Barring the sort of winning streak that the top five teams in the Metro Division have each had this month, the Islanders are entering the NHL’s Dec. 19-27 roster freeze thinking not short term, but long term.
The NHL trade deadline is not until Feb. 28, but it would behoove the last-place Isles to start thinking about and offering up any roster players they can to contending teams to try and get a jump on the deadline action and to free up roster and salary cap space for 2017-18.
Amazingly, the Isles already have $65.8 million in cap space tied up for next year among 19 players — all 14 of the forwards that count against the current year’s cap (including Mikhail Grabovski), four defensemen and goaltender Jaroslav Halak.