Metropolitan Division Offseason: Winners and Losers

New York Islanders

Loser:

The New York Islanders have had a relatively quiet but also a strange off-season. With that said, having a quiet offseason does not dictate whether it’s a successful off-season. However, the Islanders, so far, are not a better team than they were last season. They’re slightly worse and that isn’t good for a team that is expected to compete for a Stanley Cup.

The Isles biggest loss was Jordan Eberle to the Seattle Kraken during the Expansion Draft. Jordan Eberle is a talented winger, something the Isles need. While he isn’t a superstar and hasn’t eclipsed the 20-goal plateau since 2017-2018, the Isles have done very little to replace him to this point. A season ago, Eberle scored 16 goals and added 17 assists in 55 games. Lou Lamoriello and the New York front-office also moved on from Nick Leddy and Andrew Ladd. In return, two of the biggest official moves, are the Isles adding Richard Panik to their roster and resigning Adam Pelech to an eight-year contract.

Being able to move Andrew Ladd’s contract is a win, but the team still currently has roughly $12 million in cap-space and they still need to negotiate terms for RFAs, Anthony Beauvillier and Ilya Sorokin. Reports also suggest that Kyle Palmieri will return and Zach Parise will join the roster. Those players will surely take a large chunk of that free cap-space.

With those additions, the Islanders are a very similar team to a year ago. They’re tough, solid defensively, underpowered offensively and well-coached. They are not much, if at all, better than they were in 2020-2021. But as the roster sits, right now, the Islanders are losers because a lot of these moves are not official and the current roster is simply not as good as the one from a season ago.