So that was an anticlimactic week for the Islanders.
While the rest of the league whirred with activity — Brady Tkachuk, Jordan Kyrou, William Eklund, Simon Nemec, Mason McTavish, JJ Peterka, Pavel Dorofeyev all moving, with Dylan Larkin, Zach Werenski, Jason Robertson and Kirill Marchenko seemingly up next — the Islanders went quietly about their business.
They re-signed Tony DeAngelo, maintained a dialogue with Anders Lee and made their draft picks as scheduled, with defenseman Malte Gustafsson the headliner at 13th overall before Lincoln Kuehne, Vladimir Dravecky, Artyom Matyuk and Robert Cowan were added to their stable of prospects Saturday.
The number to get DeAngelo back, $4.5 million, leaves the Islanders with about $6 million in space, depending on whether you count players like Victor Eklund and Isaiah George. Mathieu Darche needs to find a backup goaltender in free agency as a safety net for Semyon Varlamov. Though he sounded optimistic about the 38-year-old returning from a double knee replacement to back up Ilya Sorokin, Darche also must make decisions on restricted free agents Max Shabanov and Marc Gatcomb, having already told Adam Boqvist the Islanders won’t qualify him.
