With only 10 days to go until the March 1 trade deadline, the Islanders would traditionally be a team that’s still on the “buy or sell?” fence, given that they entered play on Saturday still on the outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
But this is not a traditional deadline season and the Islanders don’t really fit the traditional mold right now. With the expansion draft looming in June, general managers are trying to figure out who they’ll need to protect and who might be lost for nothing when Las Vegas gets to select one player off each of the other 30 teams’ rosters.