The Islanders return to the ice tonight as they are in the Coliseum to take on the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes have already suffered a devastating blow to their roster as Jordan Staal suffered a broken leg in Carolina’s 2-0 lose to the Buffalo Sabres last night. This is always the biggest fear of preseason as injuries can quickly derail a team before the first meaningful minutes of the season are even played.

The Islanders had a successful trip to St. John’s Newfoundland, winning both of their split squad games. The wins in preseason are great but the fact that there were no injuries from Monday’s games is critical. The Islanders have already trimmed their training camp roster sending three players back to their respective junior teams. The team announced that Kyle Burroughs, Victor Crus-Rydberg and Connor Graham have all been assigned back to juniors. As for the game tonight, here is the expected lineup that will face the Carolina Hurricanes at the Coliseum.

Grabovski – Tavares – Okposo
Lee – Nelson – Strome
Conacher – Nielsen – Skille
Martin – Cizikas– Clutterbuck

Hickey – Visnovsky
Reinhart – Pokka
Ness – Brennan

Halak – Poulin

It will be interesting to watch Grabovski alongside Tavares and Okposo. As I expected, the auditions will continue for that top line spot. The second line of Nelson, Lee and Strome should also be fun to watch.

If you follow me on twitter, it has been a fun morning. There is news out of Chicago that the Blackhawks are shopping Nick Leddy and Kris Versteeg as a cost cutting package deal. I would have no issues making this trade but I am not trading any top flight prospects to Chicago to get them under the cap. The name that keeps popping out on social media is Anders Lee. Would you trade Anders Lee to Chicago for Leddy and Versteeg?

My answer is no. I like Nick Leddy and I truly believe that he can help the Islanders. However, he is not Larry Robinson. We all know the league craves top four defensemen. There are never any top four d available. When one hits free agency they are grossly overpaid and many times bottom pairing guys are paid like top four just in the hopes they can fill those roles. So with that being said, if Nick Leddy is a slam dunk top four defenseman at the age of 23, why the hell would the Blackhawks trade him? Salary cap be damned, teams do not simply move top four guys. Furthermore, Nick Leddy has been on the trading block since before the draft. If Leddy was truly a top four defenseman wouldn’t a team have pounced all over him already?

Once again, I have no problem trading for Leddy. I like his upside, he is a strong skater and can run a power play but let’s not make him out to be something he is not just because our team has such a glaring hole. As always for more on all things hockey please feel free to scream at me on twitter at @DanDanNoodles78.

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