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Islanders Won’t Consider Trading Mathew Barzal, Bo Horvat

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Ahead of the draft in which they hold the No. 1 overall pick, the Islanders have made it known that top forwards Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat will not be traded, reports Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. LeBrun adds that new general manager Mathieu Darche has gone as far as to inform both players directly that their future on Long Island remains stable.

While the Isles’ front office change signaled a willingness for a new organizational approach, the prospects surrounding a full retool/rebuild took a big hit when New York won the draft lottery to move up from 10th to first overall. Doing so gives them an incredibly valuable stepping stone toward their next period of sustained playoff contention without needing to trade away one of their highest-valued players to acquire that type of asset as they would have had to do otherwise.

It would have been incredibly unwise to trade Barzal at this stage anyway. The 28-year-old’s value is likely at a low point after an injury-plagued season, limiting him to just a 9-11–20 scoring line in 30 games. Even on a per-game basis, it was the worst offensive showing of his eight-year run as a full-time NHLer. He still has six years left on his contract at a $9.15MM cap hit with a 22-team no-trade list. Considering he had an All-Star campaign with 80 points in 80 games while averaging over 20 minutes per night just one season ago, there’s legitimate reason to believe an offseason’s worth of rest provides the reset Barzal needs to get back to that level of production.

Trading Horvat, their leading scorer in 2024-25, would have been similarly surprising. He doesn’t have Barzal’s offensive upside but remains a high-end piece, even if he would be better suited as a second-line option on a championship contender compared to the No. 1 center honors he holds on Long Island. He’s scored 141 points in 192 games since being acquired from the Canucks ahead of the 2023 trade deadline and remains one of the league’s best faceoff men, coming off a career-high 58.2 FOW% in 2024-25. Like Barzal, Horvat is signed through the 2030-31 season.

As such, both will remain foundational pieces of the Isles’ forward group as they look to improve by refreshing their blue line and secondary scoring options. Barzal is a natural center but has shifted to Horvat’s wing frequently since the latter’s acquisition. Nonetheless, head coach Patrick Roy might do well to shift Barzal back to center to give them two legitimate top-six pivots in an effort to revitalize a New York offense that ranked 27th in the league last season.

If the Islanders do trade from their forward group to get younger and open up cap space, expect it to be a name like Jean-Gabriel Pageau. The 32-year-old center is entering the final season of his contract at a $5MM cap hit and has become expendable after the Isles landed their new top prospect (for now) in 2023 first-rounder Calum Ritchie, a strong candidate to start next year as their third-line middleman, from the Avalanche in this season’s Brock Nelson deal.

Darche Has Told Horvat And Barzal They're Not Being Traded

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With the Islanders missing the playoffs this season, some wondered if new GM Mathieu Darche might look to make a big shakeup on the trade front.  If he does, their two top forwards won’t be involved.  In his latest column for The Athletic (subscription link), Pierre LeBrun relays that Darche has told forwards Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal that they will not be moved this summer.  Horvat would have been an intriguing name on the center market while Barzal, who has been more of a winger lately but is a natural middleman himself, also would have drawn a lot of interest but instead, they’ll remain the focal points of a New York group that Darche feels can get back into the playoff mix next season.

Free Agent Focus: New York Islanders

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Free agency is now under a month away, and teams are looking ahead to when it opens. There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July, while many teams also have key restricted free agents to re-sign. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Islanders.

Key Restricted Free Agents

D Noah Dobson – Dobson’s second trip through restricted free agency should be interesting. After scoring 10 goals and 70 points in 79 games during the 2023-24 season, Dobson could only muster 10 goals and 39 points in 71 games this past season, being severely limited by injuries. Dobson’s name had popped up in a few trade rumors during the regular season, and those were exacerbated when he changed his representation in mid-February. Given the new regime change in the Islanders’ front office, it’s hard to speculate if they’ll give Dobson a short-term deal, lock him up long-term as the team’s top defenseman, or gauge his value on the trade market.

F Simon Holmström – Holmström continues to grow as a quality scorer for the Islanders. He increased his pace this past season, going from 15 goals and 25 points in 2023-24 to 20 goals and 45 points in 2024-25. Those numbers were good for fourth on the team in scoring, and the Islanders hope that Holmström can continue his upward trajectory and get into the 25 to 30-goal range in 2025-26. Depending on the new front office’s aggression this offseason, Holmström could be a sneaky winger to retain on a long-term contract for a lower price point than many of his peers on Long Island.

D Alexander Romanov – Assuming the Islanders re-sign Dobson for next season, they’ll already have six defensemen on the active roster without Romanov. Like Dobson, Romanov’s 2024-25 campaign was limited by injuries, managing fewer than 70 games for the first time since his rookie campaign. He maintained a quality scoring pace, but his defensive metrics declined significantly this past season, which could make Romanov a trade piece this summer. The Islanders shouldn’t expect to get a top-15 selection in return (like they gave up to acquire him), but it could provide them an avenue to re-stock the prospect cupboard.

Other RFAs: F Maxim Tsyplakov, F Marc Gatcomb, D Scott Perunovich, F Liam Foudy, F Ruslan Iskhakov, F Adam Beckman, D Samuel Bolduc, D Travis Mitchell, D Aidan Fulp

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

D Tony DeAngelo – Unlike the situation regarding their restricted free agents, the Islanders don’t have much to worry about regarding their pending unrestricted free agents. DeAngelo is the only one of note after he was brought in mid-season to help the Islanders defensive core recover from a slew of injuries. The offensive-minded defenseman stayed true to form for the Islanders, posting four goals and 19 points in 35 games, eating more than 23 minutes of ice time per game, and posting some of the worst defensive metrics on the team. Given his apparent shortcomings in the defensive zone, it’s unlikely the Islanders pursue an extended relationship with DeAngelo.

Other UFAs: F Hudson Fasching, F Matt Martin, D Mike Reilly, F Julien Gauthier, F Fredrik Karlström, F Tyce Thompson, D Grant Hutton, G Jakub Skarek

Projected Cap Space

Unfortunately, the Islanders will only have approximately $21MM to spend this offseason, which should get used to retain their crop of restricted free agents. It would behoove Mathieu Darche and his new administration to trade Jean-Gabriel Pageau and his $5MM salary this summer, opening up more financial flexibility for other additions. The Islanders have the benefit of making the first-overall pick of the 2025 NHL Draft, so they’ll get a top player regardless, but this team has more holes to fill than one player can fix.

Contract information courtesy of PuckPedia.

Photo courtesy of Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images.

Islanders Hire Ray Bennett, Bob Boughner As Assistant Coaches

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The Islanders announced Monday they’re hiring veteran coaches Ray Bennett and Bob Boughner to head coach Patrick Roy’s staff as assistants.

The moves complete the first staff changes under new general manager Mathieu Darche. New York created the two vacancies when they relieved Tommy Albelin and John MacLean of their duties over a week ago.

Albelin and MacLean were the Islanders’ primary special teams coaches. It’s a fair assumption that Bennett and Boughner will replace their roles directly, with the former now overseeing New York’s power play and the latter overseeing their penalty kill.

Bennett’s hiring means the 62-year-old will be on an NHL bench for a 25th season. He spent the last eight years with the Avalanche as their power play coach. Colorado relieved him of his duties quickly following their first-round playoff loss to the Stars.

He certainly had loads more firepower to work with in Denver than he will on Long Island, at least to start, but Bennett’s recent track record is strong. Colorado’s 23.0% success rate on the power play since Bennett took it over in 2017-18 is fifth in the league, fourth if you don’t consider Utah’s 24.2% clip last year as a separate franchise from the Coyotes.

Bennett will now look to help jumpstart an Islanders power play that finished 31st in the league last year under MacLean’s watch at just 12.6%. Before his eight-year run with the Avs, Bennett was on the Kings’ staff from 1999 to 2006 and then with the Blues from 2007 to 2017.

Boughner, eight years Bennett’s junior, doesn’t have as lengthy of an NHL track record but has held two head coaching roles, first with the Panthers in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons and again with the Sharks for parts of three seasons from 2019 to 2022. Since being let go by San Jose in the 2022 offseason, he worked on the Red Wings’ staff as their top assistant, managing their defense and penalty kill. He was fired in Detroit along with head coach Derek Lalonde in December.

His last stop didn’t see him fare particularly well. Detroit’s penalty kill was a bottom-10 unit over Boughner’s tenure, but he was given the unenviable task of managing an undermanned group on a club exiting a rebuild. But when he was running the Sharks’ penalty kill in his two-year run as an assistant in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 campaigns, they were still middle-of-the-pack with an 80.6% success rate.

The changes were necessary and foreseeable ones to jumpstart both special teams units, which, along with poor finishing talent, stripped away any hope of a playoff spot for the Isles last season. They were a slightly above-average possession team at even-strength, though, so Darche will hope some improved special teams coaching will gel well with the returning Roy and assistant Benoit Desrosiers in helping the club get back to relevance in 2025-26.

Islanders Continue To Lean Toward Matthew Schaefer At First Overall

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When the Islanders won the draft lottery to move up from 10th to first overall in the 2025 draft, there was immediate speculation they might draft Long Island native James Hagens with the pick. The 5’11”, 185-lb center was the consensus first-overall pick at the beginning of the season.

Despite having a point-per-game freshman season at Boston College, though, he slipped down draft boards throughout the year. That was partly due to concerns about his size and how much he can truly pop offensively in the NHL, but also because other names simply displayed potential that surpassed his.

One of those names is defenseman Matthew Schaefer. Despite sustaining a season-ending collarbone injury at the World Juniors, the 6’2″ lefty was the consensus top prospect in the draft by the time the December tournament rolled around. Even while sitting on the shelf, his stock hasn’t dipped.

Very few public scouts have Schaefer ranked behind names like Hagens or OHL Saginaw star forward Michael Misa, and NHL Central Scouting labeled him the best North American skater in the class in their final rankings. Schaefer was healthy enough to participate in last week’s draft combine and showed out well enough to reaffirm the near-universal belief he’ll go off the board to the Islanders at No. 1 overall, Scott Wheeler of The Athletic relays.

The Islanders interviewed both Hagens and Misa at the combine as well, likely rounding out the trio of players they’re exclusively considering with the selection. However, the sense following the combine is that Schaefer remains a clear favorite and that “it would come as a bit of a surprise” if he isn’t the pick, Wheeler wrote.

Schaefer is one of the youngest players in the class – he doesn’t turn 18 until Sep. 5 – and hasn’t played organized hockey in nearly six months. That obviously works against his chances of being on the Isles’ opening night roster in the fall, but he did dominate with 22 points and a +21 rating in 17 games for OHL Erie to begin the campaign.

Islanders' Duclair Expected To Be Ready For Training Camp

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After being limited by injuries through much of the 2024-25 campaign, New York Islanders forward Anthony Duclair took a leave of absence from the team for the remaining eight games of the regular season due to a relatively public conflict with head coach Patrick Roy.

Darche went on to say that he’s hopeful Duclair will be ready for training camp in September. Regardless of his relationship with Roy, the Islanders’ front office will be expecting more from Duclair next season after scoring four goals and 11 points in 44 games shortly following a four-year, $14MM agreement with New York on the free agent market.

[SOURCE LINK]

Islanders Sign Kyle Palmieri, Adam Boqvist To Extensions

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The Islanders announced they signed pending UFA winger Kyle Palmieri and RFA defenseman Adam Boqvist to two-year and one-year contract extensions, respectively. Boqvist’s deal carries a cap hit of $850K, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Palmieri’s is worth $4.75MM per season for a total value of $9.5MM, Friedman adds. His deal also includes a full no-trade clause in 2025-26 and a 16-team no-trade list in 2026-27, according to PuckPedia.

The two signings are the first of general manager Mathieu Darche’s tenure after they made his hiring official one week ago, succeeding Lou Lamoriello. Lamoriello had held extension talks with both players before the Islanders announced he’d been let go. They hit pause while the organization conducted its GM search, but it appears they were high on Darche’s list to get across the finish line in his first several days on the job.

Palmieri, 34, has spent parts of five seasons on Long Island and will look to extend that number to seven with this new deal. Initially acquired from the Devils at the 2021 trade deadline, he spent about a month testing free agency the following summer before returning to New York on a four-year, $20MM contract.

It was an eye-raising commitment at the time, especially for a player who finished the regular season with just four points in 17 games after his acquisition. It largely worked out in the end, though. Palmieri returned to his ways as a consistent 20-goal winger, putting himself on pace for the mark in his last three seasons with the Isles. He hasn’t missed a game since the 2022-23 campaign and even tied his career-high 30 goals one year ago. He followed that up with a 24-goal, 48-point showing this season, placing him third on the Islanders in scoring and 14th among pending unrestricted free agents.

That makes his price tag a smart one for his relatively projectable goal-scoring touch, although the Islanders would presumably like to decrease his deployment from the 18:31 per game he hit last season, a career high. While a known commodity offensively, he’s never been particularly adept away from the puck, and those concerns perhaps overshadowed his decent production in 2024-25. His -17 rating was a team-low and a career-low. The Islanders also allowed 30.24 shots per 60 minutes with Palmieri on the ice at 5-on-5, the worst figure of any New York skater with at least 200 minutes played, per Natural Stat Trick.

Palmieri should still be able to hover around the 20-goal mark in slightly decreased usage to limit his defensive drawbacks, particularly if Darche’s roster retooling gives him a two-way, playmaking center to partner with lower in the lineup. The new deal is a slight pay cut from his previous $5MM cap hit, a notable factor in the Islanders’ ability to spend this offseason amid the largest year-to-year salary cap jump in history.

As for Boqvist, he lands some stability after a tumultuous 2024-25 campaign. The 2018 eighth overall pick’s offseason began on a sour note when he was bought out by the Blue Jackets with one year remaining on a three-year, $7.8MM contract. He landed with the Panthers on a league-minimum contract to play with his brother, Jesper Boqvist, but managed only 18 appearances in the first four months of the campaign before ending up on waivers.

The Islanders, in need of puck-movers on the back end with injuries to Noah Dobson and Ryan Pulock, took a flyer on the 24-year-old Swede. He was a serviceable depth piece down the stretch, even rotating into the lineup at center at times, recording eight points and a minus-five rating in 17 games. The 6’0″ righty averaged 15:22 per game after the claim.

It remains to be seen whether Boqvist is in the opening night lineup next fall, but he’s likely done enough to at least earn a roster spot and stick around as a healthy extra if the Isles need more scoring punch on the power play. Like Palmieri, Boqvist’s defensive game has been his biggest wart at the NHL level. He’s never been particularly physical, and his play style doesn’t warrant being a good shot suppressor through pure puck possession, but he did have some decent 5-on-5 defense numbers in New York. His 25.99 shots against per 60 minutes ranked ninth on the club out of 26 skaters to play at least 200 minutes, and his 2.40 expected goals against per 60 ranked 10th.

Boqvist will be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent next summer. The Islanders still have nearly $21MM in cap space after today’s extensions, per PuckPedia.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

Darche: Very Unlikely Top Pick Is Traded

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New Islanders GM Mathieu Darche met with the media today (video link) for the first time since being hired.  While he addressed the coaching situation, he was also asked about the upcoming draft.  New York now holds the number one selection following a surprising victory at the draft lottery, leading some to wonder if they might be open to moving it to help get back into the playoff picture for next season.  While he stopped short of ruling out the idea outright, he did his best to pour cold water on the idea, saying that “Someone would have to really knock my socks off to trade that pick.”  The Isles have only picked first overall twice this century, goalie Rick DiPietro (2000) and John Tavares (2009).  Barring an offer Darche can’t refuse, they’ll be adding to that count in a little under a month.

Islanders’ Bo Horvat Out Four To Six Weeks With Ankle Injury

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New York Islanders assistant captain Bo Horvat sustained a lower-body injury in the sixth game of Team Canada’s run through the World Championship. The injury ended his tournament early and required Horvat to return immediately to New York for further evaluation. Now, just over a week after he sustained the injury on May 19th, it’s been revealed that Horvat’s recovery likely won’t take as long as previously thought. Freshly-hired Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche told the media that Horvat is expected to miss four-to-six weeks with injury and that the team has no concerns, per Ethan Sears of the New York Post.

This is great news for the Islanders, all things considered. Horvat was an integral piece of both the New York and Team Canada rosters this season. He chipped in 28 goals and led the team with 57 points in 81 games this season – operating as the clear top forward on an injury-riddled Islanders lineup. He continued to serve a pivotal role on Canada’s World Championship roster, and even ranked fifth on the team in scoring before his injury. Horvat earned that standing with four goals and eight points in just six games. The performance lapped his last international appearance in 2018, when he recorded seven points in 10 World Championship appearances.

This news sets Horvat up to be fully healthy by the start of the 2025-26 season. He’ll enter the year ready to resume his role as New York’s top center – hopefully this time bolstered by a wave of good health and improved prospects. Islanders’ star Mathew Barzal missed all but 30 games of last season due to battles with two separate injuries. Over the course of the year, New York also landed top center prospect Calum Ritchie, who made the Colorado Avalanche roster out of training camp last year, and the first-overall selection in the 2025 NHL Draft. All three options could support Horvat’s reign over the Islanders’ offense, and give the 30-year-old vet a chance to resign into a more defense-first role.

Islanders Fire Assistant Coaches John MacLean, Tommy Albelin

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Speaking to reporters this morning, new Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche confirmed the club will retain head coach Patrick Roy (via the team). The bench on Long Island will look different next season, though. Darche said the team won’t be bringing back assistant coaches John MacLean or Tommy Albelin, per Arthur Staple of The Athletic. The club has also relieved AHL Bridgeport head coach Rick Kowalsky of his duties, Darche said (according to Ethan Sears of the New York Post). It sounds like the entire minor-league coaching staff will be overhauled as well, per Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News.

Roy’s status for next season was briefly doubtful after the Isles parted ways with GM Lou Lamoriello last month. However, after Darche’s hire, it became clear that the appetite for a coaching change wasn’t strong, especially with three years remaining on Roy’s contract. The Islanders may have missed the playoffs in 2024-25, Roy’s first full season behind the bench, but the team’s possession metrics indicated he deserved another shot. Poor special teams and finishing luck were the primary limiting factors regarding New York’s record last season, not overall 5-on-5 possession play. Under Roy, the team controlled a slight majority of shot attempts, scoring chances, and high-danger chances at even strength.

It’s unsurprising to see new ancillary voices brought in as the franchise aims for a fresher identity under Darche. The Islanders’ combined special teams success rate of 84.8% was the worst in the league, ranking 31st out of 32 clubs in both power-play and penalty-kill conversion rate.

MacLean was in charge of that power play. He’s been with the club as an assistant since the 2022-23 season, and only the Ducks and Flyers have performed worse with the man advantage than the Isles’ 16.4% success rate over those three years. The 60-year-old oversaw the NHL debut of his son, Kyle MacLean, on Long Island during his tenure.

Albelin’s time in New York ends after just one season. The longtime NHL rearguard oversaw the Isles’ defense and penalty kill, the latter of which actually saw a 0.7% improvement from their league-worst finish in 2023-24. The team’s 5-on-5 defense also improved from year to year under Albelin, ranking 21st in the league in scoring chances allowed at 5-on-5 after placing 28th last year. Nonetheless, they’ll look to get a new name in there that both Darche and Roy agree upon.

The Bridgeport coaching staff overhaul comes across the wire as one of the least surprising news items of the offseason. The Baby Isles made history as the worst home team in AHL history in 2024-25 with just four wins in 36 games. Overall, Bridgeport finished last in the league by a huge margin with a 15-50-4-3 record. Kowalsky, who’s worked closely with the outgoing Lamoriello throughout his coaching career in the Isles and Devils organizations, also oversaw a last-place finish in their division in 2023-24.

As for the NHL staff, the only returning assistant will be Benoit Desrosiers, whom Roy worked closely with as head coach of the QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts. He joined the Isles’ staff shortly after Roy did, midway through the 2023-24 season.

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