GMs across the NHL unsure if the NY Islanders will make Brock Nelson available for trade

The trend the last few seasons has been teams making trades weeks before the actual trade deadline - including the NY Islanders who acquired Bo Horvat in January of 2022 - over a month before deadline day.

This season we haven't seen the amount of trades as years past, outside of the Mikko Rantanen and Martin Necas swap between the Carolina Hurricanes and Colorado Avalanche.

There is a belief that one player that is holding up the trade frenzy is Brock Nelson. The lifetime Islander is one of the most sought after centers in the league, but many GMs who may be interested in acquiring Nelson's services aren't even sure if he will be available on the trade market.

Will Nelson be made available for trade?

"Another big name that teams are wondering what exactly is going to happen with him is Brock Nelson - a pending UFA - and he's kind of holding up a lot of things," said Pierre LeBrun on TSN's Insider Trading. "There are so many teams looking at center help. He's one of the big names, but there's still no clear indication from the New York Islanders that Brock Nelson will actually be made available. Part of that is I think the Islanders are still hoping to try and re-sign him and that's not been resolved one way or another."

With it looking like there will be minimal high-quality centers on the market come next Friday, Nelson is one of the biggest fishes out there despite being well below his goal scoring pace for the last three seasons.

The Islanders remain seven points out of one of the final Wild Card spots in the Eastern Conference with 24 games remaining and five teams ahead of them also chasing a playoff spot.

There is belief that Lou Lamoreillo is still hoping to extend Nelson before Friday's deadline comes along.

"Now, I did have the chance to speak with Isles GM Lou Lamoriello on this day," says LeBrun. "You know he's going to keep things close to his vest. When I asked him about Nelson, he said: 'All I will say is that he's an Islander and he's certainly an integral part of our team.' But I think part of that is, again, is I think he's trying to sign him. The one thing Lamoriello did concede is when I asked him about not always trading pending UFAs in the past - in other cases on other teams - and Lamoriello said 'Yes', that is part of his of his history. But he didn't tip his hand either way as to what that might mean for Brock Nelson."

With three games between now and the trade deadline, we should know Nelson's fate by this time next week.