Forward Casey Cizikas will be evaluated today as the Islanders return home from their two-game road trip. The team's decision on Cizikas does impact the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline situation for the Islanders
Forward Casey Cizikas will be evaluated today as the Islanders return home from their two-game road trip. The team's decision on Cizikas does impact the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline situation for the Islanders
EAST MEADOW, NY -- The New York Islanders are off on Friday after concluding a two-game road trip with a 5-4 overtime win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday before a 4-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night.
Forward Casey Cizikas, who blocked an Erik Karlsson one-timer off the left hand early in the third period of Tuesday's affair, missed Thursday's game and will now be evaluated, per Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello (H/t Newsday's Andrew Gross)
To create a roster spot and the necessary cap space for his replacement while on the road, the Islanders placed forward Hudson Fasching on long-term injured reserve retroactively to Jan. 25 instead of rushing to make a decision on Cizikas.
That means Fasching is not eligible to return until Feb. 29, when the Islanders are in Detroit.
The move gave the Islanders an additional $775,000, allowing Kyle MacLean and his $800,000 cap hit to be recalled from Bridgeport of the American Hockey League.
Currently, the Islanders have $135,000 in available cap space, per CapFriendly, with 14 days until the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline.
If the doctors put Cizikas' timeline at four to six weeks, hypothetically speaking, of course (a broken hand, if that's what it is, is usually a 1-2 month recovery if that's what he's going through), he could miss north of 12 games ând at least 24 days, which is a long enough absence to place him on long-term injured reserve.
Moving Cizikas to LTIR gives the Islanders an additional $2.5 million in cap space, bringing them up to $2.78 million, before eventually seeing that drop to $2.012 million once Fasching is activated.
Robert Bortuzzo (LTIR) is out indefinitely, so his $950,000 will remain off the books.
If the Islanders want to be big-fish hunters at the deadline, they'll have to move big cap hits, but if Lamoriello wants to add another depth forward or another depth defenseman, he'll likely have room for one of those.
The Cizikas injury couldn't have come at a worse time, asset-wise, as the one thing the Islanders did have was center depth.
If Lamoriello believed that he could garner assets for a player like Jean-Gabriel Pageau, taking his $5 million cap hit off the books in the process, it wasn't an ultra-risky move since MacLean proved to play a similar role with a salary that is $4.2 million less.
But Pageau has a modified no-trade clause, which means he has a list of 16 teams he can refuse to go to.
While it's incredibly unlikely, Cizikas doesn't have a no-trade clause and is on the books through 2026-27.
Sure, Cizikas is likely going to be out a bit, but a non-playoff team, like the Anaheim Ducks, who are likely trading Adam Henrique and Frank Vatrano, or a playoff team that could LTIR him until the playoffs, like the Toronto Maples Leafs, who desperately need depth help.
We'll learn the latest on Cizikas when we speak to Islanders head coach Patrick Roy on Saturday morning ahead of their matinee against the Tampa Bay Lightning at UBS Arena.