The Islanders have deemed themselves at least soft buyers heading into the deadline after their pickups of Carson Soucy and Ondřej Palát before the Olympic break. One thing they don’t have a bevy of is cap space. Their roughly $6MM is enough to wheel and deal on deadline day, but that’s with the club using a good deal of long-term injured reserve placements.
One option the club has pursued this season to continue shuffling the deck is moving on from the remainder of Anthony Duclair‘s contract, according to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. Pagnotta writes that dealing Duclair is something they’ve been open to all season, but with the winger holding a full no-trade clause, their options will be limited if they have any at all.
It’s not hard to see why the Islanders would be willing to part ways with Duclair. He’s rebounded somewhat with a 12-14–26 scoring line in 54 games this year, but he’s still performing below his career average and is coming off a disastrous first year on Long Island last season, derailed by an early-season leg injury.
With Duclair churning out at least capable third-line scoring numbers this season, though, his $3.5MM cap hit through 2027-28 suddenly becomes more palatable to potential suitors. The 6’0″ lefty has been prone to some wild year-to-year swings in his career, but is still a 20-goal, 42-point man on average per 82 games.
For a team that just added Palát through next season and is looking to get young center Calum Ritchie more ice time moving forward, the Isles could stand to drop a forward with term. They don’t have many pending UFAs up front, and the ones they do, Anders Lee and Jean-Gabriel Pageau, are well-respected veterans they likely have at least some interest in retaining – especially Lee, their captain who’s spent all 14 of his NHL seasons with the club.
Of course, it all depends on Duclair being amenable to a specific change of scenery. If not, they’ll have to wait until the summer when his NTC downgrades to a 16-team no-trade list on July 1 to open up more options.
That may be the better move anyway. The Isles have a 66.3% shot at ending up in the playoff picture (per MoneyPuck), but won’t get there because of an excess of scoring. Duclair’s 12 goals are tied for seventh on the team, and his 26 points are sixth. That’s valuable production for a team scoring 2.86 goals per game, 22nd in the league.
Mathieu Darche has to make the Islanders alot younger, Lamoriello was sleeping at the wheel for quite awhile.