This piece will be another in my series of player profiles, where I’ll give some thoughts on the performance of a member of the New York Islanders this season. This article will focus on Nick Leddy.
Leddy had a great start to the year and was skating with the puck, producing offense, as well as continuing to be more reliable defensively. He scored 17 points in his first 30 games of the year and he seemed to be a key part of New York's success.
However, as seems to be the general tone of this year so far, once 2020 came, things went downhill. In his final 30 games of the year, he went goalless, scoring just four points and seemed to revert to his old self in his own end as well. It’s frustrating because you see that Leddy can become at least a somewhat more well-rounded defenseman but as soon as you start to think that, Leddy is back to defensive lapses.
There's always speculation that Leddy could be moved. To that, I’ll say this much: I doubt that Leddy would bring back as big of a return as he may have a year ago. If there is a desire to move him for a forward, it may be a better move to look for draft picks in return rather than trying to shop him for a top-six forward, then flip those picks in a package for a forward instead. If you’re looking to deal Leddy directly for a top forward, the Islanders will be adding in a lot of extra assets in that deal as well and trading partners would be very limited.
The other issue is that despite a poor end to the season, Leddy still logs the second-most minutes per game of any player on the team. If he was moved, does Johnny Boychuk or Noah Dobson then move to the left side full-time? I don’t know if that’s an ideal route to go. Maybe that opens the door for Andy Greene to be re-signed? Either way, there's a hole in the lineup to fill.
Next season, Leddy needs to try and find some consistency in his game. He can be a difference-maker for the Islanders but wasn't this season.
Here's today's poll question (results and discussion will be posted Saturday):
Hypothetically, if you were trading Leddy for draft picks (to flip for a forward), what do you realistically think the return is?
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