Islanders: Looking at success rate of big trade deadline acquisitions

The 2018 Trade Deadline

• Ryan McDonagh (to Lightning): 2-1-3 (14) // 0-5-5 (17)
• JT Miller (to Lightning): 10-8-18 (19) // 2-6-8 (17)
• Tomas Tatar (to Golden Knights): 4-2-6 (20) // 1-1-2 (8)
• Evander Kane (to Sharks): 9-5-14 (17) // 4-1-5 (9)
• Paul Stastny (to Jets): 4-9-13 (19) // 6-9-15 (17)
• Ryan Hartman (to Predators): 3-3-6 (19) // 2-1-3 (9)
• Rick Nash (to Bruins): 3-3-6 (11) // 3-2-5 (12)
• Derick Brassard (to Penguins): 3-5-8 (14) // 1-3-4 (12)

Maybe it’s just the pandemic? Look at all the forwards here who’ve done well for their teams in the regular-season post trade. There are only three guys who don’t have good numbers post-trade. Tatar, Nash, and Hartman. That’s it.

It’s probably not much of a coincidence that these three players combined for ten points across 29 playoff games that year.

Which kind of continues what we saw for the 2019 trade deadline. Both in 2018 and 2019 players got nearly 20 games to get used to their new clubs. Sure, none of them powered their teams to a Stanley Cup, but they certainly tried.

Stastny had the greatest impact with 15 points across 17 playoff games with the Winnipeg Jets. This shows when a player fits the role he’s being brought in to play things can work out pretty well.

And that’s the worry with Kyle Palmieri. This is probably an oversimplification, but his ice time has gone way down since joining the Islanders. He’s averaging 14:39 under Trotz while he was getting 17:47 on average with the Devils.

Palmieri was seemingly brought in to play in the top six, but at the moment he’s playing on the third line. That’s probably why he’s not performing very well at the moment.