Islanders Roster May Still Be Under Construction

Rosters need to be submitted by tomorrow at 5:00 pm ET, but the New York Islanders might not be done with theirs just yet. Barry Trotz hinted that Lou Lamoriello is still working the trade lines with the roster deadline rapidly approaching.

"“He’s not finished assembling the roster, still trying to do some things.”"

Now before you get into a frenzy, it more than likely isn’t a big splash that Lou Lamoriello is looking for. As much as I love the idea of Vladimir Tarasenko on this team, we’re much more likely to see the Islanders trying to dump salary or extra bodies.

As of now, the Islanders haven’t announced the deals for Zdeno Chara, Zach Parise, Keiffer Bellows, Cory Schneider, and Michael Dal Colle which is likely going to be in the range of $3.75 million for all five players.

The Islanders currently have $3.73 million in cap space and have Johnny Boychuk’s $6 million on LTIR that they can play with but they still likely are looking to move away a piece or two, even after waiving Thomas Hickey and Richard Panik yesterday.

Hickey cleared waivers so the chances of a team trading for him sounds pretty low, but maybe Leo Komarov gets moved? The Islanders really like Leo but with his $3 million cap hit and an abundance of bottom-six forwards maybe they see him as expendable at this point?

Do the Islanders see a future with Kieffer Bellows? I’m not exactly ready to call him a bust yet but I do find it hard to believe that he’s going to get a shot at the roster this year. Maybe he would be included in a deal as an incentive for taking on a contract.

Anaheim, Buffalo, and Ottawa all have $15 million or more in cap space at the moment so they would seem like the most likely suitors in a trade.

The Islanders didn’t put anyone on waivers today so clearly, something is up. Keep a close eye out for movement over the next 24 hours or so.