Too bad the deadline is in March and not October, the trades you proposed actually make us better and clear cap space for a deadline addition. I hate to lose Lehkonen but given that Byron would push him out of the lineup it makes sense. Even adding Hickey over Chiarot makes sense, however the D pairings need some tweaking. I would swap Wideman for Niku as Wideman needs to go back to the KHL, then swap Hickey and Romanov.

You could trade wideman too probably

Hickey is not even an NHL dman at this point. I know Chiarot is playing bad but lets show a little faith to a guy we were all praising during the playoffs last year versus the guy who hasn't scored a goal since 2018.

Chiarot is not the problem. The entire team is the problem. Literally everyone is playing terrible.

Given the crackdown on cross-checking and hooking, I don’t think Chiarot will ever be as effective again, since those were large parts of his defensive game.

Agreed with @Kotkaniemi15, given the rule changes we may never see Chiarot at his peak ever again. And he's a pending UFA, so whether or not he plays good he remains a deadline bait if we're out of contention.

Hickey is just a placeholder to balance cap hits for the Islanders. Could be Komarov as well. Or Hickey could
be buried if they want to try Fairbrother or Schueneman for the last few games after the deadline.

Given the shortage of RDs in the organization, I could whoever performs best between Wideman & Niku being kept.

Agreed but that doesn't mean Hickey is better option. Even new rule change Chiarot is better than Hickey. That's all Im saying. I'm all for him being traded at the TDL though.

I edited my last comment while you were replying to it. Check out my edit for my explanation.

That is kind of a misleading statement, Hickey hasn't played in the NHL since 2018 and while I know that is largely due to his defensive play it is partially because the Islanders became more of a defensive team and has tried to force an offensive D man like Hickey to be a defensive D man.

In a perfect world I'd keep Lehkonen too, but I'm also willing to use his RFA status as a leverage at the deadline.

They already committed term and money to Byron and Armia as the bottom six veteran mainstays, which means a $2M+ Lehkonen is a luxury we may not be able to afford for long before he's eventually replaced by Ylönen or Harvey-Pinard.

Doesn't change the fact that he hasn't been good enough to get into the lineup to score a goal otherwise.. Its not like any team has traded for him to give him another chance somewhere else.

Misleading or not, he's not an NHL'er is my point.