EAST MEADOW, N.Y. — The NHL trade deadline is on Friday and the New York Islanders could conceivably take either fork in the road of being a buyer or seller.
A team that had underachieved through nearly the first 70% of the season is on the outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture looking in. They have some sizable contracts that they could try to move for draft capital and cap relief with an eye on re-tooling for 2024-25.
“I think everyone wants to be better,” veteran center Jean-Gabriel Pageau told amNewYork. “I wish I could’ve been better at the start of the year.”
Despite their struggles, however, a three-game win streak that featured a 5-1 beatdown of one of the best teams in hockey, the Boston Bruins, on Saturday night has the Islanders sitting just five points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division and the playoff spot that comes with it.
They’ve begun to show consistent promise under head coach Patrick Roy, now at the job for six weeks after Lane Lambert was dismissed in late January, which means president and GM Lou Lamoriello could stay the course with the team he has or even look to make a deal to bolster his ranks.
“I think everyone in the locker room is kind of focused on that right now,” Pageau said. “We’re on a good streak we’re feeling good, and we want to keep climbing. That’s the main focus. To be honest, we don’t talk about [the trade deadline].”
Pageau particularly has stayed off social media as his name once again has been mentioned in trade rumors considering his $5 million cap hit is on the books through the 2025-26 season.
“I’m sure my name is up there,” he said. “It’s there every year. I try not to focus on that right now. I’m proud to be an Islander and we’re trying to win games here, so that’s our focus right now.”
It’s the kind of philosophy that most of his teammates share, though the deadline provides a concrete marker in the season to provide extra motivation to a struggling team if needed — whether they admit it or not.
“I think it’s more the last week or so we knew where we were in the standings and knew that we needed to stack a couple wins together to get ourselves back in the mix here,” defenseman Noah Dobson said. “We’ve been able to do that. We still have a long way to go here, but I feel like we’re building off these last few games and trying to get on a roll. It’s important for the group. Whatever happens at the deadline happens but I think for us, it’s just about getting ourselves back in the mix.”
The Islanders’ recent hot streak has only helped the prospect of the majority of the team being kept together. A fourth-consecutive victory against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night at UBS Arena could potentially move them to within three points of a playoff spot with two games in hand if things fall properly for them.
For a streaking team, that feels too close to break up now given the way they’ve bought into Roy’s system.
“I think we’ve proved that we’re a good team and when we play the right way and we compete, the results start taking care of itself,” Pageau said. “I think everyone believes in this group.”
