Quoting: Warrior24
Before you start moving assets to get rid of Ladd you need to find out what his status is. He was coming off a major knee injury last year, and then tore the ACL in his other knee. It seems like he will be on LITR for the entire year so no need to trade him if he is not taking up roster or cap space. After that it needs to be determined if he can even play anymore or retires.
Leddy and a 1st for Ehlers seems fair, but may need to add another D Prospect like Wotherspon or Vande Sompel who are ready to play in the NHL now.
Let's see what Ho-Sang has first before trading him, the guy has looked good in the NHL and with Trotz as a coach can get him to improve his overall game.
Boychuk is not waiving his NTC, he loves it on Long Island. He will be here throughout the duration of his contract.
I should have prefaced the Ho-Sang trade by saying, I'd like the Isles to give him a shot, but I don't see that happening. With Wahlstrom likely ready in 20-21, possibly 19-20 if he was an amazing camp, I can see Lou shipping out JHS for a pick if a team is willing to take a flyer on him.
Dobson has done everything he can in the CHL and can't be sent to Bridgeport due to his age, so if he isn't on the Isles he has to go back to Junior, which could stunt his development as he's already lead two teams in back to back years to championships down there and probably needs to play against better competition at this point. I guess you could trade Hickey and use Boychuk as the 7th D, but 6m for a 7th D is a high price and not sure how Boychuk would feel about only playing in a handful of games (Sbisa only played 9 games last year as the 7th D) after he showed last year he can still play the game effectively.
Plus, Boychuk does have 8 teams he can be traded to without his approval, so maybe, instead of ANA, one of those teams will take him for 3m per season. There is also the idea of his NMC become a M-NTC meaning he can now be sent to the minors as well. If a D core of Toews, Pulock, Pelech, Mayfield, Aho, Dobson and Hickey show they can handle themselves in training camp, Boychuk may find himself in Bridgeport... I say all this to say, given the idea of being a 7th D or spending a chunk of time in the AHL, he may prefer to go to a different team where he will play every day.
I like Boychuk, I do, and would love to keep him, but with Pulock and Mayfield as the top 2 on the Right side and Dobson likely ready this year and Wilde next... now would be the time to move Boychuk after he showed last year he still has gas left in the tank.
As for Ladd, if he was a guaranteed LTIR candidate, then I'd say don't make the trade, but at this point that's not a guarantee, so the Isles have to operate like he will be back at some point... hence the trade to move out the salary. With our luck, Ladd will come back healthy and his 5.5m CAP hit will cost us better players down the line to stay under the CAP lol.
McDavid, Connor
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