Islanders Trade Wisniewski To Habs

The Islanders have traded James Wisniewski to Montreal for a second round pick in 2011. If the Canadiens make the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs and Wisniewski plays in at least 50-percent of the Canadiens' playoff games, the Islanders will receive the Canadiens' 2012 fifth-round pick as well; if that pick is unavailable the Islanders will get a fourth-round pick in 2013. The second rounder is the Canadiens’ compensatory pick for not signing a recent first round selection. The 26-year-old Wisniewski is having a career offensive season for the Islanders, with his 21 points tying him for the team lead. He also has a team-best 18 assists.

Since he won’t be asked to be the man in Montreal, Wisniewski - unable to shoulder the load when Mark Streit was sidelined with a serious shoulder injury - should be okay for the Habs. Some more wheel-spinning for the Islanders, but good value for Garth Snow. According to Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet, the compensatory pick should be around 50th overall.

No problem with the timing here; if Snow waited any longer, I doubt Wisniewski’s value was going to go up. The Canadiens got the player they targeted. The Islanders got as much as they could get.

Even still though, you have to wonder, why trade Wiz? At 26 years old and $3 million he is young enough and skilled enough to be considered part of the rebuilding process. Now we can only wonder what next year could have been like with Wiz and Streit on the point together, unless the Islanders re-sign Wisniewski in the offseason. That is a possibility, but it doesn't seem likely, but we'll have to wait until July to know for sure.

Wiz is a stand-up guy that was well liked in the locker room that provided great leadership and hard work day in and day out. My guess is that the emergence of Andy MacDonald and Travis Hamonic as the top pairing on the team (and legitimate NHL pairing) enabled Snow to pull the trigger on this one.

Last season with Anaheim, Wisniewski finished second among Ducks defensemen in scoring with a career-high 30 points (three goals and 27 assists) in 69 games. He also led the Ducks in blocked shots with 102, ranked second on the team with 129 hits and finished fourth among skaters in average ice time at 24:20. Wisniewski was Chicago’s fifth round selection (156th overall) in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.