Islanders five players who could be gone next season

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DALLAS, TX – JUNE 23: (l-r) Lou and Chris Lamoriello of the New York Islanders attend the 2018 NHL Draft at American Airlines Center on June 23, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

Of the 23 players on the New York Islanders roster, who won’t be back on the team for the 2020-21 season?

As with every season, there is turnover on the roster. Players come and go. It’s just the nature of the game now. It’s just not the same game from the 80’s where the New York Islanders were able to keep 17 players through four cup winning teams.

That’s just not how it’s done anymore. With the salary cap, it’s just not possible to keep the same 17 players on the same team for multiple years.

So just like every season, we’re going to see some turnover on the New York Islanders roster heading into the 2020-21 season. We already have a pretty good idea who’s going to stay. Just look up the Islanders roster on Cap Friendly and any player with a contract is likely to be back next season.

Of the 23 players on the Islanders roster, five are heading towards unrestricted free agency. Which of those five players do they keep? Do they even keep any of them?

And just because a player has a contract doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed to stick around either. The Islanders are still looking to add more top-end talent to the roster and the best way to do that is it make trades. So, who could be as good as gone in the attempt to make this roster more competitive?

Here are five players that could be elsewhere in 2020-21 for various reasons.

(PS: I didn’t include Josh Ho-Sang on this list because he isn’t on the 23 man active roster but you know his days are numbered with the Islanders.)

Derick Brassard

Lou Lamoriello brought Derick Brassard in to be the Islanders number three center. He was supposed to be that veteran presence on the roster that the Islanders had with Valtteri Filppula in 2018-19.

He was also supposed to be that extra trigger man the Isles desperately needed on the power play last season. With all due respect to Cal Clutterbuck, he has no business being on the power play. With the little talent on last year’s roster, Barry Trotz had no choice but to put Clutterbuck out there.

But Brassard hasn’t been the help the Islanders signed him to be.

Through 66 games Brassard has 32 points to his name. Most of that came in a 12 game stretch during the Islanders historic 17-game point streak. In 12 games from October 24 to November 21, Brassard scored six goals and nine helpers for 15 points.

That has him scoring 47 percent of his production this season in 18 percent of the games he’s played. As you can imagine he hasn’t been great on the production from the rest of the year.

Perhaps the most glaring indictment of his season is how the third line completely caves when he’s centering it. He’s just not able to carry a line on his own.

He’s been OK on the power play. His ten power-play points (three goals) has him ranked third on the team.

But being ‘OK’ on the power play isn’t going to be enough to keep him around for another year. There’s no way that Lou Lamoriello doubles down on Derick Brassard and signs him for another year.

Thomas Greiss

This is going to be the final year for Thomas Greiss with the New York Islanders sadly. With his contract set to expire and with Ilya Sorokin waiting to step in, there’s just no room to keep Thomas Greiss on the roster.

He hasn’t been great this year. He’s averaging a 2.74GAA and a 0.913SV% in 28 starts. But that’s something of an anomaly for Greiss who’s typically been rock solid for the New York Islanders ever since Garth Snow signed him as a free agent in 2015.

Yes, there’s that 3.82GAA and 0.892SV% season under Doug Weight. But there are also three other years where Greiss was excellent. Even Vezina worthy.

In his first year with the Isles, 2015-16, Greiss held and average 2.35GAA and 0.925SV% in 38 starts for the Islanders. Thanks to his play in nets the Islanders made it to the playoffs in back-to-back years for the first time since 2003-04.

The heroics didn’t stop there. Thanks to an incredible 2.16GAA and 0.944SV% in six games against the Florida Panthers in the opening round of the 2016 playoffs, the Islanders were able to win their first playoff series in 23 years.

Two years later, he and Robin Lehner formed the best goalie tandem in the league and won the NHL’s Jennings Trophy for the fewest number of goals scored against. That season, Greiss held a 2.28GAA and a 0.927SV% in 39 starts.

Again, Greiss has been great for the Islanders. It’s going to be tough to see him go. But with Sorokin ready for the NHL and Varlamov under contract for another three years, Greiss is the odd man out.

I’m sure he won’t have any issues finding a new team, he’s an excellent goalie. But he won’t be here in 2020-21.

Andy Greene

I’m sure he’s a great pro and maybe the organization can make room for him in some sort of off-ice role if Lou Lamoriello likes him that much. But it’s the end of the line for Andy Greene and the New York Islanders.

The 37-year-old is at the end of a five-year deal worth $25 million that he signed back when Lou was still GM of the New Jersey Devils.

Going into 2020-21 the Islanders have seven defensemen already signed to NHL contract. There just isn’t room to keep a player who’s going to turn 38 at the start of the 2020-21 season on the roster.

Adam Pelech will be back and healthy. Ryan Pulock and Devon Toews will be re-signed following the expiry of their bridge deals. Scott Mayfield, Nick Leddy, Johnny Boychuk, and Noah Dobson are still signed for a few more years.

And Thomas Hickey is still under contract with a $2.5 million cap hit until 2021-22. That’s eight defensemen on the roster.

Maybe Greene still has enough left in the tank for a year or two. He’s played 63 games this season between the Devils and Islanders. He could be a good depth defenseman anywhere in the league. Just not with the Islanders who have their blueline sorted out for the following season.

Tom Kuhnhackl

He just doesn’t deserve to stay. I know Lou Lamoriello and Barry Trotz love their veterans. They love guys they can trust. They love guys who’s been there, who’ve been in the trenches and will do anything they tell them to.

The issue is that Tom Kuhnhackl just isn’t any good. Sure, he’s a fast skater and is probably a good professional. And yes he has those two rings from the Pittsburgh Penguins cups. But he just doesn’t bring enough to the table.

Just look at how ‘threatening’ Kunhackl is on the ice at 5on5 (per 60).

He’s all alone down there at the south end of the ‘bad’ quadrant of the graph. He just doesn’t do anything for the Islanders. There’s just no reason to keep putting out there multiple times a season.

The 28 games he’s played this year is already too much of an outing for Tom Kuhnhackl.

He’s a replacement-level player. Meaning the Islanders could technically find any player in the AHL and plug them in Kuhnhackl’s spot and get the same level of output.

The Islanders should be able to find someone in their organization that can be a more effective 13th forward in 2020-21. Letting Kuhnhackl walk is the right thing to do.

Andrew Ladd

Lou has been trying to move Andrew Ladd since the start of the 2019-20 season. According to Mike Russo of The Athletic, Lou’s been in communication with the Minnesota Wild since last summer about a possible trade (subscription required) for Andrew Ladd with Zach Parise coming back the other way.

It’s clear at this point that Andrew Ladd is surplus to requirements in Lou Lamoriello’s eyes and that the Isles GM is actively trying to find a new home for the 15-year NHL veteran.

I know that for most Islanders fans Andrew Ladd has been surplus to requirements for a while. From day one, there were questions if Ladd could justify the seven-year $38.5 million deal that Garth Snow gave him.

And we weren’t wrong to be worried. In his four years with the Islanders Ladd has 181 games just over two full seasons worth of games. In that time he’s produced 39 goals and 72 points. That’s hardly worth $5.5 million per year on the cap.

Ladd has missed time due to back issues and a torn ACL that he suffered in 2019. And at 34-years-old, it’s not likely to get better for Ladd on the injury front.

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He still has three more years on his deal after 2019-20, but Lou is likely going to find Ladd a new home next season. There’s going to be a team out there that needs to hit the cap floor that could use Ladd’s $5.5 million deal.

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