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After a bit of excitement that the New York Islanders could possibly land Alex DeBrincat from the Ottawa Senators, the winger was traded to the Detroit Red Wings tonight.
A scoring winger at just 25 years old, DeBrincat was the kind of player the Islanders could've really used. He scored 27 goals and 66 points this past season, but even that was a down year for the forward.
For each of the last four or five summers now, it’s seemed like the Islanders were in contention to land a top forward, only to miss out. While Bo Horvat was the exception to this at the trade deadline, Lou Lamoriello has often struggled to acquire legitimate top talent in his tenure with the Islanders.
So far this offseason, it’s also clear the Islanders’ focus was on retaining their own players.
The team made some waves on July 1, re-signing all three of their notable pending UFAs in Scott Mayfield, Pierre Engvall and Semyon Varlamov to longer deals than expected, while also re-signing Ilya Sorokin to a monster eight-year extension.
I already spoke about each of the deals briefly on the day of signing but to recap: each of Mayfield, Engvall and Varlamov had their cap hit come in right as projected for other lengths, but all players also got far more term than expected.
I think there’s some upside to the Engvall deal and while the initial reaction was complete shock that he got the term he did, the more I think about it, the further I lean towards it being a worthwhile bet. He fit in quite well last season and while he really should not be used in a top-six role long-term, he could provide good value for his price, especially as the cap begins to rise. Engvall just turned 27 years old (so there’s no fear of decline anytime soon), and the worst-case scenario is he acts as a decent depth forward taking up a small amount of cap space.
The Mayfield and Varlamov deals are different stories. Deals carrying between a $2.5M and $3.5M cap hit can really only cause so much damage, but there’s still just no justification for either player getting the term they did. Giving extra term to keep a cap hit lower is certainly a reasonable strategy, but I can’t imagine teams were offering Mayfield five or six-year deals to begin with, let alone at more than a $3.5M cap hit for that length.
This was a free agency period where teams around the league really weren’t giving out long-term deals. As a result, I’m not buying that the Islanders were forced to go as long as they did with either player to prevent them from accepting a more attractive deal elsewhere.
Perhaps the biggest news though was Ilya Sorokin signing an eight-year extension. The netminder was the team’s MVP this past season, posting an outstanding .924 save percentage and finishing second in Vezina Trophy voting. The extension won’t kick in until next season, but it was absolutely key to get the netminer signed long-term.
I’ve released a contract analysis article for Sorokin’s deal at HockeyComparables.com, which can be viewed here:
- ARTICLE: Analyzing Ilya Sorokin’s eight-year extension
We also still don’t know whether Zach Parise will return, but that much seems to be kind of out of the team’s control. Meanwhile, Oliver Wahlstrom is due for a new deal, but that shouldn’t be an overly difficult contract to get done.
Despite the excess term given out on some of the contracts though, re-signing each player they did, especially Sorokin and Mayfield, was extremely important for the Islanders. So that in itself is a win.
That said, the Islanders are still basically the exact same group that just wasn’t good enough last season. While the team has taken steps to improve their forward group over the past few years, no additions so far have provided the impact the team was hoping for. Jean-Gabriel Pageau has been an excellent fit as a third-line center but he does have an offensive ceiling, while Kyle Palmieri is incredibly streaky and Bo Horvat was underwhelming since being acquired.
Now after missing out on DeBrincat, it’s anyone’s guess as to where the team goes from here.
The Islanders already made their cap-clearing move with the Josh Bailey trade and have virtually no cap space left, with Oliver Wahlstrom still in need of a contract as well. So it’s no secret that if the Islanders do make a major addition, it’s going to mean subtracting from their current roster. While that’s fine in the right circumstances, they’d have to be careful not to fill one hole by creating another.
It was reported by The Hockey News’ Stefen Rosner that Jean-Gabriel Pageau was a name that could’ve been going to Ottawa if a deal for DeBrincat did end up going through. To me though, that would’ve just left them with a hole down the middle. Casey Cizikas could possibly move up, or the Islanders could always run with Mathew Barzal, Bo Horvat and Brock Nelson all playing center instead, but that still just leaves the team thin on the wing and spreads out the offense between lines.
New York did sign Julien Gauthier and Karson Kuhlman to cheap contracts this week, but obviously, neither player is expected to provide much of an impact. It’s possible neither player even makes the team’s roster out of training camp.
So we’ll see what the team’s next move is. It’s still very early in the summer, and the Islanders have lots of time to improve. By all reports, it seems like they’re certainly trying to as well and DeBrincat would’ve been a significant addition.
But even after whiffing on DeBrincat, from here on out, the main storyline for the offseason will be whether the Islanders can manage to acquire a high-end winger and put themselves back into a better position to contend.
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OTHER ARTICLES FROM JULY
Islanders re-sign Sorokin, Mayfield, Engvall and Varlamov 
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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