ST. LOUIS — Between the additions of Brayden Schenn and Ondrej Palat, the Islanders added two players worth about $13.5 million to their books, but they aren’t currently worried about creating a cap squeeze. Not for these playoffs, when Alexander Romanov is a possibility to return from LTIR, and not for next season.
“I don’t see the playoff cap being an issue at all,” general manager Mathieu Darche said. “With all the players available, we have 23 guys on the roster, cap compliance. Take three off every game [the playoff cap is calculated using the 20-man game roster], it’s not a problem at all. Even if Rommy comes back, we don’t see that being [a problem].”
The Islanders are not getting full cap relief currently on either Romanov or Kyle Palmieri, as they haven’t filed paperwork declaring either out for the year.
(Palmieri, who has a torn ACL, is a much longer shot to come back than Romanov, but since the Islanders haven’t needed the extra dollars, they’ve kept from declaring anything just in case.)
Including Jonathan Drouin and his $4 million cap hit in the Schenn deal was key to making the numbers work, and ditto for Max Tsyplakov ($2.25 million) in the Palat trade.
On net, the Islanders added $6.25 million across the two deals — not insignificant, but also less than half of the sum total of Palat and Schenn’s cap hits.
The Islanders are projected to have $15.21 million in available space over the summer, per PuckPedia, with Anders Lee, Carson Soucy, Tony DeAngelo and David Rittich set to be unrestricted free agents.
That should give them some room to maneuver, and Darche’s longer-term vision is to keep enough veterans in place that the Isles can keep contending while their current prospects are finding their footing as NHLers.
“[Matthew] Schaefer is the outlier,” Darche said. “I know he’s 18, but even in your first year, anybody in their first year at 20, it’s a very [small] minority that actually have an impact and help you win. So it gives us time for those guys to come and by the time they’re ready to take a bigger role, it’s all give to Paul, take from Peter or vice versa.”
There is some incentive for the Islanders to try and maximize what they can do while Schaefer is still on his entry-level deal, as their cap situation will change in a big way if and when he signs a long-term extension in 2028.
Darche said he is not thinking in those terms.
“The next contract, we’ll see where it goes,” Darche said. “That’s the least of my worries.”
Ilya Sorokin will start in net for the Islanders on Tuesday.
