Calgary says no IMO they can get more for bennett then a bust top 10 pick

I don't know if there are more than 5-10 players i would trade barzal for in the whole league right now. niskanen wouldn't be in the top 100

thats pretty much what bennett is...

Never mind about Eller. Happy they signed him at a reasonable cap hit. Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Could still pretty realistically add Green and have tons of cap space.

Connolly was totally written off two years ago, but he's on a pace for 24 goals this season, playing mostly on the third line in Washington. It's possible that with a bit more ice time, he could hit thirty next year. Bennett is on a pace for ten goals, while putting up meh possession numbers. It's possible that, in Washington, he'd be a healthy scratch.

Tell him: https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/582630

I know, Barzal just scored a ton of goals after he posted that, so it seems like less of a good idea, but seriously? Niskanen's teams have made it out of the first round of the playoffs in each of the last five years. Barzal has a lot of potential. I'm sure there are other young players NYI has who could equal Niskanen's value, collectively, but who else would motivate the Caps to trade a cheap #1 defenseman who just led them to back to back President's trophies?

niskanen is not a #1 and CERTAINLY not worth Barzel

He was last year, the year before that, and the year before that in Pittsburgh due to injuries. This year he had a brief injury and Carlson is playing out of his mind trying to earn a huge contract, so Niskanen is playing only 22:22 a game, and is only on a pace for 35 points.

More importantly, he can slow down guys like Crosby and Tavares pretty effectively, and he can kill off 5 on 3s for two straight minutes, calmly. I don't think the Caps would take just Barzal for him, but if I were running them, after watching all the highlights Barzal put together last night, I probably would, and then I'd start making plans to either sign Green or talk Montreal into retaining some cap hit on Weber.

while Niskanen is great defensively... he doesn't have to flash to be a #1D. a 30 point D is not a #1. and like I said... a 30 year old #2D is not worth a 21 year old breakout centre who could easily become a top 10 C in the league. no way isles even entertain this offer

You could say all those things about all their defensemen. Its not his team. Its Ovechkin, backstrom, kuznetsov, holtby, oshies team

You could say that about every player on the Islanders, but the Caps still bounced them in six games the last time they made the playoffs.

That was before Trotz really trusted Carlson in defensive situations, so shutting down Tavares et al was pretty much Niskanen's job. I'm sure Mr. Tavares remembers. He still got some points, but not enough.

You can't say that about every player on the islanders, Barzal is easily worth Niskanen, Djoos, Eller, and Grubauer. Niskanen is worth nothing more than a low-second round pick.

I rarely use "They'd hang up immediately" but I will for that Barzal trade. Sorry Caps fans, that Isle fan that suggested must of been on something. No way in hell they'd accept that.

Well, it sounded like a nice offer, even if it would put a fork in Washington's Cup chances for the year. I don't want to sit here and argue too long about someone Hockey's Future still calls a "C"prospect: http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospect-rankings/new-york-islanders-top-20-prospects/

And if you scroll down to #18 on that list of Islanders prospects, you get to Devon Toews, whom I traded for as a joke on here, last summer, along with Evander Kane, in a post titled, hilariously, Kane and Toews. Buffalo fans shrugged, but Islanders fans totally shut me down on thinking I could get Devin Toews for a prospect and a 2nd. He's going to be elite, they told me.

Barzal is pretty good. He's still not facing opponents' top defensemen because he's not playing with Tavares, but behind him in the lineup at even strength, but he is on a pace for thirty goals, and that's no mean feat. I'm just not sure that Bellows or Dal Colle or a bunch of other Islanders prospects wouldn't be scoring a similar amount of goals the way the Islanders are clicking right now offensively, and I think they would win more games if they had better defensemen this year, rather than guys like D. Toews, who might be great in a decade.

The Islanders have the second most goals in the Eastern Conference right now, but the most goals against. Tampa has scored 56 more goals than they've given up. The Islanders have given up 16 more than they've scored. Even if the Islanders hang on for a wildcard playoff spot this year, they won't last five games. The Islanders fan who suggested trading a promising youngster for a proven shutdown defenseman whose teams have won the first round or more in five straight years wasn't the one having difficulties grasping reality.

If you figure that any new rookie next year will do as well as Barzal is this year, then it's just good salary cap management to trade Barzal to a contender while he's hot, and try to get back a reasonably priced two way defenseman. I don't think they picked Niskanen by accident. I think that trade actually is better for NYI than for Washington, the way the teams are built this year, but if Washington considers retooling, since their positive gf/ga differential is only +13, and it's hard to know if they could compete with even Boston or Toronto, to say nothing of Pittsburgh, Tampa,, or Vegas..... if Washington sells, Niskanen, Backstrom,and Holtby would be the biggest prizes. Ovechkin and Kuznetsov are amazing offensive players, but they get paid like it, so in a salary cap league, their trade value might be less than Niskanen's. Barzal is unique in that he's scoring a lot but isn't getting paid much yet, so he'd be a really, really good trade chip right now, if a team had a ton of great talent like Bellows, Dal Colle, Ho Sang, Toews.... etc, etc, waiting in the wings.

Did.....did you just reference hockeysfuture as one of your arguments?....... Ok Im out. Lets just agree to disagree on everything you just said.

Sometimes their scouting reports aren't far off. I do think the one they've got on Barzal, who's on a pace for thirty goals this year, is pretty funny, though.