New York Islanders Pending Unrestricted Free Agent Possible New Deals

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 16: Jordan Eberle #7 of the New York Islanders is congratulated by teammae Mathew Barzal #13 after Eberle scored the game winning goal in overtime against the Los Angeles Kings on December 16, 2017 at Barclays Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.The New York Islanders defeated the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 in overtime. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

The New York Islanders have a number of pending unrestricted free agents. Assuming they want to keep them, how much should they get paid and for how long?

This season a number of notable New York Islanders players are entering the final year of their contracts. Seven players are entering their final year and become unrestricted free agents at the end. They’ll be playing for a contract in 2018-19.

Their performances this season will dictate how much they will command on their next deal, and for how long. And ultimately, if the New York Islanders want to keep them around.

So how much should (or could) each of these players command at the end of the season? While teams like to lock up their free agents before their contracts expire, Lou is very much in a “show me what you got” mode. He’s not going to give these players a deal until he’s certain he knows what he’s got.

How much they get from Lou will depend like I said, on how well they perform this year. That’s typically how these negotiations work. Recency is key. Put up a 30 point season in a contract year and you’ll get paid like one. Even if you put up 60 two years prior.

So for this contract prediction, I’ll define each pending UFA’s new deal based on how I believe they’ll perform in 2017-18. A better season is a ten percent increase over their 2017-18 production, a similar season is +/- ten percent, and a worse season is a return of less than ten percent.

While some of these players might very well be great trade pieces, in this pieces I’m just going to focus on a contract extension and not their trade potential.

Note: I won’t be going over Jan Kovar, Valtteri Filppula, or Tom Kuhnhackl. Jan Kovar has no previous NHL stats to compare to. Valtteri Filppula at 35-years-old and Tom Kuhnhackl who is already at best a fringe player won’t be back next season.