The Red Wings and Islanders struck a deal Friday night that sent defenseman Nick Leddy to Detroit in exchange for forward Richard Panik and a second-round draft pick for this year.
The Red Wings will also retain half of Panik’s $2.75 million in salary with the veteran currently having two years left on his deal.
Meanwhile, the 30-year-old Leddy has one year left on his contract ($5.5 million) before he becomes an unrestricted free agent after this upcoming season.
The move was understandable for the Islanders who were backed up against the cap and will further save on Panik’s deal coming the other way with Detroit flipping the bill on half of his salary. The additional second-round pick also helps as well given the Islanders don’t have a first-rounder for this year’s draft but now have two in the second round.
For Detroit, this is somewhat of a head-scratcher considering Yzerman gave up a second-round pick and salary cap space for a player in Leddy who has seen his game begin to fall off all while potentially being left exposed to Seattle in the upcoming expansion draft. Not only that, with Yzerman using a second-round pick to acquire Leddy you have to assume the veteran defenseman will end up being protected by Detroit meaning Troy Stetcher who was arguably the Red Wings’ most productive d-man last season possibly getting selected by the Kraken in just a few days.
In terms of need though, Detroit did need someone to fill the left side of the blue line which Leddy does, however, you still wonder with this deal if the negatives just ultimately overshadow any positives.
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