Hockey content creator rips Mathieu Darche’s 2026 trade deadline in GM tenure grades

The early returns on Mathieu Darche’s tenure as New York Islanders general manager were overwhelmingly positive. But according to hockey content creator Mike Bartner, much of that goodwill disappeared with one disastrous trade deadline.

“Today on the GM Tenure Grades series we got my favorite team’s GM, Mathieu Darche,” Bartner wrote. “It started off so well last offseason, but then the 2026 deadline happened.”

Bartner did not hold back when assessing Darche’s work at the deadline, calling it “one of the worst deadlines I’ve ever seen in my life.” His biggest criticism centered around Darche’s decision to add veterans rather than either stand pat or use the deadline to improve the organization’s long-term outlook.

“Acquired two actively bad players in Soucy as well as Palat who had another year at $6M!” Bartner wrote. “Then traded the COL 1st to get Schenn in the year 2026.”

Bartner acknowledged why Darche may have been reluctant to move veterans such as Jean-Gabriel Pageau or Anders Lee with the Islanders still battling for a playoff spot. His issue was what Darche did instead.

“I get not selling off Pageau/Lee because they were in the playoff hunt, but to acquire 3 washed vets at overpayment AAV’s & 2 of which had term, insanity,” Bartner wrote.

The results only strengthened his argument.

According to Bartner, the Islanders were 28-19-5 before the trades and went just 16-15-0 afterward, meaning the aggressive veteran additions failed to produce the intended boost.

Darche’s tenure can hardly be judged entirely on one deadline, especially after a promising first offseason. But for Bartner, the 2026 deadline represents the first major blemish on the Islanders GM’s résumé and one significant enough to dramatically change the grade.

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