It was, quite literally, addition by subtraction.
Before the Islanders submitted their list of protected players for Wednesday’s expansion draft for the Seattle Kraken — which will become public on Sunday — they also gained needed salary-cap space by dealing Andrew Ladd to the Coyotes on Saturday along with a second-round pick in next weekend’s NHL entry draft, a conditional second-round pick in 2022 and a conditional third-round pick in 2023.
They also re-signed defenseman Andy Greene to a one-year deal with a cap charge of $750,000. He will fulfill the expansion draft requirement for the Islanders to expose at least one defenseman under contract for next season, allowing them to protect their top-pair of Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech along with Scott Mayfield, who has two seasons remaining on a team-friendly five-year, $7.