ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Islanders have generally followed one of two paths at the trade deadline under Lou Lamoriello’s tutelage.
Either Lamoriello has gotten his work done in advance of deadline day, as he did in trading for Bo Horvat and Pierre Engvall a year ago and dealing for Kyle Palmieri in 2021.
Or he has done nothing at all, content with what he has, as in 2022 and, after a quiet Friday afternoon, in 2024.
“There’s no question that I feel good about who we are, where we are, certainly, at this point,” Lamoriello said on a Zoom call. “We did not feel that we could have upgraded.”
Lamoriello publicly closed off any notion that he would sell earlier this week and all along, the path to buying appeared narrow.
After the Islanders put Scott Mayfield on long-term injured reserve on Tuesday, it looked like that might open up enough salary cap space for them to add a depth piece somewhere, but despite the general manager putting his first-round pick on the table, nothing came to fruition.
“If our first-round pick would have done something for us, like it has done in the past, we would have done that,” Lamoriello said.
“It wasn’t a question of, because we haven’t had a first[-round] pick [since 2019]. You make the decision that is best for today and tomorrow and certainly what enters in is the comfortability if you do use it [in a deal] that you can sign that player if you’re putting that in a package.
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“So that wasn’t the thought process of trying to save the pick and not make a transaction to make the team better. That would have happened should there have been the ability for us to do [it].”
Friday made it four straight trade deadline days in which the Islanders have stood pat.
The last time Lamoriello made a deal on the final day of asking was all the way back on Feb. 24, 2020, when he sent three draft picks including a first and second-round pick in that year’s draft to Ottawa in return for Jean-Gabriel Pageau.
Just like last season, Lamoriello made his move in January, in the form of a splash that instantly became the biggest headline in the league.
But instead of a blockbuster deal, it was a coaching change, with Patrick Roy replacing Lane Lambert.
“I’m not even thinking about this,” Roy said Thursday night, asked about the deadline. “I’m so happy the way we are playing. Lou does his things and we have to do our things. I think the focus is on our games, how we want to play. No one in here can control what’s gonna happen tomorrow.
“I would say this to you: I’m very excited about the way the team is playing and that’s all that matters to me.”
That was the diplomatic answer, but also the logical one after the Islanders dismantled San Jose 7-2 to extend their winning streak to a season-high five games and get within two points of a playoff spot.
Mayfield is out for at least 4-6 weeks, but the Isles have been content with how Sebastian Aho has performed on his off side in spelling him. Lamoriello also said that Robert Bortuzzo, a righty, should return from LTIR “in the next several days.”
Depth scoring has been a problem spot for much of the season, but since Roy has changed over the forward lines, it’s gotten better.
And the tight salary cap was never going to allow for adding a superstar like Horvat for a second year running.
“You don’t make a trade for the sake of making a trade,” Lamoriello said. “That’s not in the vocabulary. And sometimes the best trade you make, when you have a lateral situation that you might consider, you always lean towards the people that you know and who you have and the risks of what might happen. And what you have to consider, too, is the chemistry of the team. That’s extremely important.”
And right now, that is rolling along quite nicely.
“We’ve strung a couple together, gotta keep climbing here,” Noah Dobson said Thursday night. “But definitely, the vibes have been good.”
