It's mailbag time! Let's get right to your questions:
Brett @brettywaffles: What do you foresee Ryan Pulock getting this summer as an RFA? It's pretty frustrating that Snow locked up the Isles' two average young defenders (Pelech, Mayfield) but not their one young star. Was he ever offered a similar five-year deal this year?
It looks frustrating now, sure. But Pulock wasn't in the NHL regularly until this season — whether you agree with that organizational assessment is another question, but the brain trust didn't see him take that step until this season.
Pelech and Mayfield are a year and two years older and further along the free-agency chain, so that's why they were offered the deals they got. Pulock's entry-level deal is just ending, so unless he's willing to take a similarly low-cost, long-term deal as Pelech and Mayfield did (unlikely), this feels like a bridge deal or a qualifying offer raise type of offseason for Pulock, despite the promise he's shown.
Cost control is the name of the game for every GM. You have to maximize the amount of time you can keep costs down before the approach of unrestricted free agency explodes your budget. So unless it's a multiyear deal that eats up a couple years of UFA, I'd think it'll be short term.
Mark Junior @junior_mark9: What veteran forwards could the Islanders see moving on from? How realistic is Karlsson?
I'm going to assume you mean Erik and not William, or even Melker… I'd guess it's very, very unrealistic to think the Isles could get Karlsson and afford to sign him for $10-11 million per. Probably better to aim at a couple other high-end defense targets like Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Jacob Trouba or Oscar Klefbom, if Arizona, Winnipeg or Edmonton is interested in moving either one.
As for who might be on the way out for the Isles up front, Brock Nelson is an obvious candidate. He's got one more year as an RFA and to say this season was subpar is an understatement. The Isles have Casey Cizikas, Cal Clutterbuck and Andrew Ladd locked up for four, four and five more years, which would seem to preclude any of them being moved.
So you'd imagine that, if the Isles wanted to sweeten any offer for a top-4 defenseman or a center should John Tavares tell the Isles he's out, Anders Lee is a possible chip, as mentioned the other day. He's got one more year at a $3.75-million cap hit and would certainly garner serious interest.
Nikolay Kulemin is a pending UFA and I would imagine the Isles would like to see him play a couple games at the end of the season here to know if he's worth bringing back on a one-year deal. Door is open there, I believe.
Jon Cav @JonCav: What is your opinion on the current state of the front office as this season winds down? Should we expect changes or more of the same?
This is the clear winner for question topics today, obviously. The short answer is that no one knows. The longer answer is one I've been providing for a while now, but we can go back over it.
Garth Snow is president and general manager. It's certainly possible that owners Scott Malkin and Jon Ledecky decide to do what Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon did a couple weeks ago with Ron Francis and move Snow out of the main decision-making role to make room for a new GM. Or they could fire Snow outright and rebuild the front office essentially from scratch, since Snow has hired all but a handful of the people who surround him.
That process could happen at any time in the offseason, even though the most logical time would be right after the season ends. The other logical assumption would be that Malkin and Ledecky have someone ready to take over, since this is a crucial offseason with lots of decisions to be made.
There are not many experienced NHL executives just hanging around the employment office, though.
Dean Lombardi is out there, but my understanding is he's not coming to work for the Isles, though it's not clear why. Aside from him, there are many assistant GMs ready to be hired for the big job, but to sit down with Bill Guerin or Paul Fenton or Mike Futa requires permission from their current employers, an interview process and suddenly we're getting into some time spent on this as the weeks tick off.
That's not to say it can't happen, either on April 9 or May 9 or even July 9 — though anyone who truly believes that the Islanders owners will fire Snow after Tavares signs elsewhere on July 1 (should that happen) isn't really thinking it through, since there wouldn't be many new GMs who would take over a team that late in the summer with the roster already set.
As for Doug Weight and the coaching staff, those are decisions that would be left to a new GM — and again, those would have to be quick decisions, given the time frame of the offseason. That also means Malkin and Ledecky eating six coaching contracts that just started last season. So I'd guess that Weight gets another year, but there's always qualifiers if a new GM comes in.
So there's your long answer.
Alexander J Guy @alexanderjguy: Was it a failure by coaching/management/scouting not to give Christopher Gibson a look earlier in the season, if for no other reason than to send a message to the NHL level goalies and the rest of the squad?
It's easy in hindsight to say that Gibson could have solved some of the goaltending issues earlier in the year, but the reality was in December that Gibson, coming off a 2016-17 where he played just seven AHL games before needing knee surgery, hadn't had much playing time that he desperately needed in Bridgeport.
And he hadn't exactly wowed anyone either — in mid-December, he was sporting a goals-against average just under 3.00 and a save percentage below .900. He's looked very composed since he came up, but the way the Islanders played defense in December and January would have made Glenn Hall look like a mess. It's hard to say if a new face in net would have altered the way the Islanders were playing.
Gibson is getting his look, though, and that's worth something. Given what the goaltending situation looks like with the Isles and around the league, where there doesn't seem to be a savior in waiting, Gibson gaining some experience and confidence to bring back next fall — he will be a UFA, however, so the Isles do need to act on him — would be beneficial.
Werner Mueller @NYisles1: IYO, what should be the team's top priority this offseason (aside from the JT saga)?
Finding a top-four defenseman. They simply won't win without one. A goaltender would be great, as would a No. 2 center behind Mathew Barzal if Tavares bolts, but this team needs a seasoned (not old), minutes-eating guy to plug into the top four along with Nick Leddy, Ryan Pulock and Johnny Boychuk. Ekman-Larsson would fit the bill; so would Trouba or Klefbom.
OEL has one year left on his deal and will get a decent raise off the $7-million ($5.5-million cap hit) he's due in 2018-19. Trouba is an RFA with a notoriously tough agent (Kurt Overhardt). Klefbom has five more years at a very affordable $4.17-million cap hit. All three will cost serious assets, but the Isles have those to move.
Englebert Berto @McBertos: From your point of view who is the biggest disappointment this season? And what about the guys who are RFAs after the end of the season? Who gets a long-term deal, who a bridge and who has to go?
There are some candidates for biggest disappointment but Greiss and Andrew Ladd stand out. Greiss was supposed to be the reliable guy, the goaltender who could play a few in a row or pop in and be steady. He was neither and it was a killer during the midseason slide.
Ladd has never been a prolific scorer, but heading into Thursday's game with 10 goals on just 98 shots on net means he's been pretty much invisible this season, despite some good possession numbers. His 0.38 points per game pace is a regression back to his first two seasons in the NHL with Carolina.
And the worst part with both players is the remaining money and term. Greiss has two more years at $3.3-million per; Ladd has five more at $5.5-million per, plus a no-move clause that doesn't convert to a partial no-trade until 2020.
Matthew Hamlin @matthamlin4: Your thoughts on Brock Nelson? Do you feel his tough season is attributed to changing linemates, lack of chemistry? IMO guy is a really talented player and has gotten a short end of stock this season. Btw Not saying he doesn’t deserve any blame.
Nelson definitely did not adjust to being outside the top six forwards or to Josh Ho-Sang's demotion. Both left a guy whose best asset is a sneaky wrist shot without someone to set up said shot and it was clear, at least this season, that Nelson is not someone who can create much for himself. He's at 215 shot attempts with nine games left after averaging 295 per year his first four seasons.
The reason Weight never sat Nelson was the same reason that Jack Capuano kept giving Nelson opportunities despite games and weeks where Nelson wasn't terribly engaged: He has skill. On this team, a bottom-sixer with skill is a desperate need, even if Nelson didn't live up to expectations.
He'll be an attractive trade chip should the Isles decide to move him, given one more year as an RFA and a modest cap number ($2.5 million) he's coming off. I'm as curious as anyone to see what happens with him.
CJ @Isles4lifeCj: Why hasn't the Isles ownership group come out to address the on-ice product and its decline? This is disheartening.
A good question, only because Ledecky has been front and center doing his yeoman's work to sell the team and his and Malkin's ownership since last season. It's hard to face the public when things go wrong, especially if there are personnel decisions to be made.
But you can't soak up the adoration in good times and ignore the frustration in bad times as a sports team owner, especially with the Islanders and their fractious history of ownership. Interview requests have been made and politely declined. We'll see what happens when the season ends.
Anneke Chodan @AnnekeTweets: Given that what’s left of the session is auditions for future roles, think we see anyone else come up from BPT? Eansor maybe?
It would be interesting to see Scott Eansor (currently injured) or Mitch Vande Sompel or even good AHL solider Kyle Burroughs get a taste of NHL life, but Bridgeport is still in the hunt for a playoff berth and, with Sebastian Aho being sent back to the Sound Tigers on Thursday, it seems clear that leaving the AHL group alone to fight for a playoff spot is more appealing than a quick look at the end of this already-finished season.
There's pros and cons to both ways of development, but the Isles normally choose the most conservative route.
The fact that the team tweets it is comical.
Thanks for posting, Vukota. I presume that was Staple?
