If only you could merge the Islanders’ structure, character and experience with the Devils’ skill and youth, you would have one unit capable of contending for the Stanley Cup instead of two teams that combined for one playoff victory this spring.
It worked for the Golden Seals and North Stars, didn’t it? By the way, don’t answer that question.
The Islanders have gotten all of five home playoff games in three seasons since the move to Belmont Park, and that’s not close enough to be considered even a qualified success. That’s nonsense after 41 years. Sure enough, the move coincided with the pandemic, which is not what you want, but there’s more to it than that.
For at about the same time, the hierarchy made the decision to double down on a group that took advantage of unique circumstances to advance to the Cup semis in both seasons reformatted for the pandemic but never won more than five playoff games following a standard 82-game season.
In this case, of course, the hierarchy consists of Lou Lamoriello, and what has baffled me about his tenure on the Island is the way he has been willing to grant elongated contracts to players who never won when he did not do that in New Jersey for players who won repeatedly.
The Islanders are an admirable group that starts ahead with Patrick Roy behind the bench. But they are not built for speed, they are not built for skill, they are not quite built for the NHL of the 2020s. The core, much of which was in place as far back as 2016, has gone as far as it can.
Yes, it is time to move on from consummate pros Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck, two forwards who are so responsible for the team’s blue-collar identity. But there is more for Lamoriello to do in addition to organic pruning. The Islanders need to change the conversation. They need to become more electric and more dynamic.
It would be a pretty good idea, I think, for Lamoriello to be in on Carolina impending free agent Jake Guentzel when the market opens on July 1, but the team’s construction needs to change. Unless for some unknown reason Anders Lee wants to leave, there seems little chance the club would move the captain, who has two years remaining on his contract at an annual $7 million cap hit that includes a 15-team, no-trade list. That seems impossible.
Bo Horvat has a full no-move, Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock have full no-trades, and Mat Barzal is a no-trade clause in and of himself. Same for Noah Dobson. Probably the same applies to J-G Pageau but for less sanguine reasons, the center still with two years remaining on his deal at $5M per.
If Lamoriello is going to change the dynamic, the guy to sacrifice is 32-year-old Brock Nelson, who has been nothing but an exemplary Islander and representative of the franchise over his 11 seasons. The 6-foot-4 center backed up 37- and 36-goal seasons with 34 this year, recorded four points (2-2) in the Carolina series and should have value as a full-season rental before his contract with a $6M cap hit expires at the end of the season.
Moving Nelson allows Barzal and Horvat to play the middle. It creates additional cap space. And it changes the dynamic.
That is a requirement. It doesn’t matter whether or not Lamoriello and the Islanders have been looking back the last few years, the NHL has been gaining on them.
Same old, same old that wasn’t quite good enough before surely isn’t going to be good enough going forward.
You’ve got to hand it to the Sabres, right, 13 straight years out of the playoffs and they go back to the guy who was behind the bench when this all started in the first place, romanticizing a 16-year era in which they did not win the Stanley Cup with Lindy Ruff. Five of Ruff’s last seven teams did not make the playoffs.
Makes perfect sense.
To no one.
Back when the Kraken were hiring their first coach, David Quinn was in the mix until the end when GM Ron Francis went with Dave Hakstol.
The job is vacant in the aftermath of Hakstol’s dismissal but I’m not sure that going 41-98-25 in two seasons at San Jose is going to be a particular selling point for Quinn, even if everyone knows he was given essentially the equivalent of an AHL roster by his alleged good buddy, Sharks GM Mike Grier.
Kyle Dubas, just another guy with a GM’s job, put out this statement after not renewing the contract of assistant coach Todd Reirden, who had been on Mike Sullivan’s staff in Pittsburgh for four years:
“Mike Sullivan and I have spent time over the past two weeks evaluating the coaching staff, and although these decisions are never easy, we agree that this change was in the best interest of the team moving forward.”
Thing is, no one with whom I have spoken believes that Sullivan agrees in the slightest with his boss, who, for a second straight summer of intrigue, might not be his boss next season if the coach’s tenure ends…
But Dubas might want to check with his boss on that.
Man by the name of Sidney Crosby.
And in New Jersey, GM Tom Fitzgerald will no doubt be monitoring these proceedings.
The way it turned out, I’ve got to think that Ron DeSantis must have been in charge of John Tortorella’s campaign for the Jack Adams as coach of the year.
Connor Hellebuyck in the playoffs this year was kind of like Clayton Kershaw in a lot of playoffs, don’t you think?
Finally, I see that Hall & Oates broke up after all these years, and that reminds me that Walt Tkaczuk and Bill Fairbairn no longer play on the same line.
