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Isles Set To Begin Talks With Nielsen/Halak Injury News

May 18, 2016, 10:44 AM ET [239 Comments]
Noel Fogelman
New York Islanders Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
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Islanders general manager Garth Snow will soon start negotiations with Frans Nielsen's agent. The 32-year-old forward will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

The longest-tentured Islanders recorded his second 20-goal, 50-point season in 2015-16. He was second on the team with seven power-play goals and led with two shorthanded goals. While the team struggled in possession this season, Nielsen was one of the bright spots. His Corsi and Fenwick were both over 50 percent.

Nielsen was the last of the top nine forwards to get a chance with John Tavares. The duo, along of Kyle Okposo gelled quickly and had success early in the playoffs. It would be interesting if Nielsen gets another spot on the top line next season. If that's the case, Snow would have failed to address his number one need this offseason.

Nielsen will get a nice raise from the four-year, 11 million-dollar contract he signed back in 2012. The only real question is for how many years. The Islanders, to keep the cap hit a bit lower would likely offer Nielsen a 4-5 year contract.

Snow and Nielsen's agent have six weeks to get this done. I think that this gets done fairly quickly so Snow can turn his attention to Matt Martin.

Newsday is reporting that Jaroslav Halak requires surgery to repair a sports hernia. It's unknown if the 31-year-old already underwent the procedure. The recovery time is six-eight weeks.

This is on top of the groin injury which caused him to miss the entire postseason. With the emergence of Thomas Greiss, Halak would seem to be the odd man out going into next season. If Snow can find a taker for him, it would free up 4.5 million of cap space each of the next two seasons.

Halak posted a 18-13-4 record with a .9191 save percentage and 2.30 GAA
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