There’s a contract Islanders have to get out of ASAP

The New York Islanders made a bit of a bet at last year’s NHL trade deadline. The club took on Ondrej Palat’s contract after getting a sweet deal from the New Jersey Devils.

Palat, whom Mathieu Darche is quite familiar with, promised to give the Islanders a little extra experience and help. He immediately made an impact, but didn’t do much else beyond scoring a couple of goals down the stretch.

Now, as we look at the 2026-27 season, it seems that this is one contract that the Isles have to do their best to get out of ASAP. While Palat can offer quite a bit for the Islanders’ bottom six, the contract is far too onerous to be justified. Unless Palat scores 20+ goals this season, it will be toughing selling a $6 million cap hit. His grit and reliability are still there. But without a scoring touch, there’s really no business case for paying him that much.

That was part of the gamble the Darche made when he traded for Palat. And unless he can really hit the ground running this upcoming season, Islanders fans may quickly tire of Palat’s presence on the roster.

Trading Palat won’t be easy for Islanders

The Devils struggled to trade Palat last season. The team found virtually no interested parties. As such, they had to pay a little extra to convince the Islanders to take on the final year and a quarter of his contract.

This season, however, the Islanders are on the hook for his entire cap hit. And it’s something that other teams will once again think twice about before asking about Palat’s availability. That’s why it’s safe to say that dumping Palat’s contract won’t be easy. But it’s something that the Islanders will have to look into, especially as the season wears on. Palat’s cap hit could go towards significant reinforcements down the stretch, particularly if the Islanders are hopefully in the thick of the playoff race.

So, what can we expect? The most reasonable outcome is that the Isles are stuck with Palat’s contract for this season. He’ll be a UFA next summer, meaning that the club won’t have to pay him moving forward.

That situation, of course, does not preclude Palat from returning to Long Island. But if he does, it won’t certainly be for $6 million AAV. We just have to wait and see if Palat can sort of live up to his contract this season.

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