With the trade deadline just a few days away, some teams are still trying to decide what their plan should be at the deadline. The New York Islanders are not one of those teams.
Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello spoke with the media on Tuesday ahead of the trade deadline, and made it quite clear that the team knows what they’re doing – or more specifically, what they’re not doing.
“If we can add, we will,” said Lamoriello. “Are we going to subtract? Absolutely not.”
The Isles’ playoff chances seemed in question recently, which would have possibly altered their deadline plans, but after winning three in a row last week, they’re back in the hunt. As a result, the Isles are, at the very least, going to keep this group together and go for it.
With a 26-20-14 record, the Islanders currently sit in fourth in the Metropolitan Division. They sit six points behind the Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning for the two wild card spots in the Eastern Conference, as well as six points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for third place in the Metro. They also have one game in hand on the Red Wings, and three on the Lightning and Flyers.
The uncertainty towards the Islanders playoff chances does mean that they might be hesitant to make any drastic additions to their roster like last season when they acquired Bo Horvat from the Vancouver Canucks. It doesn’t help that the team lacks the cap space to make anything too big without moving out money, as they currently have under $150,000 to work with. Unless Lamoriello’s comments about not subtracting don’t see moving money out to bring in a player as a subtraction, it seems like it may be a quiet deadline for the team.
One area where the Islanders may need to make a move on defense with the recent announcement that Scott Mayfield will be out for 4-6 weeks due to an injury. He’s already missed their last four games, but the announcement clarifies his timeline for return. They also announced that Mayfield will be placed on long-term injured reserve, which could provide them with cap relief to make a move, but with how tight it is, that would then mean that Mayfield can’t return until the playoffs should they make it.
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