Late additions fuelling Islanders in playoffs

[TheScorpion]

For the second time in my tenure as GM, the Islanders have made the Final 8.

We dispatched the Montreal Canadiens in a five-game upset to get to this point. It took us a while to find the right mix of players in the regular season but we finally put together something that seems to work in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline.

I tried putting together a defence-first team for the longest time but the thing that always seemed to sink us was a lack of scoring. Faced with the choice between buying or selling with around six weeks to go, we decided to try and make something out of this year and started adding more forwards to our group.

Adding Anders Lee was big. He has six points in five playoff games. We got Nick Schmaltz in that deal, too, and we were able to flip him eventually to get Joe Pavelski, who has been enormous. Pavelski has primarily played wing for us and has five points in five games. He should re-rate extremely favourably for us next season, although we'll probably have to pay through the nose to keep him.

Getting Rob Bortuzzo from Tampa to stabilize our third pairing has given us such a boost. We gave up Johan Larsson, Vlad Tkachev, and a 5th to acquire him. He perfectly fits into our cap structure and has been really reliable.

Then we made a huge swing and got Erik Karlsson. We needed a defenseman after flipping Weegar for Toffoli and Brannstrom, and we managed to flip Brannstrom, Karel Vejmelka, and an overpaid Hornqvist for EK and Luke Glendening (who we eventually flipped for Cogliano).

It really sucked to give up Brannstrom and Vejmelka. I think they'll be good NHLers for a long time. But Karlsson is still so great when he's on and he'll always be valuable in the sim. Should re-rate well after a very productive year in SJ, even if he's missed a lot of it due to injury.

We still weren't done. We then moved to add Brock Boeser, a player who I really like, in exchange for Rickard Rakell and Logan Stankoven. I *love* Logan Stankoven and I'm going to try as hard as I can to get him back in the summer. But I'm not super high on Rakell and he wasn't a great fit here. Younger players typically aren't as valuable in the sim but Boeser has really clicked. He's one of seven Islanders scoring at or above a point-per-game pace in the playoffs.

Finally, we made a couple more major deals. We moved Eberle to Edmonton for Drouin, which I really went back and forth on for a bit but ultimately felt was for the best. It was a deal I had to make for money reasons, so I was happy to get a guy in Drouin who I've always coveted and who I still think has legit upside. Ebs is a really nice player but I also found him a bit redundant on my team. Drouin has been pretty good on my third line.

Then, we got Mike Smith. I can already hear Jiri saying "gross," but Smitty has been just what we needed: someone who can relieve the strain on Talbot and give us really strong goaltending performances in the playoffs. Smith went 2–0–0 with a .919 save percentage against Montreal.

We're not perfect. Our fourth line has been flat-out *bad* and it really surprises me because it's basically the first time all year that Marcus Foligno hasn't been effective in the sim. I'm going to keep that unit together to start the second round but it'll be on a short leash. I don't want to have to scratch Skinner for Kassian, but if I have to...

Anyway, here's our team:

Jonathan Marchessault (0 G, 4 P) – Bo Horvat (3 G, 5 P) – Joe Pavelski (3 G, 5 P)
Anders Lee (2 G, 6 P) – Mikael Backlund (3 G, 5 P) – Tyler Toffoli (1 G, 4 P)
Jonathan Drouin (1 G, 3 P) – Ryan Getzlaf (0 G, 2 P) – Brock Boeser (2 G, 5 P)
Marcus Foligno (0 G, 0 P) – Andrew Cogliano (0 G, 0 P) – Jeff Skinner (0 G, 0 P)
Zack Kassian (has not played)

Oliver Ekman-Larsson (1 G, 4 P) – Brenden Dillon (0 G, 2 P)
Adam Pelech (1 G, 6 P) – Erik Karlsson (3 G, 7 P)
Robert Bortuzzo (1 G, 1 P) – Torey Krug (0 G, 1 P)
Mark Pysyk (has not played)

Cam Talbot (2–1–0, .901 SV%)
Mike Smith (2–0–0, .919 SV%)
Braden Holtby (has not played)

Here's hoping we can finally win the 16th playoff game that we didn't in 2018. With a bit of luck, I think we have a real shot.