The New York Islanders have made solid playoff runs in back-to-back years and they’re certainly looking to contend now. On top of that, the majority of their forward group, along with a portion of their defenders, are in their late 20s or early 30s, so they certainly have a window to compete with their current group.
As a result, the team may feel compelled to move assets in order to improve their team, as we saw with the additions of Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Andy Greene at the trade deadline. However, they have to be very careful about selling off any more draft picks going forward.
Over the last two years, the Islanders have certainly been lacking draft capital. This year, they didn’t have a pick in either of the first two rounds and in 2019, they lacked both a third-round pick and fourth-round pick. However, they got back a good return in the Devon Toews trade and have recouped their picks for the 2021 draft and also have an extra second-round pick for the 2022 draft now.
Now that they have the cap space and can avoid trading off picks in order to move a bad contract, the Islanders should try to retain future assets. Selling off picks for assets is part of competing but the issue is that the Islanders have an aging roster and as of now, the team's prospect pool isn’t overly deep.
Kieffer Bellows will likely be able to take on a role on the team’s third line in the near future, while Otto Koivula could be solid in the bottom-six as well. Simon Holmstrom is still very young, but his stats so far don’t necessarily point to him developing into a top-six forward and there’s a good chance he’ll be more of a middle-six winger. Oliver Wahlstrom was penned to be a safe bet to be a top-six forward, and he could certainly still develop into one, but I don’t think we can say that for sure at this point. The Islanders do have some quality prospects but the pool is still quite thin, especially when it comes to high-ceiling forwards.
This isn’t a problem right now, given that the Islanders do have a fairly well-rounded roster. However, they’ll need to be cautious in hanging on to their draft picks going forward, so they won’t have a problem in a few years, when some key players start to decline.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Are you in favour of the Islanders trading more draft picks for additions to their lineup?
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