Islanders podcast: What to expect on the Isles RFA front

What kind of deal will it take to sign each of the New York Islanders three restricted free agents? And is an offer sheet a real issue?

We continue our offseason discussion with our New York Islanders deep-dive podcasts over on Patreon. In our latest pod, we take time to look at the Islanders three pending  RFAs: Mathew Barzal, Devon Toews, and Ryan Pulock.

All three are currently negotiating a contract extension with the Islanders and all three are continuously mentioned as targets for an offer sheet. So what kind of deal will either be looking for and can they actually be the target of an offer sheet?

You can sign up for our Patreon feed here. For $5/month you get access to multiple deep-dive podcasts per week, a weekly mailbag podcast, polls, newscast.

Get the podcast here

All three play an important role for the New York Islanders. Mathew barzal is the team’s number one center and top offensive weapon. And since the departure of John Tavares, he’s also become the face of the franchise.

Ryan Pulock is the team’s number one defenseman. He plays top minutes at 5on5, on the power play, and on the penalty kill. He’s routinely out there against the opposition’s best players and shuts them down.

Devon Toews is a smooth-skating defenseman with a ton of offensive upside. He’s also the Isles power-play quarterback.

The Islanders need all three of them but they only have $8.905 million to keep them all. That’s not enough space to sign all three. We discuss what it might take to sign them. We also discuss if you should be worried about a team coming in and giving any of them an offer sheet and at what point should the Islanders match or take the compensatory picks from the other team.