Islanders Lou Lamoriello still active in the NHL trade market

The 2021-22 NHL regular season is only a few days away. While the season officially opens on the 13th, the New York Islanders don’t officially open the season until the next day.

So you’d think the Islanders roster would be basically set. And if you didn’t you could fall back on the fact that Barry Trotz indicated 90% of his roster for Saturday’s game against the Rangers would be his NHL roster.

But in Saturday’s pre-game media availability Barry Trotz himself indicated that the Islanders aren’t done working the phones.

New York Islanders still working the trade market

Trotz told reporters that the Islanders that Lou Lamoriello is still working the trade market both to finalize assembling the roster and likely trying to find a home for some of the players that don’t make the cut and have to go through the waiver wires (where the Isles would lose them for free).

You might say: “What could he be looking for exactly?’ And that would be an excellent question. Again, the Islanders roster seems basically set. If there’s a spot that might need to be shored up it’s on the blue line.

The Islanders don’t yet have an established Nick Leddy replacement. And by that I mean, they don’t have a player who has demonstrated at the NHL level that they can perform the same type of role that Nick Leddy once occupied.

Now, they could certainly place Noah Dobson in the role. The 12th overall pick from 2018 has been sheltered over the last two seasons. Now might be the time to let him fly. Which would mean the Islanders don’t have any needs to fill through the trade market.

Unless they can package some of their extras (like Bellows or Koivula) to acquire an upgrade on someone currently on the roster.

We’ll see what happens (if anything), but seeing that Lou isn’t done yet means that everyone will be constantly refreshing their phones this weekend.