Islanders: Predicting What Kyle Palmieri’s Contract Is

Lou Lamoriello is like a ninja, moving swiftly and quietly in free agency as the New York Islanders GM. It’s all but officially confirmed that Kyle Palmieri, Zach Parise, and Casey Cizikas have a deal with the Islanders we’re just not sure what those contracts actually are yet.

What I wanted to do was take a look at Kyle Palmieri specifically and see if I could predict what kind of a deal he’s getting based on context clues and other deals signed in the offseason.

First, we’ll give you some numbers for the kind of player that Palmieri is. In 51 games during the regular season, he put up 10 goals and 21 points between the Devils and Islanders. Pacing that out over a full season that’s 34 points and 16 goals.

In the five years, prior though with New Jersey, the 30-year-old Long Island native averaged 26.4 goals and 49.8 points. He’s usually a steady power play force and someone you can rely on on the right side in your top-six.

It’s likely fair to assume that he will be replacing Jordan Eberle up top on the first line alongside Anders Lee and Mathew Barzal. When looking at the term, we can try to use a context clue from David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period who said “the expectation is Kyle Palmieri is sticking around Long Island on a long-term deal.”

What does long-term mean? I highly doubt it’s six, seven, or eight years in length. For Palmieri, I’d anticipate a four or five-year deal.

Here are some contracts of forwards around the age of 30 from this offseason according to CapFriendly:

Taylor Hall (29): four-years $6 million AAV

Bone Jenner (28): four-years $3.75 million AAV

Blake Coleman (29): six-years $4.9 million AAV

Jaden Schwartz (29): five-years $5.5 million AAV

Mikael Granlund (29): four-years $5 million AAV

Mike Hoffman (31): three-years $4.5 million AAV

Palmieri Contract Prediction

Palmieri is coming off a deal that was paying him $4.65 million a year. It’s hard to see him getting over $5 million a year, especially with the Islanders cap situation. Perhaps, after a bit of a down year, they’re buying low on Palms?

Based on these six contracts we’re looking at, I think Mike Hoffman is likely the closest comp. He’s one year older and over the past three seasons, nd he has 82 goals to Palmieri’s 62. I’m going to say it’s a four-year deal at $19 million ($4.75 million AAV).

Want your voice heard? Join the Eyes On Isles team!

Write for us!

That would keep Palmieri signed through his 33-year-old season and that cap number is fair for someone who should pop in 25 goals and 10+ on the power play.