraction draft and never expected Adam Fox to still be on the board and quickly snapped him up when he was. Then with the fifth pick, the Islanders traded Seth Jones to Toronto for the pick and grabbed Brayden Point.
The downside to the offseason came in the salary cap. With numerous RFA's due new massive new contracts including Quinn Hughes, Mat Barzal, Jusse Saros, and Adrian Kempe, plus the re-addition of Nikita Kucherov to the roster, the Islanders were in serious cap trouble. At the peak, the Islanders calculated over $102,000,000 in salaries, but with only a cap of $82.5 million, some big names and money had to be moved out.
The team cut ties with Alec Martinez for a pick, moved Tony DeAngelo for Kevin Shattenkirk which saved about $5 million, signed Max Pacioretty to move out Tomas Hertl, and just before puck drop on the season had to move Johnny Gaudreau and a pick for Claude Giroux to get under the cap. Losing Gaudreau was hard, his ratings are incredible, but at just under $9.4 million and a pending UFA, he had to go to clear the necessary space.
Heading into game one tomorrow night against the Rangers, this is how the Islanders stack up:
Pacioretty-McDavid-Kucherov
Giroux-Barzal-Point
Kempe-Eriksson Ek-Gourde
Motte-J Toews-Danforth
Q Hughes-Doughty
Fox-Shattenkirk
Pesce-Keith
Saros-A Forsberg
Extras - Mayfield, Jensen, Sheary, Asplund, F Gaudreau, Yandle
