Islanders: Three reasons Mathew Barzal won’t be drafted in Seattle expansion

They have no desire to get rid of him

Mathew Barzal gets benched for a period and immediately, the speculation is that he wants to play somewhere else. Wild.

I’m sure Barzal liked playing in Seattle. By all accounts, Seattle is a great place to live and work. And Barzal had a great junior career with the Thunderbirds.

In 202 games with the WHL’s Thunderbirds, Barzal scored 278 points in the regular season and another 65 points in 49 playoff games. He also won an Ed Chynoweth Cup in 2017 after winning the WHL playoffs. He was also named the WHL playoff MVP that year. So yeah, he had a good time in Seattle.

But to move from the Islanders, an established organization poised for a run at the Stanley Cup in the biggest sports market in North America, to move back close to home in an attempt to recapture the glory days of junior for an expansion franchise is a stretch in my books.

There are certainly questions around what the New York Islanders do with their star player and what to do with his next contract. But effectively trading him to Seattle is last on the list of options by a considerable distance.

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For the New York Islanders, there’s no reason to move Mathew Barzal. Regardless of what happens in 2021. There’s no way they can get a Barzal back in any transaction with Seattle so moving him is a non-starter for the Islanders.