The New York Islanders have managed to clear significant cap space this offseason, but have only finalized a couple of moves since then. While the team has faced some key losses, like Jordan Eberle and Nick Leddy moving to new teams, the Islanders haven’t actually made any major additions to the lineup.
As I mentioned in a previous article, the Islanders could probably still spend up to another $2 or $2.5 million, once you factor in the LTIR relief that Johnny Boychuk’s contract could provide. This number would come after projected deals for Anthony Beauvillier, Casey Cizikas, Kyle Palmieri, Zach Parise, Ilya Sorokin and Travis Zajac, and for a more in-depth look at the team’s potential cap situation, you can read about it here.
As of now, here’s a look at the team’s possible lineup for next season:
Anders Lee - Mathew Barzal - Josh Bailey
Anthony Beauvillier - Brock Nelson - Kyle Palmieri
Zach Parise - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Oliver Wahlstrom
Matt Martin - Casey Cizikas - Cal Clutterbuck
Spare Options: Richard Panik, Travis Zajac, Leo Komarov, Ross Johnston
Adam Pelech - Ryan Pulock
Andy Greene - Scott Mayfield
Sebastian Aho/Thomas Hickey - Noah Dobson
Semyon Varlamov
Ilya Sorokin
While Jordan Eberle and Nick Leddy were both manageable and even somewhat necessary losses, the team has to find a way to replace them.
Up front, even though Anders Lee returning offsets the loss of Jordan Eberle, the team still needs to improve their scoring in order to take the next step. While they have pretty strong forward depth overall, the top-six just isn’t good enough.
The team has been tied to Vladimir Tarasenko and I still think it would be a deal that makes a lot of sense. Looking at the Islanders’ lineup and cap situation, there would almost surely have to be a roster player going back the other way and some salary retention as well, in order to make a deal work. Whether it’s Tarasenko or someone else though, the Islanders do need to make a big addition up front. Scoring has been an issue for a while and if the team tries to contend while once again not adding a top forward, they may not be able to get any deeper in the playoffs.
On the blue line, the team also can’t go with an inexperienced bottom pairing and potentially even use Andy Greene in the top-four. I had pointed out Mattias Ekholm as a potential trade target, but there are many other options and again, they'd probably need to find a way to clear more cap space to make the move. No matter who they end up adding, however, we can expect that there will be an addition to the left side of the team’s top-four group, likely being someone with a manageable cap hit and not a ton of term remaining.
The Islanders are still in a window to contend right now but in order to take the next step, they need to add a top forward, as well as a top-four defenseman. Whether those moves come this offseason or potentially partway into the season, we can expect the team will make some key additions to load up for another deep playoff run.
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Do you expect the Islanders to add both a top forward and a top-four defenseman?
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