The Islanders enter the upcoming campaign needing to prove that 2026-27 won’t merely be a bridge season. That mission begins in earnest when they break ground on training camp in just under a month.
At the front office level, just about everything they did this offseason looked like it was focused on keeping the decks clear over the long term, with the Islanders set to have tons of salary cap space available next summer along with a promising group of prospects who will be a year further along in their development.
Players and coach Pete DeBoer, though, will want to break a playoff drought that threatens to reach three years — and no doubt will believe they have what it takes to do so.
Best move
There’s not a lot to choose from — Matias Maccelli and Vitek Vanecek were the only NHLers signed, and both were one-year deals — so we’ll go with something else entirely and say Mathieu Darche’s best move was his forbearance.
