Mathieu Darche explains why the NY Islanders couldn't afford to lose JG Pageau

One of the bigger moves GM Mathieu Darche made at last season's trade deadline wasn't a trade at all, it was extending Jean-Gabriel Pageau before he had a chance to hit free agency.

Some fans liked it. Some didn't. But after hearing Darche explain it on the latest episode of On The Island, it's pretty easy to understand where he's coming from. The New York Islanders GM basically said what a lot of coaches and teammates have been saying about Pageau for years.

The guy can still play.

"There’s been no regression in his game the last few years," Darche said. "Even if he’s thirty-two, there’s been zero regression."

Whether you agree with that or not, it's clearly how the organization views him.

And honestly, if you watched the Islanders last season, Pageau was still doing a lot of the little things that don't always show up on the scoresheet. Taking big faceoffs. Killing penalties. Getting thrown out there when the other team's best players were on the ice.

That's valuable.

Especially for a team that already has enough questions to answer this summer.

Darche specifically pointed to Pageau's ability on faceoffs and the penalty kill as reasons he wanted to avoid letting the veteran center walk for nothing. "He's an important player on our team," Darche said. "That's a top penalty-killer. A top faceoff guy."

The key part might have come next.

"Before taking a risk of losing a player like that for nothing, I had to make sure we could get a deal done." That's really what this came down to. The Islanders weren't interested in waiting around, getting to next July, and then realizing they had another hole to fill down the middle. Not after already making changes elsewhere on the roster.

Pageau isn't the flashiest player on the team. Never has been. But every good team seems to have a couple players like him. The guys fans sometimes complain about because of their limitations until they're gone, and then they realize how valuable they were all along

Whether the extension ages well remains to be seen. But listening to Darche talk about it, there was never much doubt he wanted Pager sticking around.

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