Longtime NY Islanders beat writer says team should explore trading Mathew Barzal

When your season ends in collapse, off-season moves that felt unthinkable even two weeks ago are now suddenly things that need to be explored. That aligns with a tone shift from longtime New York Islanders beat writer Arthur Staple on Hockey Night in New York, and it wasn’t subtle. For a longtime observer of the team, this wasn’t just a critique.

“Why wasn’t the power play good enough this year? Now we’ve never thought we would need to say it, but now we’re saying, why wasn’t the power play good enough?” Staple said, framing the conversation. “So that means you point the fingers… the fingers get pointed more at Mathew Barzal.”

That’s where the conversation turned — not just to performance, but to roster construction under general manager Mathieu Darche.

Staple walked through the lineup methodically, almost eliminating options in real time.

“When I’m talking about what Mathieu Darche has to do this summer in terms of just taking bodies out and replacing them, you look at this forward group,” he said. “You’re not trading Cal Ritchie. You’re not trading any of your younger guys… You’re not trading Simon Holmstrom. You can’t really trade J.G. Pageau, Brayden Schenn, or any of these other mainstay guys.”

Even the obvious cap-clearing moves don’t move the needle.

“You probably want to trade guys like Anthony Duclair just to get them off the roster, but that’s not really gonna make a difference,” Staple admitted.

And then came the conclusion.

“So to my mind, there’s one guy — and it’s Matthew Barzal.”

It wasn’t presented as a hot take. It was delivered like a reality the organization may have to confront.

“He’s got a 22-team no-trade clause… nine teams he can go to. I think it’s time to start exploring those options. You don’t necessarily have to do it… but I just feel like you have to.”

That distinction matters. Staple isn’t saying Barzal must be traded — he’s saying Darche has an obligation to at least examine it. With Matheiu Darche's mandate now, with Peter DeBoer and his coach, with Matthew Schaefer just starting, you have to figure out what’s gonna work going forward,” Staple said. “If you’re looking for a guy who you can move for an impact player or two coming back… There aren’t many guys in this group.”

That’s the crux of it — not talent, but execution. That's always been the criticism of Barzal, but if Darche were to explore a trade and find a suitor for an impact package, it would signal a major shift in his thinking from a few weeks ago, and an even bigger shift for the franchise, which would be moving away from one of their most familiar faces and exciting players for nearly a decade.

It's probably the only move that could create cap space and opportunity to change the makeup of the team, but that'll be a very difficult and controversial decision to make for the organization.