Offseason Roundup: New York Islanders
Over the next month, theScore's NHL editors will review all the offseason moves for each team around the league.
Sometimes it feels as though the New York Islanders have been on the cusp of competitiveness for an eternity, always failing to take that next step despite a plethora of young talent.
Those years of mediocrity appear to be over after New York's latest offseason, which saw the team spend big in free agency while further stocking its prospect cupboard.
Offseason Overview
Islanders general manager Garth Snow wasted little time addressing the team's most glaring inefficiency: goaltending. Snow acquired the rights to Jaroslav Halak in May and signed him to a four-year, $18-million contract before he could become an unrestricted free agent, then added Pittsburgh Penguins backup Chad Johnson at two years for $2.6-million.
Snow attempted to do the same on the blue line by acquiring the rights to veteran defenseman Dan Boyle, but Boyle refused to sign with the Islanders, electing instead to join the rival New York Rangers. Undeterred, Snow signed AHL standout defenseman TJ Brennan on July 1.
New York's biggest free agent splash came a day later, when the team reunited Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin on a pair of four-year deals totaling $36.75-million. Adding Grabovski and Kulemin vastly improves the Islanders' forward depth, with their top three lines sporting John Tavares, Frans Nielsen and Grabovski down the middle.
The added versatility Grabovski and Kulemin bring to the Islanders lineup is not lost on coach Jack Capuano, who explained the move to NHL.com:
To me, it can alleviate some of the minutes that Frans plays. He's a guy that plays our first-unit power play, he's on first-unit penalty kill. He logs a lot of minutes and a lot of crucial minutes. That's not gonna change to a certain point, but Grabovski's a guy Garth and I talked about two years ago. He's got a dimension to his game with speed and changing direction. He's got a great pace to the game and good hockey sense. With [Kulemin] on the left, you've got a big body guy that is gonna crash and bang and has proven he can score some big goals. They're two real good acquisitions for our hockey club.
All of New York's offseason moves were overshadowed by the sale of the franchise, which dominated headlines as owner Charles Wang waffled between different suitors, leading to accusations of bad faith bargaining and a lawsuit from one aggrieved potential buyer.
The team was eventually sold to a group headed by Jonathan Ledecky and Scott Malkin for a reported $548-million, ending Wang's decade as head of the organization. The Islanders qualified for the playoffs twice in that span - in 2007 and 2013 - but their offseason moves indicate there is reason to believe the Ledecky-Malkin era will be more fruitful.
Key Additions
Jaroslav Halak
Mikhail Grabovski
Nikolai Kulemin
Michael Dal Colle
Josh Ho-Sang
Key Departures
Evgeni Nabokov
2014-15 Outlook
Having Tavares healthy for the whole season will be important, but the Islanders finally look like a team ready to compete in the Metropolitan Division. It's not unreasonable to expect them to compete for a wild card spot behind the Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers and Columbus Blue Jackets during their final season at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.