While the New York Islanders should focus on finding ways to bolster the roster for the 2024-25 season, it's important that the focus extends beyond this upcoming season.
While the New York Islanders should focus on finding ways to bolster the roster for the 2024-25 season, it's important that the focus extends beyond this upcoming season.
While the New York Islanders should focus on finding ways to bolster the roster for the 2024-25 season, it's important that the focus extends beyond this upcoming season.
Cap-strapped this summer, the Islanders will need to decide on their core going forward and how they can build around their players in their prime.
With only $7.075 million in cap space, Islanders management has a few tough decisions to make.
But what about looking past this upcoming season and toward next summer?
On July 1, the Islanders will be eligible to extend forwards Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri, along with defensemen Noah Dobson and Alexander Romanov.
This is not to say that all four players above will be getting deals—likely three of the four—with Palmieri certainly being the odd man out unless the Islanders think it's time to trade Nelson before his age catches up to his production.
The NHL salary cap for this upcoming season is $87.7 million, while CapFriendly predicts that the cap hit for the 2025-26 season will be closer to $92 million.
Let's do math!
If we are playing the prediction game, which clearly has its faults, let's pretend that Kyle MacLean, Simon Holmstrom, and Mike Reilly each sign two-year, $2 million deals this summer ($1 million AAVs).
That would bring the Islanders' cap space this summer to $4.075 million, just to give people an idea of the current situation.
But continuing onward to next summer.
Before doing anything this summer, the Islanders would have $30.45 million in cap space at the end of the 2024-25 season.
If we are including the projected MacLean, Holmstrom, and Reilly signings -- New York would have $27.45 million in space before handing out extensions to the big guns.
Could the Islanders afford to bring back Nelson, Dobson, Palmieri, and Romanov?
The rumor surrounding Dobson's new deal is eight years at $8 million annually. Nelson, who would be entering his age 34 season, would likely take a team-friendly discount at around $6 million or so for, let's say, three years.
Is Romanov getting a six-year deal between $4 and $5 million reasonable?
If those three came to fruition, the Islanders would have somewhere between $8.5-$9.5 million in space before Palmieri, who would likely cost somewhere in the $5-$6 million range.
So, it's doable, in theory.
But, if the Islanders were to add someone this summer like Nikolaj Ehlers, who would likely carry an AAV of $7 million on his next deal, that means the Islanders would be in a tough spot regarding extending other players, especially if they ask for more than what we're projecting.
That's why it's important the Islanders make moves this summer to give themselves some breathing room when extensions for 2025-26 hit their books.
The Islanders, with MacLean playing the way he did, could move Jean-Gabriel Pageau and his $5 million.
They could also look to move one of Adam Pelech ($5.75 M AAV) or Ryan Pulock ($6.15 M AAV).
If the Islanders aren't going to extend Nelson and or Palmieri, those are players who don't have to be moved this summer but can be moved ahead of the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline.
The Islanders could also buy out Anders Lee's contract, which has two years remaining at $7 million annually.
If they went that route this summer, the Islanders would be saving $4.125 million in 2024-25 and $2.775 million in 2025-26:
Buyout Breakdown:
2024-25: $2.875 M
2025-26: $4.225 M
2026-27: $1.725 M
2027-28: $1.725 M
We shall see if that is a route the Islanders go, but one would think it's unlikely.
The important thing is having the cap space to extend the players that the organization believes are part of the team going forward while having the flexibility to improve the roster.