Despite a strong first month for New York Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche, he still has some business to attend to.
Restricted free agents Maxim Tsyplakov and Marc Gatcomb are still in need of new deals, with both having received their qualifying offers, $897,750 and $813,750 respectively.
Both are also eligible for arbitration.
The player-elected arbitration deadline is today (July 5) by 5 PM ET with the second-team elected arbitration window opens at 5:01 PM ET.
That window remains open until July 6 at 5 PM ET.
Arbitration cases can get ugly and if the Islanders can have these two players except their qualifying offers or negotiate something else prior, whether that's a one-year, one-way deal or a multi-year extension, that is the best route.
However, per the CBA, if a player heads to arbitration that will open up a second buyout window for the team, with the first already coming to an end.
With the acquisitions of Jonathan Drouin and Maxim Shabanov, the Islanders have a tremendous amount of forwards, 16 to be exact, who will be fighting for a spot in the starting 12.
The Islanders will likely keep two in the press box, which means two likely do not make the cut, one of which could be forward Pierre Engvall, who has five years left on his contract worth $3 million annually.
If the Islanders bought out Engvall, his cap hit would be $1 million for the next 10 seasons.
That's been the talk of the town.
There's many reasons why a buyout doesn't make sense -- he has speed so there could be intersted teams out there given the low hit and also the Islanders can bury $1.15 million of his hit in Bridgeport like we saw last season.
He won't be bought out, because it would be illegal, per the CBA.
While yes, an arbitration filing would open up the buyout window, the only contracts that are allowed to be bought out in the second window must have an annual cap hit of $4 million or more.
That means that Engvall, and defenseman Scott Mayfield -- he has five years left on his deal worth $3.5 million annually -- are ineligible to be bought out until June of 2026.
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