This NHL offseason is certainly one for the ages. From Johnny Gaudreau to Columbus to the “Summer of Dorion,” this has been easily one of the most entertaining offseasons recent memory. One of free agency’s biggest prizes, Nazem Kadri, was finally signed on August 18th by Calgary, after an entire month of speculation of where he could go. Many teams were left scorned once the signing was official, but perhaps none more scored than the New York Islanders. In a free agency where one could go after the likes of Johnny Gaudreau, Ondrej Palat, or perhaps simpler options like Frank Vatrano (who put together a solid stint for the Rangers last season), Lou Lamoriello and the Islanders strangely decided to stand pat and sign nobody. Lamoriello, who won consecutive GM of the Year awards in 2019-20 and 2020-21, could not muster a single signing to improve their stale and old offense. This level of inactivity is laughable.

The Islanders coming into last season were considered to be one of the league’s finest (and perhaps most underrated) teams, playing a hard nosed defensive game led by coach Barry Trotz. This defensive approach got them to the brink of the Stanley Cup Finals in two consecutive years, and Lamoriello was considered (once again) one of the league’s top GMs. Perhaps in hindsight, this analysis of him might of been too far fetched. Things are bad enough not signing anyone this offseason, but at the start of the offseason, the team parted ways with Trotz after a disappointing 2021-22 campaign, where for the beginning of the season they were ravaged by COVID and played a month straight on the road. Despite that, someone had to be held accountable for it, and it seems they chose Trotz, possibly the best head coach in the league.

Clearly, something had to be done to jolt the team heading into next season. Defensively, they were and still are among the finest in the league, being lead by the shutdown pair of Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech, while being back-stopped by Ilya Sorokin. Their offense, however, left much to be desired for, finishing 24th out of 32 last season in goals with 231. Their leading scorers: Brock Nelson and Mathew Barzal, finishing tied with 59 points each. On the goals end, only Nelson and Anders Lee broke the 20 goal barrier, with 37 and 28 goals, respectively. As of now, all that has been done to “jolt” the team is to bring in a young Alexander Romanov from Montreal (who does show promise, but he was brought in to attempt to fill the void left by Devon Toews, and we do not talk about how badly that trade went), and resigning fellow defender Noah Dobson. Despite that, their offense remains one of the older units in the league, with an average of almost 30, with no true help for Mat Barzal beyond Brock Nelson. If he was not going to be an RFA after this season, there may be a real chance of losing him. In a league where star forwards are becoming more paramount to championship contention, the Islanders are really behind the curve here.

With all of this being said, I do not believe the Islanders will be a really bad team, but due to the inactivity of Lamoriello (and the fact they are a bit muddled by some poor contracts, perhaps signing Palmieri and Pageau to $5 million a year wasn’t the greatest decision), they may just be stuck being a mediocre team in an increasingly more competitive Metropolitan Division. Carolina is still Carolina, the Rangers are looking to be even better, Washington made some improvements, and even while Pittsburgh may not of made the changes necessary, they still have the star power to carry them to at least the top half of the division. This is not even getting to how improved New Jersey and Columbus have gotten. Is it improved enough to overtake the Islanders? Maybe not, but it certainly would of helped had the Isles shook up the roster. It will be interesting to see if they can somehow remedy this mid-season, perhaps at the trade deadline, but as of right now, they seem to be on the outside looking in of the playoffs.