CONTROVERSIAL: New York Islanders Brayden Schenn Trade—Can He IMPROVE Playoff Odds or Not?

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The New York Islanders made a big trade at the deadline, but it left a lot of fans scratching

their heads.

Talk about how this move affects their playoff chances and the future of the team coming up next.

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I'm Gil Martin, I've been covering the New York Islanders for two decades and I wrote

the book Ice Wars on the history of the Islanders rivalry with the Rangers from 1972 till

the modern era.

So glad you could join us today to talk a little Islanders hockey and we have got a lot

to get to here on this trade deadline day bonus episode.

The Islanders leave a lot of fans shaking their heads as they give up a lot to get Braden

Shen.

We'll talk about the trade, how it impacts the team and their playoff hopes.

The Islanders also announced a contract extension for JG Pazzo and we'll try to make sense

of all these moves, the moves that were made, the moves that weren't made and where this

leaves the team right now.

As far as the trade is concerned, this one was not what most fans had expected and it certainly

has some far reaching implications.

The New York Islanders get center Braden Shen from the St. Louis Blues.

In exchange, the Blues get the avalanches first round pick in this year's draft, a third

round pick, Jonathan Drew N who quite honestly had to be included probably to make the cat

money work and is, you know, well, we'll get to that.

Jonathan Drew N and then goalie prospect Marcus Gidloth who is not considered necessarily

a very highly regarded prospect.

That's the deal and I can't say I'm overly thrilled with this trade.

Let's talk first about what it does.

No doubt in a vacuum, Braden Shen upgrades the Islanders bottom six.

He is very good in the face off dot winning a good number 54.2% of his draws.

So that is certainly something good.

He brings leadership, he's won a Stanley Cup back in with the St. Louis Blues and he

was there capped in up until he waived his no trade clause to join the New York Islanders.

He's a good passer.

He scored 18 goals in 2024, 2025, three straight seasons before that of 20 goals or more.

Although if you look at the last five seasons, it's 24 goals, 21, 20, 18, and this year

or so far 12, you noticing a pattern each year, the goal total is going down.

Here's the thing that I like about the trade and here's the thing I don't like about the

trade.

Getting rid of Jonathan Drew N is addition by subtraction and I say that not to disparage

Drew N. I will say this for whatever reason, it wasn't working for Jonathan Drew N in

on Long Island and you can't say Patrick Wad did not give him every chance to be successful

to have top six minutes, power play minutes, quality ice time, better line mates than a lot

of other players.

He still couldn't get it done, hadn't scored a goal since November 14th was struggling.

I wish Jonathan Drew N the best, but it was the right move to move on from Jonathan

Drew N and to his credit, I will say this about Drew N. You never heard him complain and

he never stopped working hard, he didn't get the results.

He certainly was not living up to the top six minutes and the power play time wasn't

playing well, but never stopped trying.

I wish him well, nothing against Jonathan Drew N. It was a move by Matthew Darsch that

worked for about four weeks and then hasn't worked out since.

I like the grit, Shen will add some physicality every day or no, I've talked for a long

long time about how this team needs more physicality.

I don't think the addition of Shen is enough.

I really would have liked a physical defenseman as well, but again, this is what we added.

But here's my analogy for this.

Coming up, a first round pick, a third round pick, a middling prospect and a player off

the roster for Braden Shen.

We paid the price I would expect to pay for a new sports car and we ended up buying a

used family sedan and that's not to disparage Braden Shen.

He has been a really good hockey player over the course of his career.

And I have no doubt that even at this late stage of his career, he can help the New York

Islanders in the short run.

It's just that the price to acquire him was the price that I thought we should pay for

a guy like Jordan Cairo, a first, a third, a player on the roster and a prospect.

I was expecting to get a lot more than a bottom six center for that kind of a haul.

And I get it.

Them taking Jonathan Drew and is actually something that did the Islanders a favor, but also

like I said, you needed to send away that cap hit.

We overpaid for Braden Shen and here's the other thing I don't like.

Braden Shen is 34 years old and he has two more years after this year, left on his contract

at a $6.5 million AAV.

Again, you're paying a bottom six guy more money than what his productivity is going to

give you.

He's only going to get older.

He'll be 36 when this contract is over.

You're seeing already statistically and many scouts have chimed in that his game is clearly

winding down.

He is on the decline.

And you just paid a boatload for a guy who is again going to help in the short run.

A boy or boy, did you pay a lot of money and a lot of assets for somebody who is a secondary

addition.

And you know, we've talked everybody, every day or snow, I've always said get younger,

faster and more skilled.

Shen does not check any of those boxes.

And to give up as much as the islanders gave up and not get a scorer and not get a younger

player who can help the team for more than a year or two.

And to take on a $6.5 million cat pit for a player who is no longer producing at that

level.

I can't say I like this trade.

And look, here's the good news and the bad news.

The bad news is you didn't add the gritty defenseman.

You didn't add goal scoring.

Shen is not going to demonstrably help the power play unless he sort of finds the fountain

of youth.

I don't think that's something that he's going to bring to the table right now.

I mean, he does have three power play goals this year.

So he can contribute on the power play, three power play goals, three power play assists.

But who knows, maybe he brings something to the power play chemistry wise, can't get

worse, right?

You would think.

And certainly Drew and on the power play never made sense.

But ultimately you did not get the sniper, the goal scorer.

And again, every day is I basically said you probably should wait a year before you add

that sniper.

Maybe this off season, maybe at the deadline next year or next off season.

But that's the negative.

You didn't add the physical defenseman.

You didn't add the scorer and you didn't really, I don't think helped the power play

demonstrably.

But on the good side, you didn't give up H.S. and you didn't give up Iserman.

You didn't give up Eclan.

The top three prospects that Matthew Darsch did not want to part with.

And I think wisely so the islanders did not part with.

So overall, I don't like this deal.

You ended up getting a guy who's a little too old, costs a little too much money who has

too many years left on his contract where you're going to probably see diminishing returns.

But in this short run, if this trade was just Drew and for Shen, which is what it is on

the roster right now, I think the islanders are slightly better than they were before

this deal got made.

But in the long run on a team that is still building towards something, this move did not

make a lot of sense and did not move the proverbial needle.

And I think this is something that the islanders have to figure out.

What is the direction of this team?

You helped in the short run for this year's playoff run a little bit.

I think Shen is the kind of player who in the playoffs could help when things do get

more physical and face-offs become bigger.

The fact that you will now have Pazzo, Shen and Horvat as three guys taking face-offs for

this team is a very good thing.

You'll win most of your draws with those three guys.

But wow, we gave up a lot for a guy who is on the wrong side of 33 and, again, overall

not happy with this trade.

The islanders also announced another move.

The extended JG Pazzo will break that down, talk about what it means and maybe Andrews

Lee's future as well.

We've got that and more coming up on today's Lockdown Islanders podcast.

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The New York Islanders also made an announcement right before the trade deadline or maybe it

was announced right after three o'clock Eastern.

They have extended JG Pazzo a three year extension at $4.85 million per year.

And I am not unhappy with this.

I'm not thrilled with it.

You could have gotten, you know, here's how I look at it.

The pro is yes, you locked up JG Pazzo.

He should have a few good years left, he's 33 and the type of player he is, he doesn't

rely as much on speed and quickness as he does on intelligence, tenacity and strength.

So I think he'll age fairly well as compared to players who are more reliant on their speed.

If you recall, I said, if you want to extend Pazzo, I said I would rather not go beyond

two years and I wanted to keep it to five million or less.

I'm okay giving him the third year under the circumstances.

I think $4.85 million is more than reasonable.

And I would not be happy giving Anders Lee a three year extension because Lee is older

by three years than Pazzo.

But with Pazzo, I'm okay with it.

But here's where I'm less happy about this move.

First of all, based on the market, if Braden Shen got you a first, a third, a middling prospect

and then you had to, you know, take on Jonathan Drew and what would you have gotten if you

would have traded JG Pazzo because I think JG Pazzo who is younger and I think at this

stage in his career, a better asset than Braden Shen could have gotten you at least what

you gave up for Shen if you would to have moved him.

But the other thing is this and here's where I'm a little confused.

And Shen and JG Pazzo are very similar types of players, very similar types of players.

They are checkers, they're good in the face off circle, they can kill penalties.

In a pinch, they can help out on the power play.

They are leaders in the locker room.

You don't need both of them.

And next year, assuming that this, that no other moves are made and we don't know what's

going to happen with that.

But your third and fourth centers, if that is indeed Pazzo and Shen are going to cost

you almost $12 million in cap space.

And that doesn't make sense.

If you would have acquired Shen and traded Pazzo, that would have made sense.

It would have been a good plug him in, put him there, all good.

If you would have signed Pazzo and not acquired Shen, that would have made sense.

But I just don't understand having both of them on this team at this particular point

in time.

So I'm happy to have JG Pazzo stay, but I don't understand having both Pazzo and Shen

on your roster.

Two guys who are roughly the same age, two guys who roughly have the same skill set, two

guys who are making, as I mentioned, a lot of money.

And now the question is this, who sits?

Who sits?

I think you're going to see Kal Ritchie either sitting or moving to the wing.

Or maybe Shen moves to the wing.

I don't know, you know, would Shen move up and be your two C?

I think that would be a reach at this stage in his career, five years ago.

I think he would have been a great two C, but not right now.

So there are still some unanswered questions.

As far as what are we doing here?

And then there's Anders Lee.

Anders Lee, no announcement yet as to whether or not he will sign a new contract.

The options right now are you either re-sign Anders Lee to an extension or you lose him

for nothing.

Those are now the choices.

You cannot trade him.

Again, Shen, Lee and Peugeot on the roster, I don't like it.

It's too many older guys on the downsides of their career making too much money.

And now I'll make it plain based on all of this.

If you do re-sign Anders Lee, one year, four million dollars max.

I know that's not what it's going to be.

It's going to end up being two or three years at five million dollars roughly.

But I don't think that's what this team should do.

And the hope of getting younger, faster and more skilled, look, that still could be the

long-term goal.

The good news is that you're making the team better in the very short run.

But again, I just don't understand all of the thinking behind this move.

And if it was combined with another trade, whether that was a Peugeot trade or adding another

pick or another younger player or another prospect, I would have been a lot happier.

But right now, I'm still kind of baffled by all of this.

And there are good points to this trade.

I'm not saying it is totally ridiculous.

But I think we overpaid, got a guy with a little too much term left who's a little older than

I'd like him to be and who has a skill set that is very similar to a guy we just not

only did not trade, but extended.

So I'm still shaking my head trying to figure this out.

I hope Raiden Chen adds something big to this team.

I hope he can be energized by this trade and help this team.

But still a lot of question marks.

What is the big picture?

After all of this, we're going to talk about that and more coming up on today's Lockdown

Islanders podcast.

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So where is this team now after these moves and let's face it, these non moves because

that we kind of were hoping would have happened didn't happen.

So where is this team?

I think they are a little better than they were 24 hours ago in the short run.

I think they got a little more grit.

They are going to be a little tougher to play against and they got a little more leadership

and make no mistake.

This team could use some extra leadership.

We've talked every day or snow about how many games this team, the effort wasn't there

from the opening face off.

They didn't look ready to play last night even against the Kings and the night before

against the ducks.

This team was not stepping up to the moment that they had and the opportunity that they

had.

This move, this trade is designed to get the islanders across the finish line and

into the playoffs this year.

And I think if you look at the big picture, this move is kind of designed to have the

islanders be more competitive while your Cushion agents and Victor Ecclins and coal

isermans and Danny Nelson's develop into regular NHL players who can really be major contributors

to this team.

The easiest way for me to accept these moves is to look at it as a bridge deal.

That these guys, the Pajos and the Shens are going to hold down the fort so you don't

have to rush your prospects.

And the team, look, Schaefer will continue to develop and hopefully improve.

You can do that.

You can have, you know, some of these young players just start to hit their stride, Cal Richie,

will continue to develop and improve.

I still think that in a year or two, he's a legitimate to see in this lead.

And keep in mind, you can always move on from any, any, you know, there are trades that

you can make.

And there are still a lot of guys that left over from loose regime that this team needs

to move on from to reach that next level.

So the only way I can kind of accept this deal is if I look at the benefits in the short

run and I look at it as a bridge deal.

But I still honestly believe we overpaid for Braden Shen and did not do enough to turn

over the roster.

Moving Drew Anne was good, but I don't have to tell the regular viewers and listeners

to this show that there are three or four, maybe more guys who I would have loved to have

moved on from.

And you know, whether that happens next year, you know, or not, whether it's before the

draft, what happens in free agency, if anything, we'll see.

So overall, I would say this was a disappointing trade deadline for the New York Islanders.

But compared to where they were 24 hours ago, this team is a little bit better.

And they did address the need for some grit and toughness and leadership.

That boy did they pay a lot and I don't like two more years of Shen at $6.5 million in

Capit.

I know I don't want to rental and certainly not for the price that the Islanders paid,

but boy oh boy, diminishing returns are likely.

And now it's up to Braden Shen to go out there and play his hard out and show that he was

worth what the Islanders paid to get him and what they're going to have to pay him going

forward because that is a very high cap hit to absorb for a guy who is again, you know,

at that age and where again, we're going to see, I think, diminishing returns over the

course of the remaining time on his contract.

But one step at a time, let's see what happens Saturday night Islanders in San Jose.

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Have a great day everybody.

Stay safe.

We'll figure this out, right?

I mean, this is the moves that Darsh made.

Can't say I'm thrilled.

Can't say I'm devastated, but I don't think this was the best path forward.

Hopefully they proved me wrong.

We'll see.

Have a great weekend.

Stay safe.

And of course, let's go Islanders.

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