Isles have traded with Sakic once before. We know how that ended up, but there is history between them at the very least.

Avs are probably losing two of Kadri/Nichushkin/Burakovsky. Beau replaces one of the wingers. Avs have Byram ready to assume LD2 duties and just won the Cup without Girard so he is clearly expendable.

Isles have also traded with the Yotes pretty recently so Lou dials up an old pal. They get back the older brother of prospect Aatu Raty. He may not amount to much (only had 22pts in 56 Liiga games this year) but having them in the system, and possibly playing in Bridgeport together at the same time is cool. Could help Aatu get acclimated faster.

Bailey is not a cap dump and maintains some value. His actual cash owed is less than his AAV which screams Arizona. He will play in their top-6 and provide some leadership to a young room. Panik is an expiring contract and a body for the roster.

I was about $1.6m over the cap before this trade. Varly was the obvious piece to move. The Isles get another Russian goalie to pair with Sorokin. Samsonov had a rough year but he is worth taking a chance on. He will probably get 25-30 favorable matchup starts on the low end, but the Isles could still rotate him in more than that.

Washington wants to improve their goalie position and links up with an old friend. I doubt they are on Varly's 16 team NTC