The New York Islanders had struggled to get out from under the shadow of poor contracts doled out by former president and general manager Lou Lamoriello, and now there is a way to quantify it.
Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic ranked each team by its contract efficiency. He calculated “every player’s market value over the remainder of his contract, comparing it to what he’s actually being paid and then figuring out the likelihood of the contract being a good deal. Then it’s all put together for each team to see which ones are spending the money the most efficiently.”
To little surprise, the Islanders rank 29th out of 32 teams with an overall efficiency grade of “C.”
At the top of the heap of bad deals are the seven-year contracts that were awarded to forward Pierre Engvall and defenseman Scott Mayfield. Engvall was benched multiple times last season and even demoted to the AHL, while Mayfield, who battled injuries, is projected to be a third-pairing defenseman in 2025-26 and beyond.
Both have five years remaining.
Of the 20 contracts that were broken down, only seven received acceptable grades of a “B-” or higher. Six of them have been executed by new general manager Mathieu Darche, who took over for Lamoriello in May: Maxim Tsyplakov (two years, $2.3 million), Jonathan Drouin (two years, $4 million), Simon Holmstrom (two years, $3.6 million), Emil Heineman (two years, $1.1 million), Tony DeAngelo (one year, $1.8 million), and David Rittich (one-year, $1 million).
The lone Lamoriello contract with an acceptable value is Mathew Barzal’s eight-year deal that pays him $9.2 million annually.
Darche’s arrival has provided a long-awaited directional shift for a franchise that was largely kept identical for a six-year stretch that began with back-to-back Stanley Cup semifinal appearances. But some of Lamoriello’s signings hamstrung the Islanders from making legitimate improvements, ultimately sinking them in a mediocre rut that has resulted in two first-round exits and two playoff misses over the last four years.
Darche traded away star defenseman Noah Dobson before the draft to the Montreal Canadiens for two first-round draft picks and Heineman. He then selected standout blueliner Matthew Schaefer with the No. 1 overall pick.
Days later, at the start of free agency, he signed Drouin to bolster his middle six and then won the sweepstakes for promising Russian forward Maxim Shabanov.
