Game On! Garth Adds Boychuk & Leddy

Yesterday, I said that the Isles line up comprised of mostly players from the BST's got a valuable lesson about what it took to play in the NHL after last nights loss to the Bruins.  Especially the young players on defense.  Promising prospects like Griffin Reinhart & Ryan Pulock had a chance to impress Isles management over the preseason & make a statement about how they belonged on the Isles roster.  Well, as it turns out, it may have confirmed to Isles GM, Garth Snow that his promising young prospects aren't ready to complete the Isles defensive core for this season.  Although showing a lot of promise for players just out of Juniors, Reinhart, Pulock and their team mates weren't able to effectively compete with Boston in the game and they left goaltender, Chad Johnson out to dry, even with him playing a good game for his team in net. 

Now while I wouldn't expect a mostly AHL filled roster to play evenly with a mostly NHL Bruins line up, I guess it served as a wake up call that the 2014-15 Islanders team needed a few more pieces to be truly ready to fight for a play off bid and a chance to compete for the Stanley Cup.  Snow had been in talks with the visiting Bruins (and Blackhawks for that matter) on trying to engineer a trade and add those missing pieces to his team for quite some time according to islanders.nhl.com.  Today, the much maligned Garth Snow did just that.  Snow acquired physical defenseman, Johnny Boychuk and puck mover, Nick Leddy from the Bruins and Blackhawks.  Two championship teams that he established had trade relationships with in previous years.

For the price of two 2nd round picks and a conditional 3rd round pick, 30 year old D-Man, Johnny Boychuk comes to the Islanders in the final year of his deal worth $3.6M (a $3.37M cap hit).  The conditional pick will go to Boston if the Islanders trade Boychuck within the Eastern Conference.  Boychuk was 5-18-23 with a +31 rating in 75 games for the Bruins last season. 

Bruins Twitter reported their GM as saying, "Not an easy meeting with Boychuk. said Chiarelli: "he was upset, I was upset, I'm still upset."  I wouldn't jump to conclusions or pass judgment just yet.  If it is true, Boychuk is a veteran player who has been with the bruins organization for 6 seasons.  It probably came as a surprise and his reaction would have been similar when traded to any team.
 

 

 

I know next seasons draft is supposed to be the deepest draft in years and those picks would have helped the Isles to add quality depth to their prospect pool, but you have to look at it like this.  Boychuk fills a need the team has now.  They need to succeed this season and win now while all the other pieces that have been assembled around John Tavares are under contract and meshing well.  Not to mention, to assure the organization surrenders a 1st round pick to Buffalo that has as little value as possible.

In another huge move, Snow acquired D Nick Leddy & G, Kent Simpson from CHI for D Ville Pokka, D T.J. Brennan and rights to G, Anders Nilsson who is currently playing in the Russia.  Leddy was 7-24-31 in 82 games with a +10 rating for Chicago last season. ESPN Chicago quoted Leddy's agent Neil Sheehy: "Nick Leddy loved playing for Chicago but is looking forward to joining the young group of talented players in NY."

 

So aside from the main trade for Leddy, Snow added an AHL goaltender (Kent Simpson) for the rights to an AHL goaltender (Anders Nilsson) who wanted to leave the organization and is now under contract in the KHL.  Kent Simpson, 22 was chosen by Chicago in the 2nd round, 58th overall in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.  He has 34 AHL games with a 3.18gaa and a .914 Sv% in 2 seasons (and 1 game in 11/12) playing for their Rockford affiliate. (Hockeydb.com)

Tony Stabile mentions that with today's acquisitions, the Isles have added 54 points & 113 games of playoff experience to their blue line.  Think on that.  A better, more veteran and championship experienced blue line that guards a net manned by Jaroslav Halak or Chad Johnson.  Even if neither player wants to remain with the Islanders in Brooklyn, it gives the team the experience and ability to compete & win know along with some time to properly bring up guys like Reinhart, Pulock and the like.  Don't forget that in these deals, the Isles did move prospects that are or would be NHL ready soon, but they did not move any of their key prospects that most thought were a requirement for bringing in a top tier veteran D like Boychuk & Leddy.

With the moves made today, the Islanders have an option to utilize Visnovsky, Hamonic, de Haan, Leddy, Boychuk, Hickey, Strait and Conacher in any combination on their blue line depending on the opposition.  And after you consider the prime offensive additions of Grabovski, Kulemin and the net stabilizing moves of Halak & Johnson, even the biggest Garth Snow hater has to be excited at the potential gains the Islanders can make this season.  And that isn't even including the recent draft classes and depth acquisitions that give the Isles a deeper make up than they have had in quite some time.  With a little luck, the injury bug will stay away and the Isles will get a chance to shock some people.  The majority of this years team pressure squarely falls on the shoulder of head coach, Jack Capuano if he cant lead this roster to a very successful campaign this season.

The Islanders still have guys like Reinhart, Pulock, Mayfield, Pelech, Pedan and Czuczman in their system and now there is no rush to use them before they are actually ready to make the transition.

Per Elliotte Friedman, "NYI GM Garth Snow says there have been no extension talks with Boychuk (UFA) & Leddy (RFA). "We just dealt with the teams for now"..."Snow said he felt his team's deep prospect base allowed him to make both trades and hopes fan base is "pumped up."

Snow had this to say on islanders.nhl.com, “It was an opportunity to upgrade our defense,” Snow said. “We addressed – for the most part – the goaltending and the forward position, so today just happened to be the day we had the ability to add an offensive defenseman and physical defenseman, who also has a great shot. [These are] two key additions to our team.”  He adds, “They’ve both won a Stanley Cup, so in the leadership department, that helps our group,” Snow said. “Leddy’s ability to move the puck and skate the puck up ice, add offense; Boychuk’s ability to be physical, clear the front of the net and a howitzer for a shot; for us, [those are] two solid additions to our club.”

 

And if you aren't convinced its a big deal yet, the Isles, Garth Snow, Leddy & Boychuk were among the top items trending on Twitter this afternoon.

 

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In other big news, it has been confirmed that the Isles have signed 1st round pick, Joshua Ho-Sang to 3-year ELC.

 

"The Islanders selected Ho-Sang, 18, with the 28th-overall pick in the 2014 National Hockey League Draft. The Toronto, ON native led the Windsor Spitfires (Ontario Hockey League) in scoring last season with 85 points (32 goals, 53 assists) in 67 games. Ho-Sang added three points (one goal and two assists) in four OHL playoff games.  In 2012-13, Ho-Sang finished fourth on the Spitfires and sixth among all OHL rookies with 44 points (14 goals and 30 assists) in 63 games."

 

Isles Notes:

 

Your New York Islanders made 16 cuts, 11 non-waivers: Collberg, Gallant, Halmo, Mouillierat, Persson, Quine, Sundstrom, Mayfield, Pedan, Pelech, Pokka.

 

At noon, five Islanders go on waivers with the intention to send them down to Bridgeport: K. Poulin, D. Leggio, H. Zolnierczyk, J. Skille, A. Ness.



Also, the Isles returned Ho Sang (Windsor) & Michael Dal Colle (Oshawa) to junior clubs today.

Per Arthur Staple:  Lines at practice today:

Conacher-Tavares-Okposo, Grabovski-Nelson-Strome, Bailey-Nielsen-Kulemin, Martin-Cizikas-Clutterbuck.

5th line is Boulton-Lee-McDonald. Grabner (upper body) still not practicing.

 

 

Defensive pairings:  Hickey-Hamonic, Strait-Donovan, Brennan-Reinhart, Czuczman-Ness. Visnovsky, Pulock, de Haan, Carkner all still out.

Visnovsky (back), Pulock (lower) and de Haan (upper) all skated this morning before practice. Still day to day.

Former Islander, Peter Regin has been put on waivers by Blackhawks.