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Michael Grabner Traded From New York Islanders To Toronto Maple Leafs

By Kenneth Teape

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With NHL training camps opening up in the coming days, the New York Islanders have decided to shake up their roster a little bit. On Thursday afternoon, the Islanders agreed to trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs, sending away forward Michael Grabner in exchange for five players.

Grabner spent the last five seasons with the Islanders after starting out his career with the Vancouver Canucks, where he played his rookie season. In his five seasons with the Islanders, Grabner netted 90 goals and handed out 54 assists for 144 points in 297 games. The 27-year old had a nice farewell tweet for the Islanders and their fans, thanking them for his time with the team.

Grabner was an effective player for the Islanders on special teams, as their penalty kill was much more effective when he was on the ice. Unfortunately, that was the problem in the last couple of seasons, as Grabner battled a litany of injuries and appeared in only 143 of a possible 246 regular season games.

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There is even a chance that his speed could have been a valuable asset in the new 3-on-3 overtime rules, but the Islanders were not willing to find that out. Grabner’s offensive production has slipped in reason seasons because of those injuries, and he no longer was worth the price tag that he carried; he was set to make $5 million in base salary and count $3 million against the Islanders cap.

With him now heading to Toronto, the Islanders sit about $7.5 million underneath the NHL’s cap ceiling, according to generalfanager.com. The five players that the Islanders received from the Maple Leafs, forward Taylor Beck, defenseman Matt Finn, goalie Christopher Gibson, defenseman Tom Nilsson and center Carter Verhaeghe, won’t even make $5 million combined, as the quintet will only make $3,955,833 million this upcoming season.

Beck is the only one of that group that has NHL experience, as he played in 85 career games with the Nashville Predators, scoring 11 goals with 12 assists. While the Maple Leafs, according to Bob McKenzie, didn’t consider any of the five players they traded to the Islanders as a part of their future, they will help build back up an Islanders minor league system that was drained a little bit by the acquisitions of Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy last offseason.

The Islanders rookie training camp ended yesterday, with the veterans reporting for workouts starting September 18th and the first preseason game scheduled for September 21st.

Next: Who was the best Islander in the year of 2014?

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