we miss leo k
Rejoint: févr. 2018
Messages: 6,019
Mentions "j'aime": 5,132
It doesn't make sense from the Islanders end. Here's their forward group:
Lee - Barzal - Wahlstrom
Beauvillier - Nelson - Bailey
Parise - Pageau - Palmieri
With some combo of Matt Martin, Casey Cizikas, Cal Clutterbuck, Ross Johnston, and Kieffer Bellows making up the 4th line.
Is Kerfoot better than a couple guys there? Sure, I won't argue that he might be an upgrade over Zach Parise or Josh Bailey. But adding Kerfoot means you're either paying someone $5M to sit in the press box or play 4th line minutes, or you're forcing yourself to trade a guy with an asset to a cap floor team (not as easy as you'd think considering there's a lot of NTCs in that group).
Beyond that, trading Scott Mayfield means that you're going to open up a hole at RD3. The Isles currently have 6 right-handed D under contract: Pulock, Dobson, & Mayfield, plus Grant Hutton (16 NHL games), Bode Wilde (banished), and Paul Ladue (3 NHL games played since the beginning of the 2019-20 season). Mayyyybe someone useful gets waived in the next two weeks. But you're taking a big gamble there, and considering that Mayfield is expected to pair with Robin Salo as a veteran mentor to a rookie LD3, you could leave yourself in a position where you have a very, very raw third pair that you need to shelter the hell out of.
I'd argue this trade only 'makes sense' for Toronto - they cut cap and get a slight upgrade at RD3. The Isles, meanwhile, add another middle-6 forward to their ever-growing pile of middle-6 forwards while also creating a very big hole on their defense, and for what? an extra 3rd rounder? Easy pass.