The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t taking part in the playoffs plus those eliminated in the first round. Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at the Islanders.
Things were optimistic for the Isles heading into 2024-25 after adding Anthony Duclair in free agency to bolster the top line and having a full season of Patrick Roy behind the bench as head coach. Things went awry almost instantly out of the gate, though, and injuries and other factors ended the Isles’ brief postseason streak at two years. After flopping around in mushy middle territory since back-to-back Eastern Conference Final appearances several years ago, a front-office shakeup resulted from this year’s disappointments with general manager Lou Lamoriello’s contract not being renewed. That’s the leadoff subject in this checklist as the Isles attempt to use this summer to rediscover their identity and direction.
Reshape The Front Office
After seven years and a pair of General Manager of the Year awards, the Lamoriello era is over on the Island. While the 82-year-old leaves New York with some solid building blocks, he’s also saddled them with some ill-advised long-term contracts for depth players that quickly appear headed for buyouts or waivers (Pierre Engvall, Scott Mayfield). They’re now looking for a new face – or two – to fill their GM and president of hockey operations roles.
Per multiple reports, they’ve been connected to various candidates but have lost out on their two preferred ones. Hall-of-Fame executive Ken Holland would have been a similarly-minded hire to Lamoriello’s in 2018, but he spurned the Islanders’ interest to take over the Kings’ GM vacancy. Canadiens executive VP of hockey operations Jeff Gorton declined to speak with the Islanders when they called Montreal about interviewing him.
There are more than enough candidates to choose from in their absence. Regarding NHL GM experience, they interviewed former Blue Jackets executive Jarmo Kekäläinen. They are also said to be interested in L.A. senior adviser Marc Bergevin, who ended up being second fiddle to Holland in the Kings’ search for a new GM. Neither has the track record of managing contenders that Holland has nor the expert drafting record Gorton boasts. Still, they’ve navigated similar situations to what the Isles find themselves in now. Bergevin helped some goalie-reliant Habs teams in the mid-2010s make deep playoff runs and even got them to a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2021. Kekäläinen also built Columbus into a consistent playoff contender in the late 2010s, the only time they’ve qualified for the postseason in consecutive seasons.
More under-the-radar options they’ve interviewed include Lightning assistant GM Mathieu Darche and Devils AGM Kate Madigan. Both would be first-time GMs at the NHL level. It would be a tad surprising to see them go in those directions, considering the NHL experience their first choices for the position had. But the former has been in GM conversations for years and is the most appealing first-time target.
Whatever the choice is, they’ve got to make it before the draft, where they hold the first overall pick for the first time since selecting John Tavares in 2009 after winning the lottery. While 2025 is a weaker draft, the Isles’ next GM is getting a significant jumpstart to a long-lagging prospect pool that also received a lovely parting gift from Lamoriello in the form of Avalanche first-rounder Calum Ritchie in this year’s Brock Nelson deadline deal.
Get Ilya Sorokin More Help
Some eyebrows raised when the Isles signed a then-35-year-old Semyon Varlamov to a four-year, $11MM deal two summers ago to continue as countryman Ilya Sorokin’s backup. While the veteran has provided the Isles some solid goaltending in his tenure there, concerns about giving him such a lengthy commitment emerged aggressively this season.
Varlamov’s season ended in December after undergoing a knee procedure. While he anticipates being ready for training camp in the fall, he struggled to a .889 SV% and 3-4-3 record in 10 starts before going under the knife. That resulted in Sorokin making 55-plus starts for the third straight year, during which his numbers have steadily declined. It’s clear he needs more rest, and it’s becoming even more clear that Varlamov can no longer help him with that.
Entering this year, Varlamov had logged a SV% above .910 in five consecutive campaigns. With only two years left at a $2.75MM cap hit, he’d draw significant trade interest if the Islanders opted to shop him amid a relatively weak UFA market. That trade could look like a backup-for-backup swap that allows the Isles to get someone more comfortable making 30 starts behind Sorokin, or it could be a cap dump that will enable them to hedge their bets on one of the few UFA options capable of shouldering that workload.
Shoring up their minor-league depth should be a priority, too. AHL Bridgeport has iced some highly underwhelming rosters over the past few years, including between the pipes. A high-end No. 3 option to complement Varlamov and allow Sorokin not to increase his workload if the former gets injured could also be another solution here.
Make Decisions On Defense
The Islanders only have three defensemen signed to one-way deals for next season. One of those is Mayfield, who may not even be in the opening night lineup. That leaves Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock as the only current certainties for 2025-26.
The most pressing decisions are regarding the length of deals to pursue with pending restricted free agents Noah Dobson and Alexander Romanov. The former is still just 25 and erupted for a 70-point campaign last year but took a significant step back in 2024-25. Could that be enough to convince the Isles’ new GM to pursue another bridge agreement and risk losing him in unrestricted free agency in just a few years? It seems likely – his profile likely commands him at least $8.5MM per season on a max-term extension. The Islanders’ appetite to dole that out after a season in which he had 39 points and a -16 rating in 71 games probably isn’t very strong. If they opt to select defenseman Matthew Schaefer first overall, Dobson could become expendable altogether and net them a trade return that allows them to put more work into reshaping their forward group.
They’d be more amenable to a long-term deal at a mid-range cap hit with Romanov, who’s emerged as a solid top-four complementary piece on the Island. Injuries limited him to 64 games this year but he managed 20 points for a career-high 0.31 points per game mark while averaging over 22 minutes per game and leading the club with 165 blocked shots. Now fully proven as a stable partner for Dobson moving forward, he’ll get a definite raise on his current $2.5MM cap hit.
Their other RFAs on the back end are Adam Boqvist and Scott Perunovich, a pair of puck-moving in-season pickups. Qualifying offers for either one are uncertain, but Boqvist is more likely to stick around. The 2018 No. 8 overall pick found more stable footing in New York after they claimed him off waivers from the Panthers, finishing the year with eight points in 17 games in bottom-pairing minutes and fringe power-play usage. He could stick around as a No. 6/7 option to help out the Islanders’ beleaguered goal production. Perunovich, meanwhile, suited up just 11 times after being acquired from the Blues in January. That doesn’t bode well for his chances of sticking around on the NHL roster as the Isles look to reload with more established names.
It could be they decide both Boqvist and Perunovich are expendable if they reach an extension with pending UFA Tony DeAngelo. The much-maligned offensive rearguard came over from Russia midseason to fill the void left by injuries to Dobson and Pulock and provided solid offense from the point, finishing the year with 19 points and a -11 rating in 35 games. He certainly won’t see over 23 minutes per game next year, but he got a larger sample than either Boqvist or Perunovich and is more likely than either to start next year as the No. 3 righty behind Dobson and Pulock.
Restart Kyle Palmieri Extension Talks
The Isles didn’t move Palmieri at the trade deadline, mostly because they had an extension mostly in place. With Lamoriello gone and no deal signed, Palmieri’s next deal plunges into uncertainty. The 34-year-old has played 82 games in back-to-back years and finished third on the team in scoring with 24 goals and 48 points this season. Still a very good middle-six scorer, can the incoming GM bring him back at a slight discount compared to his current $5MM cap hit?
Doing so would give them the flexibility to move on from some less desirable contracts, namely Engvall’s and Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s, as they look to reload their forward group. That forward corps could include a name like James Hagens or Michael Misa on opening night next year, depending on how they use their top pick, making cap flexibility even more attractive to build around one of them while they’re still on their entry-level deals.
Regardless of all that, Palmieri’s the type of player the Isles should look to retain on a short-term deal if they’re serious about quickly reloading for next season. He’s been remarkably consistent over his four full years on the Island – his 24-24–48 scoring line actually matched his 82-game average during his New York tenure. He’s more of a known commodity to them than UFA replacements that would cost the same (or even more) for similar rates of scoring production.
Image courtesy of Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images.