As per a source at Newsday, Travis Hamonic is playing the take-backsies card on his trade request.
Breaking #Isles news: Travis Hamonic has rescinded his trade request, Newsday has learned. More to follow.
— Arthur Staple (@StapeNewsday) May 10, 2016
This puts a serious dent into the off-season plan for the Oilers, who many believed had a deal in the works with the Islanders to bring the right-handed defenseman closer to his western Canadian home.
There were rumblings all season long that Edmonton and New York were very close on a deal that would have worked to benefit both teams, but the best solution for the Islanders would have been to keep Hamonic. If the one report is correct, then this is their best case scenario.
The Oilers are a team desperate for right handed defenders who can play on the 1st and 2nd pairing. Travis Hamonic would have been the anchor of the top pairing, had he been traded to Edmonton. He’s a minute-munching, tough-nosed, defender with quality possession metrics. He would have been part 1 of 2 in offseason acquisitions that could have transformed the club’s top 4 into something that could help them challenge for a playoff position.
Of course, he’s also on a contract that is so club-friendly that his agent should have been fired on the spot for negotiating it on his behalf.
The Oilers have other options still available to them. Vatanen in Anaheim, Barrie in Colorado, and Demers in Dallas are all possibilities and they are in varying states of availability. Edmonton is now in a significantly weaker position than they were in any potential Hamonic deal because none of those players were requesting asylum in Edmonton’s neck of the woods.
There was an earlier report today that the Islanders had not negotiated with Kyle Okposo at all this year. It’s certainly possible that they were expecting to replace him with the return from a Hamonic deal and this changes that completely. I would say that Garth Snow has a little work to do to clean up this Hamonic mess, but he’s still better off with Hamonic than without him.
Peter Chiarelli, on the other hand, just had his best option at 1RD taken away from him at the last second. This could be a difficult off-season. Again. Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy