The 3 best deals on the NY Islanders roster for the 2023-24 season

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If you haven't checked your inbox yet, you're lucky.

On Black Friday, you wake up to dozens, if not hundreds, of e-mails from every website you've ever visited offering you a special offer that you must act on now! The New York Islanders team site is offering discounts on their merchandise, too, but rather than look at apparel, we thought we'd take a look at some of the better roster discounts the team has during the 2023-24 season.

Here's a list of the 3 best deals on the Islanders roster for the 2023-24 season:

Brock Nelson - $6M AAV

GM Lou Lamoriello signed a 27-year-old Nelson to a six-year extension after a productive 2018-19 season that saw him score 25 goals and finish with 53 total points, the third-best point total on the team. Prior to Barry Trotz arriving, the jury was out as to whether Nelson could earn that type of long-term commitment from the Islanders or any other team.

He had always shown an ability to score but would go either long stretches of games or the season without being noticed. Trotz turned him into more of a complete and consistent player and a quiet sniper who has turned into the team's most reliable goal-scorer.

Nelson is the fourth-highest-paid forward on the team behind Mathew Barzal, Bo Horvat, and captain Anders Lee, but he has arguably been the most productive since he signed that extension. He was named a first-time All-Star last season, and after posting 37 and 36 goals over the last two years, he leads the team with 10 through 18 games, including two vs. Philadelphia on Wednesday.

His next contract will be an interesting one. He's an UFA after the 2024-25 season, and it will be interesting to see what an increased salary cap means for a player in his mid-30s who is still able to score 30 goals a season.

Noah Dobson - $4M AAV

After a breakout 2021-22 season where he scored 13 goals and 38 assists, Dobson was a restricted free-agent, and there was discussion as to whether or not he had shown enough to earn a long-term commitment rather than a bridge deal. Nevertheless, in late August, the team announced that the 22-year-old defenseman had signed a three-year contract extension with an AAV of $4M per year.

“He has to continue to grow the way he did this year,” GM Lou Lamoriello said at the time when questioned about a possible long-term extension for the defenseman. “We have to see a little more from Noah to make that long-term decision.”

A year and a half later, Dobson is on his way to showing Lamoriello and the rest of the front office that he's worth a long-term deal. Despite facing criticism for his lack of development on the defensive end a year ago, Dobson followed up his 51-point season with 49 points (13G, 36A) and received praise from Lamoriello before the season, projecting him to be among the best offensive defenseman in the league. Through 18 games, he has five goals and ten assists, tied with Barzal for the team lead in points, and has been in more command as a power-play quarterback than last season.

The Isles will enjoy one more year with Dobson making $4M AAV before his AAV heads northward, and is likely to surpass the deals Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock signed before the 2021-22 season.

Ilya Sorokin - $4M AAV

This one comes with an asterisk as we already know that Sorokin already signed an eight-year extension that kicks in at the start of the 2024-24 season, but for purposes of this exercise, his $4M AAV still qualifies as a major discount, especially while the salary cap still sits at $83.5M.

Sorokin was in a similar position as Dobson when he signed a three-year, $12M extension with the team after the 2021 season. That year, Sorokin went 13-6-3 with a career-best 2.17 GAA, including three shutouts. While he wasn't quite ready to supplant Semyon Varlamov as the team's No.1 goaltender, Varly missing time led to him appearing in 52 games during the 2021-22 season, finishing 26-18-8 and a 2.40 GAA for a team that missed the playoffs.

Sorokin finished sixth in Vezina Trophy voting after that season and was just as good, if not better last season, posting a 2.34 GAA and .924 save percentage. He was the biggest reason the Islanders made the playoffs last season and received Hart Trophy votes in addition to finishing as runner-up for the Vezina.

To date this season, he hasn't performed as a goaltender worth $8.25M let alone the $4M he is earning this year. He took a positive step forward with a 32-save performance against the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night but has a below-average GAA of 3.21 and a save percentage of .909 through 12 games. There's still plenty of time for him to regain the form that made him a Vezina Trophy favorite before the season and for the Islanders to take full advantage of his average No.1 goaltender AAV for a few more months.

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