Islanders Notes: Palmieri, Barzal, Romanov, DeAngelo

With their season now over, Islanders players met the media for the last time before heading off for their respective offseasons.  Among those was winger Kyle Palmieri, whose season ended back in November when he tore his ACL (but stayed on the ice to set up a goal before exiting the game).  He noted to media in attendance, including team reporter Cory Wright, that he should be able to have a pretty normal summer in terms of offseason preparation since the injury is healing well.  Palmieri had a pretty productive year in limited action, picking up six goals and 12 assists in 25 games.  He’ll enter the final year of his contract next season with a $4.75MM cap charge.

More from clean-out day for the Isles:

• In his interview (video link), Mathew Barzal indicated that he was still working through things related to the injury he sustained last February that ended his year prematurely. That said, he noted that it shouldn’t be cause for concern but rather that it’s an injury that often takes a year or two to fully recover from.  Despite playing through that, Barzal still led the team in scoring with 19 goals and 53 assists in 81 games.  He added that head coach Peter DeBoer told him the plan moving forward is to move him back to center full-time; he has spent big chunks of the last three seasons on the wing.
• It turns out that defenseman Alexander Romanov was indeed close to returning. As noted by team reporter Luca Dallasta, the blueliner indicated that he probably would have been able to suit up to start the playoffs had New York made it there.  The 26-year-old was limited to just 15 games this season due to a shoulder injury sustained in mid-November that ultimately required surgery.  He had one assist along with 31 hits and 31 blocks and should return to being part of their top four on the back end next season.
• Defenseman Tony DeAngelo is slated to reach unrestricted free agency this summer but made it clear in his interview (video link) that he’s hoping to remain for a third season with the team. This was his first full campaign with the Islanders and it was a productive one.  He led their defense in scoring with 35 points in 76 games while averaging more than 19 minutes per night of playing time, a solid return on a $1.75MM price tag.  AFP Analytics projects a modest raise to $2.132MM but it wouldn’t be surprising to see DeAngelo try to land a multi-year commitment.