The New York Islanders are in a world of hurt and not at all where many expected this team to be before the 2021-22 NHL season began. A long list of injuries and COVID cases has seen the roster ravaged and it’s no wonder the team is in such a bad way when it comes to the NHL standings. But, the GM of the team isn’t giving up or throwing in the towel on the season.
Down names like Josh Bailey, Anders Lee, Adam Pelech, Andy Greene, Ross Johnston, Kieffer Bellows, Zdeno Chara Ryan Pulock, and Brock Nelson, “Whatever we can do to get better, we would,” said general manager Lou Lamoriello. There have been rumors he’s in the market for a defenseman and that he’s open to making trades right away, even if this isn’t the time of the season where trades are traditionally made. He added, “I assure you that we’ve gotten calls. Many teams want to help us, but none that could really help us.”
The hint here is that he’s either not found a player that improves his team in the way he needs the team to get better or other NHL clubs have reached out to the Islanders to dump contracts or players and try to potentially take advantage of the Islanders’ bad fortune. Lamoriello chuckled when talking about it as if to suggest he’s not falling for it and will wait things out.
While Nelson has been announced as out for 2-4 weeks, Lamoriello notes that the team will be getting our players back so the sky isn’t quite falling for this organization, even if it sort of feels that way. The team called up a couple of players from the Bridgeport Islanders and there’s not a lot they can do beyond staying positive. He liked the way the team played against the Calgary Flames and said the score wasn’t indicative of the way the team battled.
Lamoriello said the team did have a conversation with the NHL about postponing games due to so many absences but they have not heard word on their schedule yet.
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