What trade rumors? The headline of this post says ‘Islanders Trade Rumors.’ The reality, however, is that despite the 2012 NHL trade deadline being Monday there aren’t any real trade rumors involving the New York Islanders.
WFAN’s Mike Carver set expectations for Islanders fans this way:
As far as being buyers, the Islanders pretty much sealed any chance they had of that this week when they got embarrassed at home by Ottawa on Monday followed by a close loss the next night in Buffalo. Even if the Islanders had won those games and were still four to six points out of a playoff spot, it was still highly unlikely the Isles would be buyers. The combination of not wanting to give up any of their top prospects along with the fact that besides Rick Nash, there are not a lot of big names out there to be had would keep them out of the mix. And as much as all Islander fans wanted to believe that the Isles would be players for Nash when his name came out last week, the simple fact is he would never waive his no trade to come here and the Islanders would not give up the package to get him.
So the Islanders being buyers was never an option this trade deadline, in any way.
On the other side of the coin, with the way things have gone the past few games, being sellers seems to be the right path for the Islanders. There is a problem with being a seller though….
What is there to sell?
That is a fairly harsh analysis, and one Islanders fans probably don’t want to hear. It seems, though, like it will end up being accurate.