June 2, 2024 | 4:17pm ET
By Anthony LaRocco, TheFourthPeriod.com
POTENTIAL SUMMER TARGETS FOR THE ISLANDERS
Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello
NEW YORK, NY — The calendar has flipped to June and while that means in a couple of short weeks the Stanley Cup will be awarded to one of the now-three teams left standing in the Florida Panthers, Dallas Stars or the Edmonton Oilers, it also means that the NHL silly season is almost upon us.
With the 2024 NHL Draft being held in fabulous Las Vegas at the state-of-the-art Sphere now only 26 days away, the opening of the NHL Free Agency period opens just three days after on July 1. So, while the focus is still on the ice to determine who will hoist Lord Stanley, we aren’t far away from buyout windows and trades leading up to the NHL Draft, and everyone’s favorite, the free agent frenzy.
For New York Islanders fans, the off-season hasn’t truly begun, but GM Lou Lamoriello has been unusually active, signing the top European free agent in Maxim Tsyplakov on May 16 and then just nine days ago, in a surprising move, made a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks swapping first and second round selections with the Islanders picking up an additional second-round pick. It was an unusual trade in the sense that typically trades involving just draft picks occur on the draft floor, not a whole month prior.
The move with Chicago certainly fueled speculation that Lamoriello armed himself with an additional second-round pick to help shed a contract or two, likely in the form of Jean-Gabriel Pageau or captain Anders Lee.
According to our friends at CapFriendly, the Islanders will have $6,287,000 of cap space available, but when you remove forward Julien Gauthier, who’s currently on the roster and likely won’t be on the 23-man roster in October, it really gives Lamoriello just over $7 million to play with.
That cap number gives Lamoriello plenty to re-sign RFAs Simon Holmstrom and Kyle MacLean, but if he is to make a big addition to help this Islanders team get back to the level they were at during their back-to-back Conference Final appearances, he is going to have to shed a contract.
Moving Pageau’s $5M cap hit or Lee’s $7M cap hit, both with two-years left, would go a long way in helping retool the roster by injecting some more skill into the lineup.
With that said, let’s look at some potential targets available this off-season via UFA/Trades:
Free Agents Targets
Teuvo Teräväinen – With Don Wadell leaving for the Columbus Blue Jackets organization, new Interim GM Eric Tulsky will have his hands full as the Canes have many key free agents in need of new contracts, one of whom is this 29-year-old Finnish forward.
Teravainen is coming off a campaign in which he scored 25 goals and 53 points in 76 games. He isn’t a high-end sniper that most Islander fans have been clamoring for, but he’s a good facilitator and can score 25+ goals and 60+ points. He is also able to play both the left and right wing.
Adding Teravainen would enable Head Coach Patrick Roy to deploy him on the top line next to Bo Horvat and Mat Barzal, who had a rotating door of linemates on that left side that saw the season and playoffs end with grinder and natural center Casey Cizikas filling that role. Signing Teravainen and putting him in that spot would give the Islanders a more complete and skilled top line.
Viktor Arvidsson – In a season that limited Arvidsson to just 18 games due to injury, the 31-year-old showed that he can still fill a viable role on a team’s top-six, as he scored six goals and added nine assists for 15 points in those 18 games. While the Los Angeles Kings could opt to bring him back, Arvidsson is planning to test the UFA market on July 1.
What could make Arvidsson appealing to the Islanders is that he likely won’t break the bank considering he missed so much time last season. When healthy, though, Arvidsson has shown he can produce scoring 30+ goals twice in his career and he hit the 60-point mark twice, as well. With a bigger role playing on the Islanders top line with Barzal and Horvat, he could very well match his career high of 34 goals that he reached with Nashville back in 2018-19. It wouldn’t be the sexiest UFA signing, but for a player looking to prove himself it could be a win for both sides on a short-term, prove it deal.
Tyler Toffoli – Aside from Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault, no pending UFA to be scored more goals than Toffoli last season. After being traded from the New Jersey Devils to the Winnipeg Jets before the trade deadline, Toffoli went on to score seven goals for the Jets after the trade, bringing his total on the season to 33.
Toffoli is certainly that proven goal-scorer the Islanders have been looking for, scoring 34 goals for the Flames the year before in the 2022-23 campaign. While he has already been linked to a few of his former teams in the Kings, Vancouver Canucks and even the New Jersey Devils, it is possible Lamoriello reaches out to Toffoli’s camp about coming back East.
Jonathan Marchessault – TFP’s David Pagnotta recently reported the original misfit Marchessault and his camp have not yet had any formal discussions about getting an extension done but Vegas has made it clear they would like to keep him and Marchessault himself has expressed a desire to stay. Though talks are expected to begin in roughly a week’s time, if the two-sides can’t get a deal done by the time the market opens, it is possible the Islanders reach out to Pat Brisson, Marchessault’s agent, about his interest in coming to Long Island.
Islanders Head Coach Patrick Roy coached Marchessault for four seasons in the QMJHL from 2007-11. While Marchessault, who will turn 34 in December, doesn’t make the Islanders younger, he certainly would bring much needed scoring punch to the lineup. He scored a career-high 42 goals last season for Vegas and while he may not replicate that again next year, there’s no doubt he would give the Islanders a very dangerous first line with Barzal and Horvat.
Trade Targets
Nikolaj Ehlers – The Winnipeg Jets are expected to make a few changes this off-season and one of them is potentially dealing their speedy Danish winger. The 28-year-old has one year remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $6M and it is looking like he will have a new home next season.
The fairly injury prone Ehlers played in all 82 games this season for Winnipeg scoring 25 goals and 61 points. Ehlers is a very fast and skilled winger who aside from putting the puck in the net is a good facilitator, accumulating 36 assists, the second most in his career. It has been speculated the Jets may want a top-4 defensemen in return for Ehlers as Brenden Dillon and Dylan DeMelo are both pending UFAs who may not return, leaving just Neal Pionk, Nate Schmidt and youngster Dylan Samberg under contract behind their #1 defenseman in Josh Morrissey. Lamoriello has no appetite to move either Ryan Pulock or Adam Pelech, but it’s possible Ehlers could be had for a team’s first-round selection, which Lamoriello hasn’t hesitated to move in the past.
Martin Necas – Shortly after the Hurricanes elimination in the second-round of the playoffs at the hand of the New York Rangers, Necas’s dad raised some eyebrows when he very candidly spoke about Necas wanting a change of scenery, noting his son would like to go somewhere to play a bigger role in the form of more of a top line role and more powerplay time.
Certainly, on a team like the Islanders he would get all that and would check a lot of boxes for the Islanders in the form of age, speed, skilled and dynamic – but the cost will be high and there will be no shortage of suitors for Necas as more than a dozen teams will inquire. Necas is a pending RFA and his next contract could be upwards of $7M-7.5M annually on a long-term.
Mitch Marner – While the Toronto Maple Leafs have not yet approached Marner about waiving his No Movement Clause and reportedly prefers to stay, Marner’s name is still atop all the trade board lists for this summer as the big fish potentially available. If indeed Marner and Toronto agree to part ways this summer, the list of teams Marner will likely waive for won’t be long. While we don’t know if the Islanders would be a team Marner would waive for, it is possible Lamoriello reaches out to his former team and inquires.
Lamoriello did not draft Marner, but he took over as Maple Leafs GM in July of 2015, a month after Marner was selected fourth-overall. Aside from the three years Lamoriello spent with Marner in Toronto, it was rumoured back in in 2019 when Marner was a RFA and that Lamoriello, who became the Islanders GM, was interested in Marner.
It’s extremely unlikely Lamoriello would offer up Noah Dobson or Ilya Sorokin in exchange for Marner so it’s hard to see a path forward otherwise. However, it likely won’t stop Lamoriello from at least engaging in talks. Lamoriello has shown he is willing to take swings at acquiring that “big fish” as he tried to keep John Tavares on the Island after his contract expired and expressed serious interest in signing the likes Artemi Panarin, Johnny Gaudreau and Nazem Kadri in the past.