Quoting: MisstheWhalers
If you need cap space from Rodriguez, Rikkola and Simon then just don't qualify them, no one is trading for them in the offseason, as playoff depth maybe but not in the summer.
Islanders fans were certain last summer/fall that some team would give a late round pick for Hickey and he ended up on waivers not claimed and sent to the AHL, if not one wanted him I can't see anyone wanting Johnson and I'm not a JJ hater like so many are here, it's just that no one wants an expensive third pairing dman and rebuilding teams would rather give the ice time to a developing player or sign a cheap one or two year depth dman placeholder which there's plenty of availabe in free agency every summer, maybe if you sent some picks/prospects with JJ a team like Detroit would take him but they're not giving a pick for him, not even a late one.
I think Bjustad is probably tradable, this stoppage, him missing so much time and his cap hit might make dealing him difficult though, not sure you'd get a 3rd but I think they'd get at least a 4th round pick.
For Rodriguez that might be true.
However, people always are looking for defense and Rikkola has some value there. Simon also has value as a low price forward who can play. I'd much rather have him than say Sam Gagner, especially at a cheaper price. note, I'm not saying any of them will return a 1st. But they will return something and they do have value and could be traded. Neither of them is Hickey.
As for JJ that may or may not be true. It's one of the reasons I didn't spend all the cap space. Because it could very well be they start with him on the roster.
But if they could dump Matta and Gudbranson in the same year....... they will be able to dump JJ as well.
After all, Gudbranson was a 4 million 2 year 3rd pairing D man. JJ is a 3.25 million 3 year D man. Price and value wise you are looking at a really close call there.
Truth is there is never enough defense in the league. It could be they move Rikkola and JJ in the same deal. or JJ and Simon. Whatever. I think the later in the year they move him, the more likely they get a small return.
The point being those 3 teams listed above. All need defense. All of them are in rebuild mode so they aren't going to attract guys who want to win or even look like they have a chance at winning.
I keep going back to DET with him because they have no one.
You got Nemeth who's contract ends next year and will probably be sent out by years end as a rental.
You got DeKeyser who is always hurt and on IR. He played 8 games this year. 52 the year before. He's either tired of losing and just riding IR for the hell of it. Or he's looking like he's busted and done.
Then you have no one. Cholowski is not ready and has not looked good. He's been sent back down to the AHL.
You got McIsaac who is not ready and needs to spend time in the AHL.
And you got Hicketts who is an AHL caliber guy.
We can go round and round on this. And I don't care how you flip it, you got a team that needs 3 LD.
When you need 3LD, and FA isn't giving it to you because there isn't that much defense available. Because everyone worth anything is leaving a hole somewhere else. And you got a slew of guys who are retiring and not really many people coming in to replace them. Much like what you see here in Detroit. It means a guy like JJ can be moved.