Islanders must avoid panic buying this season

The New York Islanders have proven one key thing this season: Injuries don’t have to be a death sentence for a team. The Isles have lost several key players this season at various points in the year. As it stands, the Isles have Alexander Romanov, Kyle Palmieri, and Bo Horvat out of the lineup.

Those four should be enough to send the team packing for the season. But unlike other clubs, the Islanders have shown their resilience. They’ve stayed in the playoff hunt and have actually thrived.

Much of it has to do with the overall construction of this team. GM Mathieu Darche prioritized depth over the summer. Emil Heineman and Maxim Shabanov have been pleasant additions up front. Tony DeAngelo proved he wasn’t a flash in the pan last season, with David Rittich providing solid backup goaltending.

Then, there’s the biggest factor of all. The Islanders have had young players step up and become key pieces for the team. The most evident player is Matthew Schaefer. I must admit I didn’t want Schaefer playing in the NHL at 17, going on 18 years old. But he has proven me wrong, and everyone else who doubted him wrong.

Schaefer looks like the real deal and has morphed into an elite top-pairing defenseman in about two months or so. If there was one team that didn’t need to trade for Quinn Hughes, it was the Islanders. Schaefer, at this rate, could be just as good or even better than Hughes.

That aside, the emergence of Calum Ritchie and even Travis Mitchell has precluded Darche’s need for panic buying. The internal solutions allowed the club to avoid going out and bringing in players for the sake of filling holes.

Moreover, the emergence of said players has gone beyond merely the role of placeholders. They have meaningfully contributed to the Islanders’ overall success. With that in mind, Darche must avoid succumbing to panic buying. Now is not the time to pony up draft picks and high-end prospects for veterans. For instance, paying a high price for a center wouldn’t make a ton of sense at this point. Ritchie could be that center, while Mathew Barzal seems to have returned to his usual stuff.

Plus, when Horvat hopefully returns, he’ll boost the lineup with his impressive play this season. His return to the lineup could be the equivalent of acquiring a player via trade.

Ultimately, the Islanders could upgrade only if the deal makes sense. Unless there’s a way that JG Pageau, for example, could turn into useful pieces the way Brock Nelson or Noah Dobson did, then it’s just best to sit on the sidelines and watch the carnage among teams desperately looking to add pieces at any cost.