The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 NHL trade deadline.
NEW YORK — The writing is on the wall for the Islanders. Will Lou Lamoriello read those words is the only question left to be answered this season.
I wrote a week ago that 2024-25 was in the books after a 5-1 loss to the Rangers at UBS Arena. The Isles won their next two games to spur some hope, but that came crashing down again on Monday at the hands of the rivals from the big city. This 4-0 loss, which featured very little offense from either team and a Rangers commitment to team defense that hasn’t been seen much this season, felt more disappointing than last week’s.
So yes, it’s still over. The Isles host the West-leading Jets on Tuesday and then it’s three long days until Friday at 3 p.m. Lamoriello has not tipped his hand to anyone — other teams, agents, his own players — or at least he hadn’t before Monday’s rather lifeless night at the Garden.
He was always going to wait until after Tuesday’s game to choose the Isles’ deadline path because that’s who he is. Lamoriello may not be as spry as he once was at 82 years old but he’s always been patient and worked every angle before acting.
In this case, the main focus is on Brock Nelson. He said Monday afternoon that the deadline doesn’t mean it’s Islanders or nowhere. “Obviously, there’s a lot going on and everyone’s like, ‘Hey, the deadline is Friday. Let’s get an answer right now and decide,’” he said. “It may not work out that way. There’s a number of different situations that could play out in contract (talks). It could be one that is left not done. You don’t have to have one by Friday. We’ll see how everything plays out.”
A league source reiterated the stance that all options for Nelson are on the table ahead of Friday — he could sign an extension with the Islanders, he could be moved or he could stay without a new deal. That last scenario feels like the worst of all possible cases, since Nelson forgoing a new deal before Friday would seem to signal he’s ready to test free agency on July 1 and the Islanders would be foolish to let him leave for nothing.
The trade market should loosen up in the next couple of days as teams start to face reality. The Islanders should be one of them — the Rangers and Canadiens got two points and the Senators got one, keeping the gap between the Isles and the last East wild-card spot at five points with five teams to climb over. It is very much a sellers’ market and should remain that way.
Nelson is the top UFA center available. Brayden Schenn, the Blues captain, is perhaps the most similar player to Nelson who might move this week, but Schenn has three years left on his deal — plus, an executive with a team that’s inquired on Schenn said the Blues, who sit just a point out of the last West wild-card spot, may keep Schenn to try and make a run.
It is wide open for the last handful of playoff spots in both conferences. Lots of teams believe they have a chance. If the Islanders are among them and act that way past 3 p.m. on Friday, it would be difficult to explain that to Islander fans.
Nelson played his 900th game as an Islander on Monday, the fifth player in franchise history to do so. As Lamoriello noted to our Pierre LeBrun last week, Nelson is “an integral part of our team.”
But the market is calling. The fan base is crying out for change, even at the expense of a beloved player. Nelson will certainly bring back a first-round pick and then some, whether that’s a decent prospect or another draft pick or two. If the Islanders retained half of Nelson’s $6 million cap hit, there’s even more assets on offer for a cap-strapped contender.
Kyle Palmieri is in a similar boat, though that boat is probably filled with fewer assets to come back in a trade. Palmieri is a wing, not a center, but the tightness of the market — Gustav Nyquist, who isn’t Palmieri’s equal, brought the Predators a 2026 second-rounder from the Wild on Saturday — should make moving Palmieri also a no-brainer by Friday.
We can go over and over the failings from Monday, some of which have been on display all year. No Mat Barzal hurts; he’s played some of his best regular-season hockey against the Rangers and his miserable season, with two bad breaks, leads a long list of injuries that can’t be ignored. The Isles took the lead on Monday only to have the goal wiped off on a correct offside challenge. Soon after, a deflected puck went behind Ilya Sorokin off Will Cuylle’s head.
Bad luck. Then no pushback — the Isles didn’t have the horses to fight through the Rangers’ clogging defense. When Sorokin was pulled with 7:45 to go, the Isles ran Adam Boqvist and Tony DeAngelo out, two defensemen who weren’t on the roster (one of whom wasn’t in the NHL) two months ago. There’s too many holes filled with crossed fingers, hoping that a team that’s been pretty much the same since day one of this season can suddenly become something different.
J-G Pageau and Anders Lee would be long, long shots to move by Friday. Both have a year left on their deals. But Lamoriello would likely have needed to decide before this week that he was moving either one and that’s not the case here.
But even moving Nelson and Palmieri would signal that the need to change trumps the need for loyalty to a group of good people and good hockey players.
The Islanders are going nowhere this season. If their most tradable assets go nowhere before Friday, this is going to be a very, very tough sell to the fans.
(Photo of Brock Nelson: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
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