The amount of expiring ELCs here is scary. Am I counting 8 correctly? given whitelcloud and mcnabb are already reupped, Whiteclouds re-up takes janmark out of the equation and then they are right at the ceiling again assuming all those players sign at 750k next year?

Overpays. Nobody is giving a 2nd for Smith, let alone the Devils. Vegas is going to have to pay to shed cap.

Devils would not pay anything for a rental. We are amidst an unintentional tank.
We'd have to have a buyer for Smith lined up...to maybe retain, and flip for a gain.
Otherwise, makes little sense for us.

Do they have to shed that much? They've accrued a lot of space and Martinez is still on LTIR so I'd think getting rid of one of Smith or Dadonov would do it.

Tell you what, Devils GM: you trade for him for, say, a 5th then flip him to the Avs. You retain half his salary and Colorado sends you a Bowers or Kaut and a 2nd. Deal?

Islanders got into this mess by having a bunch of over-30 forwards with a $5M AAV, I don't think throwing another one at the problem is going to help.

Like it.
Turning a 5th into a prospect and 2nd.
Playing with house money.

can't see the reason to shed Ben Hutton's 750k contract . AZ could sign him as a UFA next season anyways

Sweeet. Would love to see him against the team that jettisoned him.

Isles can't afford Dadonov.