My Thoughts On The Islanders

Team: 2021-22 New York Islanders

Initial Creation Date: Aug. 31, 2021

Published: Aug. 31, 2021

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

I am not an Islanders fan, but here are some my thoughts as a neutral:
- Palmieri signs exactly same contract as Saad. Their career numbers are pretty much identical so I think that $4.5 x 5 years is reasonable.
- Sorokin has reportedly signed $4M x 3 years.
- Beauvillier has reportedly signed $4.15M x 3 years.
- Cizikas has reportedly signed $2.5M x 6 years.
- I'd imagine that Parise gets league minimum ($750K), just like Spezza in Toronto.
- Not a lot of cap space left. Nobody is going to take on Komarov or Hickey unless Islanders attach picks and prospects. They can be HS or buried in minors for extra cap relief.
- Dermott is a cheap alternative that can play with Mayfield. He has great underlying numbers and has done well playing 17 minutes a night in Toronto. Third round pick should be enough to get him.
- Salo is an interesting prospect that will get games this season. He is waiver exempt, so I think it is likely he starts in the AHL to acclimatize to the NA game before he gets called up.
- Will have almost $20M in cap space next offseason ($82.5M ceiling) to resign Pulock, Clutterbuck and Dobson as well as potentially finding a 3LW and defense partner to Dobson.

Let's say Pulock gets around $7.5M x 8 years, Clutterbuck who will be 34 years old gets $1.5M x 2 years (same as Matt Martin is on now) and Dobson gets bridged around $3M to $3.5M x 3 years. Islanders will be left with around $7.5M to find 3LW, defense partner to Dobson and some depth. three depth players at league minimum ($750K) is $2.25M. So a partner for Dobson and 3LW will have to come in at a combined cost of $5.25M, but if they move Panik, they will have around $6.5M to work with. Salo could be that partner if everything works out perfectly and Bellows could slot in on the 3LW as well. The extra cap space could be saved for when Barzal, Wahlström, Mayfield and Dermott have to be resigned in 2 years time. The combination of Varlamov's $5M expiring and the cap ceiling likely increasing by another $1M to a total of $83.5M should be enough to resign Barzal long term and Wahlström on a bridge. I can see the Islanders resigning Mayfield at that point and hopefully Bolduc is a 3rd pairing defenseman that can step in and replace Dermott. This would leave the Islanders comfortable with enough cap space to sign a backup goaltender.

To summarize, I think the Islanders have set themselves up to be very competitive for at least another 3 years, potentially even longer if they can manage to find good replacements for Bailey, Clutterbuck and Martin once those contracts expire. Aatu Räty and Ruslan Iskhakov are interesting prospects that potentially could feature in the top nine at that point to replace Bailey. As for Martin and Clutterbuck, it will be hard to find players that bring what they do, but I think it is an easier task to do that than getting a #1C, top 4 defenseman or a starting goalie etc. Lou and Trotz have done a phenomenal job here.