No Islanders File for Salary Arbitration

New York Islanders GM works in silence, but that doesn't mean we can't pick up on the scent of his work behind the scenes. Sunday was the deadline for players with salary arbitration rights to file by 5 PM, according to the NHL Players' Association. There were 24 players that elected to have a salary arbitration hearing, none coming from the Islanders organization.

According to LawInSports, the NHL adopted a salary arbitration procedure to allow for an equitable process to resolve wage disputes while also enabling the league to make it more difficult for a player to reach unrestricted free agent status.

The Islanders have four players that are currently restricted free agents, and only two that have arbitration rights. Noah Dobson and Alexander Romanov don't meet the qualifications to file for salary arbitration, thus, they'll have to hammer out a new contract with just their agent and Lamoriello. Kieffer Bellows and Parker Wotherspoon do meet the qualifications to file for salary arbitration, however, elected not to do so.

One could draw the conclusion that both Bellows and Wotherspoon have already figured out their contracts with Lamoriello as they have been confirmed not to have filed for an arbitration hearing. Neither are likely to break the bank as both still have plenty to prove, Bellows at the NHL level, and Wotherspoon has yet to even crack the NHL lineup.

This isn't atypical of Lamoriello. The Islanders had signed all of Anthony Beauvillier, Casey Cizikas, Kyle Palmieri, and Ilya Sorokin to multi-year contracts in the summer of 2021, however, no official word was released until September 1st. The same goes for Zach Parise who was announced nine days later.

Islander fans are restless as the lone team remaining this summer that has yet to make a transaction since the free agency window opened up on July 13th. We might not get official word of any transactions for the next little while, but the tea leaves indicate things are in motion behind the scenes.