2. Anders Lee
New York Islanders
The New York Islanders have to do their own soul-searching after a terrible loss to the New York Rangers this week. They are barely hanging on to their playoff hopes, and if time hasn’t run out, it’s very close. The Islanders have 57 points, which puts them ahead only the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres in the Eastern Conference. They are seven points out of the second Wild Card spot.
The Islanders also have Lou Lamoriello as their team president. He’s in his 80s and still pulling the strings. He doesn’t want to give up on the seasons until he absolutely has to. That’s getting close.
Once he does have to throw in the towel, there will be as many as a dozen available assets from his team. The big piece will be young defenseman Noah Dobson, but the Devils won’t be in the market there. He’s going to cost an arm and a leg, and the team doesn’t need a defender this year. They will also have backup goalie Semyon Varlamov up for debate, but again, the Devils don’t need him. Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri are two players who have been tied to the Devils in the past, but the one we want to discuss is Anders Lee.
Lee is a very expensive player, coming with a $7 million cap hit, but the Islanders will likely eat half of that in the right move. We’re not even worried about the cap hit. We’re worried that Lee is having a very momentary addition to his score sheet. He had a down year last year with just 20 goals, but he bounced back this season, already scoring 23 goals. Will he be able to continue the scoring with a new team? We don’t think so.