NHL Trade Deadline Primer: Brock Nelson

The New York Islanders do not need to fully commit to a full-scale rebuild, but they do need to be sellers.

The NHL Trade Deadline is on March 7, so it is time to start taking a look at some players that could be on the move and some bigger picture trade deadline subjects. Today we focus on New York Islanders forward Brock Nelson (and Kyle Palmieri as well) and how the team needs to make the decision to sell this season.

It’s not always the prettiest hockey, and they do not always get a lot of attention for it, but the New York Islanders have been a really successful franchise over the past six years. They have been in the playoffs five times, they’ve won six playoff series, they’ve played in two Conference Finals, and they always seem to exceed whatever expectations the outside world might have for them. There are not many teams that have topped that over that stretch.

It is, at times, maddening to watch from an outside perspective because there never really seems to be anything overly intriguing about them.

They don’t typically score a lot of goals.

They don’t usually defend as well as their reputation.

They have not always made the best roster moves.

There is a lot of heavy lifting being done by the goalies to prop things up.

The only thing that matters at the end of the day, however, is the results. For the most part, the results have been there.

Until now.

Even after winning four games in a row and seven of their past nine games, the Islanders are still very much on the fringes of playoff contention in the Eastern Conference. As of Tuesday morning they would need to play at roughly a .617 points pace the rest of the way just to have a fighting chance at the playoffs. Just for context, only three teams in the Eastern Conference have a points percentage of .617 or better so far this season. They would basically need to play at a top-four pace over their remaining 34 games and that is just asking an awful lot from a group that has not really shown an ability to play at that level in this season or recent seasons.

That leaves the Islanders in a situation where the playoffs are a long shot, they are 29th in goals scored per game, 13th in goals against per game, they have not won a playoff series since the 2020-21 season, they have the fourth oldest roster in the league (with many players on the wrong side of 30 signed to long-term deals), and they have a couple of pending unrestricted free agents that are already into their mid-30s.

Put all of that together and general manager Lou Lamoriello is now in a situation where he should something he has almost never done in his career, and has never done with the Islanders — he needs to become a seller.

Especially when it comes to forwards Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri.

Let’s talk about it.