The New York Islanders have just confirmed some very bad news, but it may be bad news that comes with a significant silver lining.
Last week during a Thursday night matchup against the New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders captain Anders Lee appeared to suffer a very serious looking injury when he got tangled up with the Devils' Pavel Zacha. The incident looked bad on its own, but Lee's body language following the incident made it look even worse. The Islanders captain appeared to be unable to put any weight on his leg as he was helped off the ice, and on Sunday the Islanders confirmed things were indeed quite bad.
The Islanders have now placed Lee on long term injured reserve retroactive to the 11th of March, a move that according to Islanders insider Arthur Staple means that Lee will not play again during the regular season. It's a tough blow to an Islanders team that is currently sitting at the very top of the NHL's East Division, one that could drastically alter their position in the standings moving forward.
As I said however there is potentially a massive silver lining here for the Islanders. Lee carries a rather large cap hit of $7 million per season and with him being placed on long term injured reserve, this will now result in that cap space being freed up for the Islanders and more importantly for veteran general manager Lou Lamoriello. Although I am certain Lamoriello was not pleased to lose his captain on Thursday, the fact that he can now go out ahead of the trade deadline and potentially make seismic moves around the league with an abundance of cap space has to put a smile on his face.
Of course the best part of this for the Islanders is the potential for Lee to return at some point during the playoffs. Once the playoffs begin the NHL's salary cap no longer applies, which means in theory the Islanders could be over by as much as $7 million come playoff time should Lee be able to make a return from his injury. This could make the Islanders a much more threatening team in the long term, even if it does quite clearly hurt them in the short term.
