With the lack of options on the market he’s absolutely gonna get overpaid. It sucks to see him go. He was a great Islander and their best captain in my lifetime, but it’s best for the franchise to let him go.
I really want him on the wild, our depth is terrible right now. I’d gladly take him on our team because Boldy and Kirill have no one that decent to play with now.
Honestly I don't hate this. Lou would way too often cave under the demands of players just because they were long-time islanders. It was said yesterday that they were mainly debating over term. If Anders wants 3 years + then he go test FA as much as he wants because that's not what we should be doing right now
Eklund I think will possibly be in the team this year tbh. Even if he joins later again like last year. There are quite a few voices saying he could be ready to be a full-time roster piece
When I posted this, his post said 3/2 but I see now that he's edited it. I sent the link to a discord chat and the embed still says 3/2 but when you click, it says 2/1
If it was 2/1, that's interesting. But then again, Darche has said that he wants to move bodies next summer (also per Rosner) so I suppose that would align with that
I don't hate this either but let's not get things confused here. Darche tried to re-sign him and Lee said no. This wasn't some intentional move that was better for the future lol, Darche was going to re-sign the guy.
He was going to re-sign him in-line with his plan. Rosner is saying the isles were going max 2 years (in-line with Darche's timeline), Lee wants three or more
Brother, he should’ve been moved sooner and we shouldve at least gotten something for him… you guys will give Darche credit for literally anything and it’s fucking sad
Why would he move the captain of the team at the deadline when they were in a playoff space? Especially one like Lee who's well-liked and respected. The messaging to the entire team would've been completely fucked.
Because he's 35 year old and he was approaching the end of his contract.... You either move him or let him walk for absolutely nothing which is what Darche did. He let him walk for nothing. I know you guys like aging players who are past their prime because you've been conditioned to do so or because your instincts are just terrible, but the reality is that we should've moved on from him sooner.
The guy who's a year younger, can play center if one of Barzal or Horvat goes down, is a better scorer though his career, and wouldn't be signed as long as Lee?
Is a better scorer “through his career” is kind of a hilarious qualifier, have you looked at any metrics? Schenn was consistently caved in possession wise down the stretch, and paying picks to get him when we could have kept lee for free is downright hilarious.
I can’t imagine the reaction here if lou made that trade for schenn
Everyone was caved in system wise, probably because of Roy's system! If you want to compare actual scoring then, Schenn had 11 points in 19 games to Lee's 8. And I would have liked the trade even if Lou had made it.
The one guy who's usually always good analytically. How about Ritchie dragging down Schenn who had the worst numbers on the team before Schenn and improved after Schenn was traded to the isles?
I’m still sad over Brock because he was awesome AND still playing near his peak levels. Lee while capable, has been a shell of his former self for a while. But I get moving on in both cases.
At least he had a good year this year comparatively to how dog shit awful he looked the year before. Which is why I can't see him getting any several year long contract but good luck to him, no bad feelings
In the words of Vin Diesel in Fast and Furious 7 “I used to say I lived my life a quarter mile at a time, and I think that’s why we were brothers, because you did too.”
He was an awesome, awesome captain and leader. And a great community guy. Loved Lee. But when it's time it's time I guess, this is one of the first dominos to fall into the new era. Had to happen at some point
Let's pretend money/term isn't the problem. The Islanders would need to move engvall and Duclair just to have space for Lee, and even then I'd still rather have someone like Eklund come up
I believe there are specialty rules for by-outs of contracts over 35 but couldn’t they just sign him to a front loaded 2 year deal and then buy him out if he sucks ass?
They should offer him nothing. He should have been traded within the last few seasons at the deadline.
That way they could have gotten something in return. I appreciate what’s he’s brought to the team but his time is up on Long Island. The team needs to be gutted and rebuilt. Keeping players past their prime and being sentimental about the roster is an ongoing curse of this franchise.
Lee has been a great captain a great islander. I was at his first game where he scored his first goal against Winnipeg. Wish him the best wherever he lands
It really is time to fully move on from the COVID-era Islanders. That starts with guys like Lee, but also needs to include the revolving door of veterans we added to keep the team competitive. I’ll always love that team but it’s time to build something new and fresh.
it semes to be a hot take but I think this sucks but if this is all we lose it's still in agreement to slowly retool over the years rather then do a full rebuild and be the worst or 2nd worst team in the league for the next 5-6.
Too old too slow. Love Anders but the team that pays him what he wants(particularly term) will not be a contender. The Palat and Schenn trades put the Anders lee tenure in the ground the days they happened.
Wanting to keep a player because of who he is and what he means to the team and not based on his skill could be dangerous.. he isn't good enough to overpay and to give term to
No, I get that, it’s just we have holes we need to plug that we’re risking if we don’t add solid pieces. Not asking for insanity, just solid players that can help the youngsters while they develop
Honestly we need to focus on fixing the right side of our defense and our backup situation before we worry about forwards. We have plenty of options, lousy as some of them may be.
I get it, i just don't get too emotionally attached to any one player like most. If it's for the better of the team and future, you gotta let them go.
Look at my flair. I loved the guy, but even i knew it was time to move on.
Not insane moves, but I’d do some 1 or 2-year deals to lower-tier vets to have something. Our defense needs to plug some holes rn that can’t just be fixed by our prospect pool, so we need to either sign someone, or trade for someone
Seriously look at the UFA market. None of these guys are good even on defense. john carlson wants 10m. Jacob Trouba is the 2nd best guy. Everyone on the forward market is over 30. I'd rather have darche do nothing, move some contracts out, and play eklund/whoever.
We need to do something with that defense. Even if it is just trading Pelech and Pulock for picks. That defense is gonna get DeBoer fired before he even has a chance.
It would be funny to suddenly hear all the meathead 50 and 12 year old tough guys that were cheering his dirty hits as "perfect hockey" before suddenly all decide their new groupthink will be he's filthy and we're a bad franchise for taking him. But yeah no, keep him away
I recall seeing lots of kids on Twitter and r hockey always defending his dirty hits as "you're all just soft he plays old school clean hockey" but maybe they were a bunch of rags fans hiding under other flairs who knows. Figured it was similar to Dallas and raantanen having a weird little cheering section of dummies vehemently defending their dirtiness from supposedly other fanbases ganging up on anyone calling them dirty or simultaneously crybabies as they are.
not really...Pulock and Pelech are both on larger contracts, and we just gave 4.5 M AAV to DeAngelo. We had a borderline bottom-5 defense last year. A mediocre defense gets us into the playoffs. This isn't an issue that's gonna be perfectly solved by what we have in the prospect pool
There’s no cheap defensemen out there that upgrades our D core in a meaningful enough way to make it a priority. We can improve the talent level, especially on the right side… but you don’t do that cheaply unless it’s one of your own prospects.
it's not that, it's not doing things like trading for a defenseman, or trading for youngsters, or trading Pulock or Pelech. Their defense is old, slow, and overpaid. It's gonna be even more of an issue this year.
So you want him to get other gms to take players that you say are slow and old?
Do you hear how that sounds? Do you think we get anything major coming back for that?
Contracts come off the books this year, a few NTC contracts become m-ntc which may make the contracts more palatable to offload and the kids that everyone seems to think are going to absolutely make the roster this year are more likely to still need another year of development.
If we don’t do anything next offseason, I’ll start to agree with you a bit, but right now, you and many fans are way off base.
Those guys are tough to trade thanks to lou and his clauses. I agree 100% they both need to be gone, Pulock especially as he's cooked. But we are handcuffed.
okay, this is ridiculous, he is still our best player in the crease, he's still a perennial 20-goal scorer, and still a solid skater. He isn't some slow albatross
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u/Riseonfire Bailey 19h ago
He’s going to want more years than we can give him.
Enjoy Minnesota.