March 9, 2025 | 11:55am ET
TheFourthPeriod.com

ISLANDERS PLAN TO HAVE ACTIVE OFF-SEASON

 

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Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello

 

The New York Islanders made two key decisions ahead of Friday’s trade deadline and GM Lou Lamoriello revealed that he plans on changing up his roster this off-season.

On Thursday, after contract negotiations failed to reach an agreement, the Islanders dealt Brock Nelson to the Colorado Avalanche.

On Friday, the team opted to hold on to Kyle Palmieri and not trade him after making progress on a contract extension. As TFP’s David Pagnotta reported on NHL Network on Friday, an agreement is believed to be agreed to in principle and Palmieri will be sticking around.

Lamoriello spoke with the media on Saturday while with the team in San Jose and revealed that more moves are coming this off-season.

“There will be change this summer,” Lamoriello said, as quoted by the New York Post. “Until there’s change, you can’t say how much. But I can assure you there will be change.”

The Islanders attracted interest in a number of their players leading up to the trade deadline, with centre Jean-Gabriel Pageau, captain Anders Lee, and defenceman Scott Mayfield among them. As Pagnotta reported Saturday, those talks are expected to resume in the summer.

“If we could have gotten younger and better, other than draft picks, we would have done it without question,” Lamoriello said. “We felt that where a few of our players are — when I say a few, several of our players we could have made moves with — they would be better done at a different time. What we need to infuse in the lineup, those players would be available. That’s a decision we made.

“Along the way we also tried to look at this season. We’re four points out [as of Saturday morning], not to give up in any way whatsoever on the guys in that room, without hurting what the mission was to go into the trade deadline. And it ended up the way it was. But I can assure you that if there were other players, not of the caliber we got but close to that, there would have been a lot more moves.”