Isles on deadline day: Rolston/Mottau to BOS for Riendeau/Cantin

Let's call it a case of addition by subtraction.

On a generally quiet deadline day for the league as a whole, Garth Snow found a way to get two of the biggest albatrosses on the team off of the books and away from the organization. Rolston, who had been putting up abysmal numbers this year and at many points seemed to not care, cleared waivers yesterday. Teams had been showing interest, but nobody picked up the tab. However, close to the 3:00 deadline, Garth Snow managed to finagle a deal out of the defending Cup champions, and sent both Rolston and Mike Mottau to Massachusetts. The Islanders received some much needed AHL depth to their team in return in forward Yannick Riendeau and defenseman Marc Cantin. Both undrafted players playing in Boston's ECHL and AHL affiliates this season, they will undoubtedly help provide some jump to the Sound Tigers' playoff run this year. Riendeau tore up the QMJHL in his last year of juniors but never really found his way into the NHL, and Cantin has spent time before with former Casey Cizikas on the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors. The bottom line of this trade was getting rid of two players who were bringing down the team with their less than adequate play. While there's not much positive one can say about Rolston, best wishes to Mike Mottau to finding a role in his home state of Massachusetts. By all accounts, Mike is a wonderful person to be around and a great human being. Best wishes on helping Boston raise the Stanley Cup again.

Surprisingly, P.A. Parenteau was not moved and most rumblings seem to indicate he will eventually re-sign with the Islanders. He may have been shopped, but clearly the return was not high enough to justify a trade. Evgeni Nabokov was also thought by many to be on his way out but seems to still be working on a possible deal with the Islanders to stay.

In addition, this deal also saves the Islanders $1.2m in cap space, not that it was needed. The Islanders are firmly planted at the bottom of the pack in terms of salary. This should leave absolutely no excuse for Snow not to re-sign P.A. Parenteau. Nabokov, should he choose to stay, should also make a decent payday with this removal of salary which was coming this offseason regardless.

Of all the impending free agents people thought the Islanders would move including Milan Jurcina and Mark Eaton, the least expected were. Clearly, the asking price for these players was not high enough for Snow's liking, and he declined the deals presented to him.