NHL Trade Deadline: Grading the Rangers, Devils, and Islanders moves

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ANAHEIM, CA – NOVEMBER 09: Chris Wagner (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

I don’t think anyone expected the New York Islanders to do a single thing at the NHL trade deadline. They essentially didn’t by making no moves of significance.

NHL Trade Deadline Approach: Stay put and maybe make playoffs?

Traded For: D Brandon Davidson (EDM), F Chris Wagner (ANA)

Traded Away: F Jason Chimera (ANA), 2019 third-round pick (EDM)

Grade: D

The New York Islanders and their annoyingly content with mediocrity GM Garth Snow rarely make trades during the season. They also seem to exclusively trade with the Pacific Division teams. That observation is probably a coincidence but still noteworthy.

The Isles could very well have earned the very difficult to get “F” grade. A few things saved them.

The fact that they literally did something and that history showed they were not going to do much saves them from the “F”.

Okay, I’ll be real for a second. If you read my articles or my tweets, you will see I fully expected the Islanders to do nothing. They did make a few trades over the last few days.

They also signed Josh Bailey to an extension. The timing of that now seems intentional as Snow not really having anything else planned this week came out.

To their credit, getting rid of Jason Chimera is good. His cap number was way too high for how little he was producing.

By getting Brandon Davidson, the Isles may stop the bleeding on defense. The third-rounder they gave up does not really matter.

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Arguably, they got a little better rather than worse but they still did nothing that screams they are playoff bound.

If the Islanders make the playoffs, I still won’t change my grade. They did nothing to build a team that will go deep in the playoffs. The Rangers just rebuilt because they couldn’t go deep enough in the playoffs and they were even better than the Isles are now.

The Islanders need to at least re-sign John Tavares soon to not make fans go crazy.

It is baffling to me that they won’t either embrace the fact that they have to rebuild or go all-in for a playoff run.

It does not often work in hockey just shuffling players of the same caliber around to “change things up”. This will not make the Isles better.

Also, if the Islanders do make a run, it will have nothing to do with Brandon Davidson or Chris Wagner. It will be because they somehow figured it out elsewhere.

Next: Henrik Lundqvist being framed as Rangers run out of gas

They did not really have an approach to the deadline, so it is hard to determine if they met some kind of goal.

All the bashful rhetoric coming out about Garth Snow is all making sense now.

For that, it is a “D” grade and another sad deadline for such a loyal fan base.

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