{"id":434436,"date":"2026-01-29T15:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/434436\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T15:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:27:12","slug":"new-york-islanders-open-to-moving-a-first-round-pick-ahead-of-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/434436\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Islanders open to moving a first-round pick ahead of deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Islanders<\/a> general manager Mathieu Darche<\/a> has been busy this week adding to his team and he might not be done.<\/p>\n

The NHL trade deadline is more than a month away on March 6 but Darche got an early start, adding defenceman Carson Soucy<\/a> from the New York Rangers<\/a> for a 2026 third-round pick on Monday, and then trading for two-time Stanley Cup champion Ondrej Palat<\/a> and two draft picks on Tuesday in exchange for winger Maxim Tsyplakov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When asked by reporters on Wednesday if Darche was open to moving one of the team\u2019s two 2026 first-round picks, he said yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the right deal comes along, absolutely,\u201d said Darche. \u201cNothing is off the table if I can improve the team. Doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m going to move a first-round pick by any means but if something makes sense, I\u2019ve got two this summer, I\u2019m not afraid to move one.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I won\u2019t move one just to get a name that sounds exciting but doesn\u2019t quite fit just to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Islanders have their own first-round pick for the 2026 draft as well as the first-round selection they acquired from the Colorado Avalanche<\/a> in the Brock Nelson<\/a> trade last year.<\/p>\n

New York had three first-round picks in June\u2019s draft. They won the draft lottery and took defenceman Matthew Schaefer<\/a>, a front-runner for the Calder Trophy, first overall. They also took Djurgardens forward Victor Eklund (No. 16) and Barrie Colts defenceman Kashawn Aitcheson (No. 17) with the two first-round picks they received from the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> in the Noah Dobson<\/a> trade. <\/p>\n

In making the deals, New York took advantage of the cap space opened up by long-term injuries to forwards Kyle Palmieri<\/a> and Pierre Engvall<\/a>, defenceman Alexander Romanov<\/a> and goaltender Semyon Varlamov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Islanders are third in the Metropolitan Division and have won two straight games. Darche said he wanted to reward his team for the season they\u2019ve had so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to reward the players for putting us in this position to get to the playoffs,\u201d said Darche. \u201cI felt, without being crazy moves, these are two players [Soucy and Palat] that will help us as they push towards the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche has been busy this week adding to his team and he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4759,5,33187,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-434436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-new-york-islanders-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-2","11":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115979094949848787","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}