Isles GM Lou Lamoriello reportedly hiding his cap space, could be working on a big trade
A very interesting suggestion from Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman during the most recent edition of the 31 Thoughts Podcast has the New York Islanders trying to keep details of the team's cap space under lock and key until they can complete a trade.
Friedman had stated during the podcast that he believes that the Islanders, who have been very quiet during free agency, already have deals in place for several players that will not be announced until Isles GM Lou Lamoriello and company can complete whatever sort of deal it is that they're working on. Friedge tossed the name Tarasenko around, though he was also very non-committal about it.
"I think Palmieri is signed, I think Parise is signed, I think Cizikas is signed," said Friedman. "Here's one for the wall for everyone to mark down. The rumour is Cizikas is signed for 6x$2.5M. I don't know if it's true."
Lamoriello is known for keeping things very tight-lipped during negotiations, so it wouldn't shock me if these suggestions were accurate.
The one that really stands out is Cizikas at 6x$2.5M.. Cizikas is 30 and his career-high in points is 36. Granted, $2.5M is not a large cap hit, but signing an aging veteran player with a lot of hard miles on him for 6 seasons is a risk, for certain.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| J.T. Miller | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| Devon Toews | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Lane Hutson | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Nick Suzuki | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Tom Wilson | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jonathan Lekkerimaki | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Dawson Mercer | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| John-Jason Peterka | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Aliaksei Protas | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| John Carlson | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Quinn Hughes | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Paul Cotter | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kirby Dach | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jake Debrusk | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kaiden Guhle | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Adam Larsson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ondrej Palat | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mikko Rantanen | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Tage Thompson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Golden Knights | 39 | 27 | 9 | 3 | 57 | |
Capitals | 40 | 26 | 10 | 4 | 56 | |
Jets | 41 | 27 | 12 | 2 | 56 | |
Wild | 40 | 25 | 11 | 4 | 54 | |
Maple Leafs | 41 | 26 | 13 | 2 | 54 | |
Devils | 43 | 25 | 15 | 3 | 53 | |
Kings | 38 | 23 | 10 | 5 | 51 | |
Oilers | 39 | 24 | 12 | 3 | 51 | |
Avalanche | 41 | 25 | 15 | 1 | 51 | |
Hurricanes | 40 | 24 | 14 | 2 | 50 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||