New York Islanders Keeping Options Open With Jordan Eberle

The New York Islanders seemed prepared to let Jordan Eberle walk in free agency. Apparently, they are keeping in contact and discussing contracts.

Over the next few weeks, the New York Islanders will try to sign their pending UFA’s before they hit the open market on July 1. Robin Lehner and Anders Lee are definitely candidates to get re-signed, that was expected.

What is a little unexpected is the Islanders haven’t closed the door on Jordan Eberle. According to David Pagnotta, the Islanders are keeping in contact with Eberle discussing the possibility of an extension.

When the Islanders decided to make Anders Lee captain before the season it was assumed that Eberle would be the odd man out of the free agent bunch. It was unlikely that the Islanders would bring back both Lee and Eberle, or so we thought.

Eb’s didn’t help his cause this season, with arguably the worst year of his career. In 78 games, he had just 37 points (19 goals, 18 assists). Statistically, it was the worst regular season of his career and coming at the worst possible time, a contract year.

Luckily he made up for it in the playoffs with goals in each of the first four games in the Pittsburgh series. Jordan Eberle is coming off a six-year $36 million contract. He’s likely do a slight raise and can probably get up to $7 million AAV on the open market.

Ideally, you’d probably like to upgrade and bring in an Artemi Panarin or Jeff Skinner but Jordan Eberle is certainly a fine fallback option.

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