NY Islanders players speak on Brock Nelson's departure to to Colorado Avalanche

It's difficult to see a teammate and a friend move on. A tight knit group like the NY Islanders, many of the players have spent their careers with the same organization and have made lasting friendships that go beyond the ice.

With Brock Nelson's departure to the Colorado Avalanche, many of his teammates took the ice today for the first time without Nelson skating alongside them.

Nothing but kind words from Brock Nelson's former teammates

Casey Cizikas and Nelson have spent 11 seasons together, ever since Nelson made his regular season debut in 2012-13. Now, Cizikas is preparing for life after Nelson, understanding this is part of the business.

"It's not easy," said Cizikas at practice today. "It's the business we're in. It's kind of the s****y part of what we do."

Nelson wore an "A" on his jersey since the 2018 season, building a strong bond with captain, Anders Lee. Either Lee or Nelson has led the Islanders in goals in each of the last eight seasons, and now the captain will be without one of his close running mates.

It's just one of those things you can't really prepare for how you're going to feel about," says Lee... "Brock has a presence in this room and has been a true Islander for his entire career here, so when someone like that isn't in the room the following day, we're not going to be able to replace his presence. On a personal level, it's just weird. Spent a lot of time together, a lot of great time and have shared a lot of experiences and grown up together in many ways."

A professional in every sense of the word, Nelson was a mentor for younger players, none more than Noah Dobson. Though there's almost a ten-year age gap, Nelson became a mentor for Dobson, and was someone he could look up to as a teenager trying to make it in the NHL.

"I love Brock," said Dobson. "He was one of my closer buddies on the team. We spent a lot of time together, dinners, all the time on the road. Just a great person off the ice, obviously on the ice speaks for itself."