Toronto trades F James van Riemsdyk and D Connor Carrick to NY Islanders in exchange for D Travis Hamonic and F Shane Prince
Garth Snow needs to do something that gives captain John Tavares a reason to stay beyond 2018. A simple addition of a lone winger to play with Johnny T might not be enough, but it’s a good start. With JVR in the mix, it would put less pressure on guys like Michael Dal Colle or Josh Ho-Sang to graduate from Bridgeport. Instead, the Isles could take a little extra time to properly develop these prospects.
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The addition of Carrick helps keep the Islanders defensive group balanced. Boychuk and Seidenberg could slide up a spot, while Connor slides into that bottom pairing alongside Calvin de Haan.
Moving a defender makes sense for New York. As it stands, they’ll only be able to protect (3) of Nick Leddy, Johnny Boychuk, Travis Hamonic, Thomas Hickey, and Calvin de Haan. With Hamonic subtracted, the Isles could protect Hickey, and work a side deal for a conditional pick to further protect de Haan.
For Toronto, they add a quality RH defenseman on a cap friendly deal. He could likely pair up with Morgan Rielly and help take some pressure off the 22-year-old. The only downside is that Hamonic plays limited minutes on the man advantage, although he leads all Isles defenders in SH ice time.
Fans in New York wouldn’t be too excited over losing Shane Prince. It was pegged as a sneaky good pickup from Ottawa that had fans in the Canadian Capital upset, and for good reason. The once highly touted Sens prospect posted five points in 20 games down the stretch in 2015-16, and followed it up 13 points in 31 games so far. All of that being said, the Isles will struggle to protect the 24-year-old in June’s expansion draft. Why risk losing him for nothing if he can help get a deal like this done?