It was only a matter of time before the Habs made a move to shore up their
defence and on Tuesday they did just that, acquiring James Wisniewski from the
New York Islanders. In return, Montreal sends the 50th overall pick in the
upcoming draft (compensation for letting David Fischer go) as well as a
conditional 5th round pick in 2012. The pick is believed to be contingent
on Wisniewski re-signing with the Habs.
Wisniewski was tied for the Islanders’ lead in points, with 3 goals and 18
assists in 32 games, his assists being the most on the team. However, his
+/- rating of -18 is 754th overall in the league, or seventh worst.
Wisniewski was also suspended earlier this season for 2 games for his
questionable gesture towards Rangers’ forward Sean Avery. He also was
suspended for 8 games last year for a hit on Chicago’s Brent Seabrook
The 5’11, 194 lb blueliner joined the Islanders this season from Anaheim
after the Ducks balked at paying him his arbitration award of 1 year and $3.25
million. In his career, the 26 year old has played in 286
games, picking up 20 goals, 98 assists, and 282 PIMS.
Wisniewski will join the Habs in Tampa Bay following tonight’s game in
Washington.
Cap Effects:
This deal now pushes the Habs into using LTIR for Andrei Markov, though it
will still take 33 days before the team receives a credit for it. This is
because it will take that long to eliminate the cap space that the Habs have
accrued to this point in the season. Should the team assign one of their
blueliners down in the coming days, that 33 days will increase, though they
still will be into LTIR in February.
Using LTIR (to the end of the season) means that a team will finish the season with exactly $0.00 in cap
space. Thus, any bonuses earned by Yannick Weber or Lars Eller will push
the Habs over the cap next year, earning them a cap penalty for the 2nd straight
season.