With the Olympic break over, the trade deadline is under a week away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? Next up is the Islanders.<\/p>\n
The Islanders made some big moves last summer, sending<\/a> defenseman Noah Dobson<\/a> to the Montreal Canadiens and drafting Matthew Schaefer<\/a> with the first overall pick. Many pundits weren\u2019t sure what the Islanders would be this season, but they have surprised some folks by becoming a playoff contender with a roster that doesn\u2019t have much flash but is solid enough to compete in the Eastern Conference. The Islanders have won on the back of strong team defense and goaltending this season, and despite the lack of skill in their lineup, they\u2019ve managed to score enough to win games.<\/p>\n Record<\/p>\n 33-21-5, 3rd in the Metropolitan<\/p>\n Deadline Status<\/p>\n Buyer<\/p>\n Deadline Cap Space<\/p>\n $6.02MM on deadline day, 0\/3 retention slots used, 49\/50 contracts used,\u00a0per PuckPedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Upcoming Draft Picks<\/p>\n 2026: NYI 1st, COL 1st, NJD 3rd, NYI 4th, NYI 5th, NYI 6th, NYI 7th Trade Chips<\/p>\n The Islanders have built up their prospect pool in recent seasons thanks to several successful first-round picks. The team likely has a top ten pipeline and the assets to be aggressive on the trade front if the money works. That ranking doesn\u2019t include defenseman Schaefer, who went straight to the NHL, but there is no chance New York moves him anytime soon.<\/p>\n Setting aside the Islanders\u2019 lottery win, they have done some good business in the trade market, moving on from Dobson and Brock Nelson<\/a> for very strong returns. From these two trades, the team ended up with Victor Eklund<\/a>, Kashawn Aitcheson<\/a> and Calum Ritchie<\/a>. Those three are all arguably among the top 100 NHL prospects at the moment and are a big reason the Islanders now have one of the best prospect systems in the NHL.<\/p>\n If the Islanders moved any of those three players, they would have one of the better trade chips available in terms of future value. Eklund\u2019s skill is among his strongest assets, along with his top-notch skating. Those traits would make him appealing to every team in the league, but his ability to battle could be the best feature of his game. Eklund battles from whistle to whistle and isn\u2019t afraid to play with reckless abandon.<\/p>\n Aitcheson is a physical defender who plays an old-school game that should resonate with the Long Island crowd. Aitcheson could one day be a top-pairing, bruising defenseman who plays a stay-at-home game alongside a more offensively minded partner. Aitcheson\u2019s game isn\u2019t flashy, but he is safe and responsible in his own end, bringing an intensity to the ice that few could match.\u00a0His ability to give the opponent absolutely nothing to work with could eventually earn him a reputation as the NHL\u2019s ultimate shutdown man, provided he improves his average skating and harnesses his intimidating presence.<\/p>\n Ritchie saw his draft stock slide a few years ago as he focused more on becoming a 200-foot player rather than simply being a point producer. It paid off in terms of his overall game, but he did slide in the NHL draft rankings before being scooped up by the Avalanche late in the first round (27th overall) of the 2023 draft. Ritchie possesses a mean shot that should translate well to the NHL, particularly on the power play. He also has elite hockey sense, anticipating plays before they happen and hunting down soft areas of the ice to get himself open or in the right spot at the right time.<\/p>\n Finally, we come to another first-round pick, forward Cole Eiserman<\/a>. The 20-year-old isn\u2019t an imposing presence, but he loves to throw his body around and doesn\u2019t mind taking a hit to make a play. Eiserman will cruise to the front of the net in the offensive zone to stir up some disruption, but he does most of his scoring from a distance with his shot, which was considered one of the best during his draft eligibility.<\/p>\n Team Needs<\/p>\n A Top Six Forward:\u00a0The Islanders gambled this summer when they signed forward Jonathan Drouin<\/a> to a two-year deal, hoping he could fill an offensive role in the top six. While he hasn\u2019t produced what GM Mathieu Darche<\/a> hoped, he has chipped in with some offense and remains a good gamble. That being said, New York needs more from its top two lines, and bringing in a Jordan Kyrou<\/a>-type from St. Louis would go a long way toward adding to an offense that is currently 22nd in the league. The Islanders could also look at Kyrou\u2019s teammate, Robert Thomas<\/a>, if the Blues were open to it, or take a long look at some of the forwards the Vancouver Canucks have made available, such as Elias Pettersson<\/a>.<\/p>\n Depth Scoring: The Islanders need more offense from the bottom of their lineup and could look at a player like Michael Bunting<\/a> of Nashville, who has a long history of providing depth offense on good hockey teams. Bunting is a UFA at the end of the season and has been effective as a depth scorer in Toronto, Pittsburgh and Nashville. If Bunting isn\u2019t an option and the Islanders want to look at a pure shooter, Patrik Laine<\/a> of the Montreal Canadiens would be a player who could fit simply as a triggerman. Laine doesn\u2019t play much of a two-way game, but on a team like the Islanders, where he would be defensively insulated, it might be a great fit for a once-great goalscorer who has fallen on hard times in Montreal. Laine isn\u2019t a prototypical depth player, but at this point, there isn\u2019t much to his game away from the puck, and with all of his injury concerns, he could likely be acquired for very little.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Olympic break over, the trade deadline is under a week away. Where does each team stand,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[54005,5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4,697],"class_list":{"0":"post-479979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-deadline-primer-2026","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-islanders","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-islanders","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkislanders","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-pro-hockey-rumors-originals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116156973910460579","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479979","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=479979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
2027: NYI 1st, NYI 2nd, NYI 3rd, NYI 4th, NYI 5th, NYI 6th, NJD 6th, NYI 7th<\/p>\n