#4: New York Islanders
Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
The New York Islanders are coming off an impressive season that saw them finish in third place in the Metropolitan Division with a 47-28-7 record. The Washington Capitals beat them in the first round of the playoffs in seven games. Since being beaten, despite having about $9,000,000 of cap space, they haven’t really done anything to improve other than re-sign an RFA (Anders Lee) and sign a bargain back up goalie (Thomas Greiss).
That said, they’re a curious team in that I don’t see any huge needs for them. Their top nine forwards are pretty much set in stone. They have a very impressive forward group. I think they could go after a few depth guys or maybe sign a defenseman. Other than that, I don’t see the Islanders getting overly involved in free agency.
I think they really need to add some more size to their blue line because their lack of size was exploited numerous times. The Washington Capitals picked on them all season long. This is a really good possession team that has some physical forwards. They are still a very dangerous team, but every other team in the Metropolitan Division has passed them, IMO.
Next: #3: Black And Gold