Devils are not letting Van off the hook that cheaply

I get that but depending on the timing of this trade, NJD saves real cash because AJ is owed 5m over the remaining 2 years of the deal and with the retention of salary on LE, he is only owed 2.9m over 1 year. So depending on NJD's owner's mindset, this could be a good deal for them.

NJ could just send Johnsson to Seattle. If they don't take him, he could rebound. Johnsson played well until he got Covid. It would take more for Vancouver to dump Loui.

Fair point! Im just thinking that value actually isn't terribly far off but if I were NJD I wouldn't do the deal either

You forgot to send a couple 2nd round draft picks back to the Islanders.

I think people see 6M cap hit and go straight to a 1st round pick.....but that's not necessarily true. Depending on how NJ values AJ, the value does seem appropriate. NJ saves real dollars which matters much more than cap hit to some teams.

excuse me?

Nope, I didnt,

$5m in cap space to sign Beauvillier and Pelech, knowing they will command over $8m and the Islanders still need to sign 4-5 more players for an NHL roster.
Giving up a 3rd with Leddy is an easy decision for LouLam

Isles do need cap space. I'm not sure that a 3rd goes with Leddy, but maybe him for a late pick does. Remember that Leddy is due $7M in real cash for his $5.5M cap hit. That extra $1.5M is also valuable to the Isles as they are not awash in cash.

The Isles are in a similar position to Tampa (not as egregious), yet Tampa apparently (on this site anyways) needs to give up the world to get cap compliant. NYI will be under a lot of pressure to make room for their RFAs and a third may not be unreasonable. Seattle is putting the screws to everyone by all accounts....the cost to move out money is high no matter the quality of the player.

AJ could bounce back far more likely than Eriksson having any value. Why take on a useless player contract for a 4th rounder? The cap room itself has nothing stopping NJD from AJ, they could sit him if they wanted....but alone he has more value than a 4th, and why bother helping another team like VAN for that cost?

Obviously only if NJ thinks it helps them by getting rid of the real salary, which is entirely plausible. By all reports AJ was a significant disappointment and in real terms cost them nothing to acquire. NJ moving on from him would not be a hard thing to envision or to do from their perspective. Ultimately, who knows what they do, but at least its a scenario that could make some sense, even in terms of a starting point.

theyre not giving up a second to move Leddy lol.

Who said a 2nd?

The Islanders aren't gifting anyone a 45 point, 23 minute a night top 4 defenseman on an expiring contract, let alone adding draft picks to it.

The Islanders have money trouble? Is this 1996?

I don't know why I read it as a 2nd, either way they're not paying to dump Leddy.
1. hes not a cap dump.
2. they can buy him out and save 4.7 million

They sure can.
When you have Beauvillier, Pelech and Sorokin making $12m and still need 4 nhl spots and all you have is $6m-10m in cap space and viable NHL ready Leddy replacements in house - Leddy is a cap dump.

5.5-4.7 is a swing of a NHL contract.

They have no choice.

I didn't realize they have to shed $5m, only have Leddy to trade and can only deal with Vancouver....

Your reasoning is as absurd as the proposal itself.

Lol. they'd have 14.5 million if they buy out Leddy. A team like Detroit or any rebuilding team would take Leddy for a mid-late round pick so they can flip him at the deadline next year. The islanders are not giving up a pick for an extra 800k on a player like Leddy.

Lol. Leddy's a cap dump.

hmmm