Dead Contracts Dooming Islanders

 The New York Islanders are coming off their best season in 27 years, making it to the eastern conference finals. As anyone with logic would think, the Islanders needed to sign a piece or two in free agency or make some sort of trade to improve their roster. 

One problem: they are no on money.

The Islanders have just $3.9 million in cap space and still need to re-sign restricted free agent Mathew Barzal who has lead to team in points the last three seasons. The problem the Islanders face is that they have a few high-paying contracts that at this point can be considered "dead cap" meaning the money being paid to certain players is for little to no use to the team.

34-year-old Andrew Ladd signed a seven year contract worth $5.5 million per season in 2016. The contract has been bad since the day he signed it. Often injured, Ladd's subpar play does not help him put his contract to use when healthy. He has played just 30 games over the last two seasons including just four last season. He also spent a majority of last season in the minors after going through waivers. His contract is not easily movable either which makes his situation worse. The contact has a no move clause and has been considered "buyout proof" by many expert cap crunchers. It's fair to say, that $5.5 million contract is "dead".

Andrew Ladd was placed on waivers last season and has had a tough stint with the Islanders.

36-year-old Johnny Boychuk has two years left at $6 million per season. Now Boychuk has value to the Islanders as a key part of their leadership group and really is a solid defender when healthy. Notice I said "when healthy" because he is not healthy often. And with so much depth on the Islanders defense, Boychuk was out of the lineup for all but three games in the playoffs last season. With so many options on defense, the Islanders have been rumored to shopping Boychuk to free up $6 million in cap but they could not find any takers. 

Johnny Boychuk is a warrior for the Islanders. Here he is after taking a skate to the eye in a game vs. the Montreal Canadiens in March.

Another victim of defensive depth has been Thomas Hickey, who has two years left at a $2.5 million dollar cap hit. Not a huge hit, but since their are better options on defense than Hickey, he played last season in the minors and he will likely stay there for the duration of his contract. Now paying someone $2.5 million to play in the minors is definitely a "dead" contract.

Add all these cap hits up and you have $14 million useless money. Not only can you re-sign your best player with this money but you can sign other pieces to improve the team. If unsolved, the Islanders may have a bug problem on their hands.