Sabres likely do something like that

Can't imagine the Isles are gonna do that, but it would be a lot cooler if they did... alright alright.

Sure

With Samuelsson done, it would be series of moves. There is noone worth brining up in Rochester

I'd love the Flower deal.

Avs decline the EJ deal. As much as I love him, that's still too much of a cap hit.

I don't see NYI doing that, but if Nelson's available...uh, YES!

Regardless,
I think we’d do right by Johnson & send him to a playoff team if we’re still out of it at the deadline

Isles get more for a retained Nelson (who they will not be trading)

Buffalo says yes to that

Islanders weren't sellers before and they will never be sellers as long as Roy is the coach unfortunately. I like that trade though.

Sure, but for some reason Granato is not fired, so they will pretend playoffs are still on the menu. And Adams is responsible for "fixing" issues by signing Johnson. Player wellbeing and late round pick may not be enough to convince GM he made a mistake

It’s not about that though
It’s about “doing right” by the player

But even if for some reason we didn’t, who cares?
It’s not like we are gonna get anything of value for EJ

They can get a much better package than that for two years of Nelson with retainage.

If the best they can get is an undersized defense prospect, a late first and late second, and a cap dump, they may as well keep him.

Ah I didnt see the retention there. I think its a fair trade without retention. Behrens may be undersized but hes ferocious and a great defensemen.

Even still. If the Isles trade Nelson it'd be part of a quick retool not a tear-down rebuild, so the late 1st and 2nd (which represent players that may help 2 or 3 years down the road) are not as appealing as they would be to a team like Chicago or San Jose. Someone like Byram (or another young player who's closer to being NHL-ready than a couple of draft picks) would probably be needed to get the Isles interested.

I personally think the Wild get a little more for retaining that much, but that's fairly close to even.

Retention usually isn't worth much, if anything, on expiring contracts at the trade deadline. It's a courtesy often granted if needed to make the deal work in the first place.

It's not worth much but it is worth something. Wild got two picks last year just by retaining. Probably wouldn't bring back too much extra. Maybe an extra 6th or something.

That's because they were third party brokers, it wasn't their own deal

I know, but it still shows that retention has value. Teams aren't going to just do it as a courtesy.

It has value if you're not otherwise getting anything (in this case the Wild are getting the 3rd and 4th if they feel that's fair).

There's retention in a ton of deals at the deadline every year, you rarely see extra 6ths thrown in for it. It doesn't work like that.

The courtesy is you want what you're getting in return for a player you don't want anymore, but in order to make that happen, retention is necessary. It's not a bargaining chip in a situation like this.

You don't see an extra 6th like that because normally something else in the deal is balanced to the amount of retention. Not every deal involves throwing in extra picks, but retention does have value.

If it isn't a bargaining chip then how about we just take it out? COL would still stay under the cap and then we don't have to spend money.