The door is not closed, not yet, not officially, on Anders Lee to return to the Islanders. No one is eager to see the captain leave, not when he’s just 77 games away from becoming the fourth player ever to hit 1,000 games in blue and orange, not when his leadership still means so much to this team, not when he’s still a perfectly productive player, scoring 19 times last year at age 35.
Maybe Lee’s camp and Mathieu Darche find a way between now and Wednesday to keep him on Long Island. But all the noise and rumors leading into Day 1 of the NHL draft on Friday indicated that one side or another would have to compromise, likely on terms as opposed to dollars.
“We’ll see,” Darche said Friday night after using the 13th pick to select Swedish defenseman Malte Gustafsson. “July 1 is Wednesday. I talked with the agent [Neil Sheehy] yesterday. … Still talking. We’ll see what happens in the next three days.”
Darche proved last summer with Noah Dobson that when he draws a line in the sand, he won’t step over it. Lee, an NHLPA rep for the Islanders who would be one of the top free agents available should he make it to market — albeit in an underwhelming class — will be understandably wary of doing the same. It’s been clear since breakup day that things could end in an amicable separation.
