Screen Shots: Islanders' 'Meh' Performance, Elias Pettersson's Extension Talks, Red Wings
Will the Islanders make some trades? How could the Red Wings add to their momentum? Adam Proteau discusses all that and rumors about Elias Pettersson and the Canucks.
This is Screen Shots, a regular THN.com feature in which we analyze a few hockey topics and break them down in shorter paragraphs. Let’s get to it:
The New York Islanders have been a "meh" team since coach Patrick Roy took the reins.
Since Roy’s first game on the job on Jan. 21, the Isles are 6-5-3 – not abysmal, but certainly not the pace that will get them into the Stanley Cup playoffs. This just doesn’t look like a playoff team, regardless of who's behind the bench. GM Lou Lamoriello needs to make more moves before the deadline to give the group a legit chance to be a playoff contender, because they sure aren't right now.
Lamoriello has only $61,571 in salary cap space, so he’ll either have to move out NHL roster talent to make room for a new player, or he’ll have to get a trade partner to retain salary. As we saw Thursday night with the Anaheim/Toronto/Carolina trade for defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin, a third team (the Hurricanes) can be involved in any deal for a team close to the cap ceiling, so long as there’s decent draft capital a cap-strapped team can include to make a trade attractive and workable.
The Islanders are in a Metropolitan Division that’s extremely competitive, so Lamoriello needs to make a move or two to try and jump-start his team. He’ll need to be creative to bring in new talent, but as we’ve seen with the Roy hiring, Lamoriello’s expectations are high. If the Islanders are going to succeed and reach those expectations, at least one major roster move needs to be done. So don’t be surprised to see the Isles make noise on the trade front. Roy needs a more talented team, and Lamoriello has the motivation to make a deal happen.
A Sportsnet rumor says the Vancouver Canucks and Carolina Hurricanes were exploring a trade involving star forward Elias Pettersson, but a Daily Faceoff report suggested the Canucks and Pettersson were getting closer to a contract extension. This falls under the umbrella of an ambitious Hurricanes organization with about $5.03 million in cap space.
It seems crazy that an elite talent like Pettersson was named as a potential trade target. Still, the Canucks under Jim Rutherford and GM Patrik Allvin have a delicate cap situation to work out next season, and they may have dangled Pettersson just to gauge the market for him.
We expect a contract extension to materialize for Pettersson, but we also expect the Hurricanes to continue pursuing an above-average talent to join them on their Cup push.
Finally, the Detroit Red Wings have been on a tear of late, going 9-3-1 since Jan. 24. And the league has been impressed – particularly, Washington Capitals coach Spencer Carbery.
“Talent-wise, I think they’re as good as any team in the National Hockey League,” Carbery told reporters. The ‘D’ corps, (Shayne) Gostisbehere, (Moritz) Seider, (Jake) Walman, and then you just look through their whole forward group. Whenever they get on the ice, they can make serious offensive plays.”
That’s high praise for the Wings, but the best part of their recent dominance is that GM Steve Yzerman currently has $11.8 million in cap space. Maybe he uses that to bring in an offense-minded, above-average player like Anthony Mantha. Maybe he becomes a facilitator for other teams’ trades and lands draft picks and upper-class prospects to continue building the core group.
That said, given the hot streak Detroit has been enjoying, we expect Yzerman to make low-cost depth moves that give him cap flexibility this summer. It’s a hunch, but we’ve had hunches that have come to pass before, and we’re feeling like this one will play out as we expect.