Deadline Dance

As the EHE trade deadline approached yesterday, the prevailing wisdom was that the New York Islanders would be staying quiet; not only was their payroll already scraping up against the league salary cap of $79.5 million, but GM Kyle Phillips had already made two notable deals earlier in the season with the additions of Matt Roy and Troy Terry.

Indeed, with less than an hour before the closing bell, Phillips and his front office appeared set to stand pat.

As is often the case, however, the phone lines were busy on Long Island, and ultimately two trades came to fruition for the league-leading Isles. And while they were hardly blockbuster deals, the organization apparently came away feeling that they had successfully rounded out both their EHE and AHL lineups, as Phillips himself explained in his post-deadline media availability.

"Acquiring more defensive depth was the top prriority for us going into the weekend," said Phillips. "We feel like Nick should be a really good fit. He's a versatile player, really a guy with a growing two-way game. We think he'll be a solid contributer for us this season with the chance to be a bit of a late bloomer over the next couple of years.

"Moving Justin (Brazeau) wasn't something we really wanted to do, but it came down to allocating cap space. You can never have enough bodies on the blueline in the playoffs, and when Nick became an option fairly late in the process, we felt it was the right move."

"This was a deal that had been in the works in some form or another for maybe three months now. We'd targeted Bobby as a guy who could help us in a depth role, and it was no secret that Colin (McBain, Ducks GM) was looking more in a futures direction.

"There had been a fair amount of back-and-forth and the fit was never quite right. But once the deal with Carolina looked likely to happen for us, we wanted to get someone who could cover for moving Brazeau, and we think Bobby can do that. Now he'll have a chance to help us in the playoffs, and we'll see how he fits with the group, then hopefully there will be some mutual interest there when it comes to a contract extension.

"Joe was also an important part of this deal for us. We've been working hard to boost the secondary scoring down in Toledo, and we think he's the guy to provide a spark. He also knows the organization [Snively played 114 games for the Bridgeport Islanders between 2019 and 2022] so that should make for a smooth transition."