CHICAGO _ The Islanders traded Travis Hamonic to the Flames for first- and second-round picks in next year's draft and either a 2019 or 2020 second-round pick. The Islanders also will send a fourth-round pick in either 2019 or 2020.
Hamonic, 26, won the NHL Foundation Player Award last Wednesday in Las Vegas for his charity work during his seven seasons with the Islanders. He has been the emotional core of the team and was an alternate captain this past season.
But after an injury plagued and subpar 2016-17, when he played only 49 games and just a handful of those after the Islanders turned their season around under Doug Weight, GM Garth Snow decided to put Hamonic and his very affordable cap hit _ he has three seasons left at $3.857 million per _ on the market in the past few weeks.
Snow sought two first-round picks for Hamonic prior to Friday night's first round, with the Leafs and Flames the most interested but both unwilling to pay such a high price. Snow revisited both potential trade partners again Saturday and reportedly had an offer that included Leafs forward James van Riemsdyk, but decided to send Hamonic to the Western Conference for an exclusively future return.
With Hamonic gone, the Islanders now have roughly $9 million in cap space for next season and need to sign restricted free agent Calvin de Haan for a defense corps that will look very different without Hamonic, who played 444 games for the Isles since he came up from Bridgeport during the 2010-11 season.
This move marked the third deal Snow has made in the last four days, starting with his complicated deal with Vegas to keep the expansion team from selecting a roster player. The Isles surrendered their first-round pick this year and got Vegas to take Mikhail Grabovski's $5 million cap hit, which allowed Snow to add Jordan Eberle from the Oilers on Thursday for Ryan Strome.
