Islanders give Arizona multiple draft picks to take on Andrew Ladd’s contract

The New York Islanders have found a way to get out from under Andrew Ladd’s contract.

According to Elliotte Friedman, they’ll be giving the Arizona Coyotes a 2021 second-round pick, a conditional 2022 second-round pick, and a conditional 2023 third-round pick in exchange for taking on the final two years of Ladd’s deal.

Ladd inked a seven-year, $38,500,000 deal ($5,500,000) annually with the Islanders back in 2016. Over four seasons on Long Island, he played in 181 games and scored 39 goals and 72 points. Ladd was waived in 2019 and spent most of 2019-20 playing in the AHL, and he spent the entirety of the 2021 season in the AHL.

Getting rid of Ladd’s contact is huge for the Islanders. As a buried cap hit, he would have counted as roughly $4,375,000 against the cap, so this gives general manager Lou Lamoriello more room to work with this summer.

New York has three key restricted free agents, @Adam Pelech, Anthony Bauvillier, and @Ilya Sorokin in need of new deals, while veterans Andry Greene, Kyle Palmieri, and Casey Cizikas are set to hit unrestricted free agency.