For all the words spilled over what the Islanders should do with Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri, that is — at least in theory — the easy part of this process.

The Islanders headed to California on Wednesday needing to jump five teams to be in a wild-card spot. They don’t have a path to contending for a Stanley Cup, or at least one where hope doesn’t make up most of the foundation. Nelson and Palmieri are on expiring contracts and could walk out the door for nothing this summer. You know all of this, and you know that nearly every team in every sport that faces a comparable situation becomes a deadline seller.

So while we wait to see if that is indeed what the Islanders do, let’s take for granted that it is what they ought to do. Easy.

Now for the hard part. What comes next?