Islanders RFAs: What’s the story on all 2021 restricted free agents

The New York Islanders have nine restricted free agents. Who are they and what’s their story as they approach the end of their contracts on July 28?

A few days ago I looked at every single one of the New York Islanders unrestricted free agents. That meant all of those on the regular playing roster and off of it. The goal? To see where the Isles (and the player) stood as the free agency period approached on July 28.

Today, I wanted to focus on the other group of free agents; the restricted ones.

These are the guys who can’t go to the open market, per se. They can sign an offer sheet with another club if they wanted to, but the Islanders have the right of first refusal on any offer sheet. Basically, they still have control over RFAs where they don’t have that same control for UFAs.

So, who are all of the Islanders RFAs, and where do they and the organization sit?

On Offer Sheets

I wanted to address this first. I don’t see an offer sheet coming for any of the Isles RFAs. Yes, Lou Lamoriello is operating near the peak of the salary cap, but so are a number of teams.

And while any team can offer an RFA a contract the player actually has to sign it. I can’t see any of these RFAs signing one considering this team has been a few wins away from the Stanley Cup final in back-to-back years.