ST. LOUIS — With the trade deadline exactly two weeks from Friday, the Islanders are between a rock and a hard place.
Before facing the Blues on Thursday, the Islanders sat four points out of a playoff spot and still very much in the mix, a month after a coaching change, with the players still in the process of learning what Patrick Roy wants from them.
They have two players, Robert Bortuzzo and Hudson Fasching, on long-term injured reserve with nearly the entire pool of extra salary being used.
It’s not clear whether the Islanders still will be using LTIR at the trade deadline. Regardless, their maneuverability to add a contract will be almost zero without sending an equivalent salary the other way.
And without having made a first-round pick since 2019, you might think keeping their pick this time around would be a priority.
But general manager Lou Lamoriello did not sound on Thursday as though he were resigned to a quiet couple weeks.
“I wouldn’t want to trade that pick unless I felt that pick was gonna help us win today, where you feel strongly in that,” Lamoriello said. “Or you were gonna get a player that was gonna be with you for a period of time. You don’t trade a pick just for the sake of trading it. You don’t trade a first-round pick if you did not have a reason.
“It wasn’t just like throwing a dart in the wall and saying, ‘I hope.’ But you have to feel comfortable. I go back to history, we made some pretty big player trades because you felt you could win. That’s when you do it.”
The players who Lamoriello has acquired for a first-round pick (plus other assets) with the Islanders — Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Kyle Palmieri, Alexander Romanov and Bo Horvat — all signed longer-term extensions after being acquired.
That would likely be a requirement if he were to deal a first-rounder away again at this deadline.
Since the salary cap is set to rise substantially over the summer, signing an extension with a player might be feasible. But the Islanders would still have to fit a potential acquisition under the cap for the rest of this season.
Would Lamoriello be willing to trade an established piece of the core to make that happen? He’s not ruling it out.
Keep up with the most important sports news
Sign up for Starting Lineup for the biggest stories.
Thanks for signing up
“You look at what it is that you can do to make the team better,” he said. “It’s a difficult question to answer until something came about. No such thing as no one will be traded. And I don’t look at that or say that to say everybody’s available — that’s not the case. I hate when people ask that question of who isn’t available? That’s a very difficult question.”
That is a long-winded way of saying anything could be on the table for the Islanders over the next two weeks.
Unsurprisingly, Lamoriello affirmed he still believes in this group’s capabilities and likes what Roy has brought since being hired as head coach a month ago.
“I think exactly what I would hope that Patrick would bring, knowing him and his coaching style and how he thinks is accountability,” Lamoriello said. “I think that we had to get more of our fundamentals, if I use that expression, done right all the time. And I thought that had slipped somewhat.
“No disrespect or anything to the past whatsoever but you have to play a certain way. Every coach has a certain way of doing things and there’s not one thing wrong but everybody has to do it together and consistently. But I think we’re going through a little bit of a transition right now.”
That said, Lamoriello believes any team that qualifies for the playoffs can win the Stanley Cup.
So as long as the Islanders are in the playoff mix, by that logic, they are a Cup contender, provided they find the consistency which has eluded them so far this season.
“If I didn’t think and believe in the group, you wouldn’t make a coaching change,” Lamoriello said. “I believe in the group. I feel that. But we have to play to our capabilities, like any other team. And I think that you have to be very careful when you even answer questions like that, you get taken out of context.
“All you have to do is look at the history of the playoffs. Look at the history of who wins. I can go back to my past where we had success where we just about made it to the playoffs and went on where somebody never expected anything to happen. You get on a roll, you feel good about yourself, you have confidence and all the parts are going. That’s all it takes.”