New York Islanders Projected Contracts For Free Agents

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Let's talk free agents. And and specifically not like the entire league, but those within the Islanders organization. What pending free agents do the Islanders have? And what are the projections for the contract that some think they're owed.

[00:00:14]>> [music] >> You're listening to Up the Turnpike [music] with hosts Mitch Anderson and Matt O'Leary.

[00:00:26]>> [music] >> Welcome to Up the Turnpike, your source for New York Islanders content both here on YouTube and over on Patreon, where we have our podcast that we do twice a week. So, sign up today at patreon.com/uptheturnpike.

[00:00:44]Uh just a little bit of housekeeping, apparently Pete is going to be in the video and I can hear the cat bouncing around. They are unsettled for some reason today. I don't I don't understand. They're just in each other's face, so we might have a few little cameos during this video. Uh so, the Islanders pending free agents, not just unrestricted, but all free agents, either unrestricted or restricted free agents. Who are they and what are they projected to receive as a next contract?

[00:01:12]And should the Islanders actually do that or not? So, let's just kind of flip over here to CapFriendly, which it may be isn't the Anyways, it's the site that I like to use just to like in terms of visualizing how everything is laid out. PuckPedia's maybe superior.

[00:01:27]I'm sorry, CapFriendly. I still love you because of how you lay things out. I I prefer looking at it this way. Uh anyways. So, in terms of free agents coming up at the end of this season, uh if we're going from the top up, that's forwards to defensemen to goalies, obviously you have Anders Lee's the big one, we'll get to him. We'll get to all of these. Uh and then you have Chabs, Gad Cole, Carson Soucy, Tony DeAngelo, Adam Pelech, in net's David Rittich, and uh that's about it.

[00:01:55]>> [laughter] >> The cat and dog are going at each other right behind me as we go.

[00:02:00]Unbelievable. Okay, so what are the projections for their next contract and should the Islanders just kind of like sign on the dotted line?

[00:02:10]Um so we're going to go by these one by one and thankfully CapFriendly just has this fancy dancy little um tool, if you will, when you hover over a player's UFA status, you get this little AFP analytics projection of what their contract should be in the next season.

[00:02:26]So for David Rittich, we have two years they project at $1.645 million.

[00:02:32]Should the Islanders do that?

[00:02:35]Probably not. Sorry Big Save Dave, you weren't the Big Save Dave at the end of the year that we needed. Um I'm not going to say that cost us playoffs because it doesn't rest solely on the shoulders of David Rittich in any way, shape or form. But it certainly didn't help um not having a backup to kind of like take a little load off of Ilya Sorokin. And so we're going to be searching for another backup.

[00:02:55]Assuming that Semyon Varlamov can't go, which he might very well be able to go based off of how his season ended. So maybe we're not in the backup goalie market.

[00:03:04]Maybe. Either way, we don't sign that contract for David Rittich. Sorry. 2 by 1.65, no thank you.

[00:03:10]Uh next on the list, Adam Boqvist is a pending RFA at 1 point or sorry, 1 year at 892.5 thousand.

[00:03:21]Cat's got the zoomies.

[00:03:23]Um do we sign that?

[00:03:26]No, probably not. Although like it's RFA, so you maybe at least qualify him.

[00:03:32]So you can hold on to that, maybe give him up as as in some sort of package to, you know, maybe further some some either for picks to then transfer elsewhere to something else. Uh but like he's very much a seventh defenseman in this lineup. Um I don't imagine Peter DeBoer is going to be like, "Unlock him. Thank god I have Adam Boqvist." I just don't see it happening. So, I don't think we sign that necessarily, but a qualifying offer isn't off the books, and then maybe we sign it to the qualifying offer and send him down to the minors, maybe.

[00:04:03]Uh next, Tony DeAngelo, 2 by 2.194.

[00:04:07]Absolutely. You absolutely sign that deal.

[00:04:10]Yeah, obviously this is a very non like super specific number. They're not going to sign a 2.1944 contract for Tony DeAngelo for 2 years.

[00:04:19]It's effectively giving him 2.11% of the cap hit, and that's really the whole argument here. Um which kind of fits. Like, he's getting 1.8% of the cap this year, as you can see over the number right here, at a $1.75 million.

[00:04:33]The cap is going up by a crap ton next year to $104 million.

[00:04:37]Do you sign Tony DeAngelo at 2.194?

[00:04:41]Yeah. Yeah, you do. Like, he's proven to be a really good player for this team.

[00:04:45]Uh fits his role perfectly. We need right-handed depth. He's a right-handed shot, right? If you didn't know that already for some reason. Uh he's giving us that mobility on the blue line that we don't necessarily have without him, outside of Mayfield, of course. And he helps us on the power play.

[00:05:00]You can say helps us on the power play, but the power play woes do not come down to Tony DeAngelo in any way, shape, or form. It's it's a collective issue, if you will. But anyways, we're scrolling down here just to get some numbers. Tony DeAngelo, 35 points, five goals in 76 games, averaging 19 minutes a game for $2.2 million.

[00:05:19]Hell yeah. Ab- absolutely. Well, without a doubt. Would I have been singing that tune 2 years ago? No, no, I wouldn't have, but that's that's where we are today.

[00:05:29]Um and I'm I'm happy to make that deal.

[00:05:32]Carson Soucy, no, already. I don't even know what the number is, and already it's a no. It's already a no. 2.194, absolutely not. Nope. No, no, it's not happening. I'm sorry, Carson, but your cameo for the Islanders was not a successful one.

[00:05:48]Um we need to split up ASAP. Uh I know you I I I know you may you're all thinking the same thing. I just needed to say it for my own words.

[00:05:57]So that wraps up D and goalies to forwards we go. Mark Gatcombe at a $5,000 increase. Sure, fine. Like could you find a better fourth line winger? Maybe. Is he a fine fourth line winger? I I think so. That fourth line really kind of, you know, did did a number last I specific at the end of the year last year. I thought they were very efficient, very effective. Uh and so I I like him on the fourth line.

[00:06:21]Maybe if you give him a better center.

[00:06:23]Right now, Casey Cizikas Cizikas has been a great fourth line center, but is no longer a great fourth line center. If you can give me a better fourth line center to work with, maybe we see a little bit more production, maybe a bit more. But either way he gets the job done for less than a percent of the cap, done. Absolutely. Easy easy win.

[00:06:39]Um to Maxim Shalunov at 1 by 1.534.

[00:06:46]>> [sighs and gasps] >> I'm not so sure like yes, the number's fine.

[00:06:51]Let's just get straight to it. The number here for Max Shalunov is totally fine. Uh there's no problems here with that in any way, shape, or form. I keep saying that. Anyway, there's no reason to to squabble about the actual number here for Max Shalunov.

[00:07:03]I think the issue we have when it comes to Max Shalunov is where the heck do you play him?

[00:07:09]Like we're looking to add more to our top six and he should be a top six player, but struggled in in that role. Okay, well, bottom six. Okay, sure, maybe a third liner, fine. But again, we're looking to make changes to the top six. So I arguably, the guys that we have up there now, maybe one or two of them jump down.

[00:07:28]And so you're getting that that kind of crunch of players in the same spot.

[00:07:33]And he's one of the guys you're like, I don't know if I saw enough to say he definitely needs that spot in the lineup over someone else.

[00:07:41]Um so like that's where you going? I don't know.

[00:07:44]Oh, maybe but then again can you squawk at a play a price of 1.5?

[00:07:50]Let's just say he signs 1.5 million dollars, maybe 1.75 let's just say.

[00:07:56]Is that a pretty good price for a guy who can play in your middle six? Yeah, that's really really good and that's great savings that you could move on elsewhere in the lineup. So, I I would certainly sign it. I you certainly qualify him at the very least.

[00:08:11]Unless you can find a buyer somewhere unless for some reason there's a team out there that's like I really want it to get into the Max Chabanov business and you can find a new home for him and you'll get like, I don't know, a second round pick for him. That might be lofty, I know, but I'm just pitching things out there.

[00:08:29]Then you do that, 100% but otherwise you sign him to that 1.5 million dollar maybe 1.75 million dollar deal. It's it's nothing at the bottom of the end of things.

[00:08:40]And then you have Anders Lee.

[00:08:43]They're saying three by 6.6 million dollars for Anders Lee.

[00:08:50]Now, I'm just going to pose the question to you right before I get into anything else. Do you sign Anders Lee for three years at 6.6 million dollars?

[00:08:58]I personally wouldn't.

[00:09:00]That is not something I'm running to do.

[00:09:02]I like Anders Lee, love him as a player, was a good captain for this team, productive, great power forward.

[00:09:10]But it it he's lost a step and it's only going to get worse.

[00:09:14]6.6 million dollars doesn't sound like a great number.

[00:09:18]Now, you're probably going to say at least some of you like, yeah, but the cap's going up to 104 million dollars Mitchell like that, we're going to have money to play with and 6.6 million dollars is a decrease, a pay cut from last year.

[00:09:32]Absolutely. You're absolutely right that it is a pay cut, you know, $300,000 pay uh, over last year. It is 6.3% 6.35, sorry, percent of the cap versus 7.3% of the cap this year. So, he's, you know, dropping by one percentage point.

[00:09:49]But, we're not losing 1% of Anders Lee's production year-over-year here.

[00:09:53]Right? Like, you you look at his stats, 42 points in 54 games, playing a significantly smaller role, like, a minute and a half less of ice time on average. And that's only going to go down as his shooting percentage. His shooting percentage went down nearly three full percentage points year-over-year.

[00:10:13]And he's losing that, um, the those that shooting percentage from his office.

[00:10:19]He's shooting at 14% in high danger areas, 5% in mid-range. You're not getting a whole lot from Anders Lee outside of this immediate office in front of the net.

[00:10:29]And now you'll notice the screen that I have up here is a comparable between Charlie Coyle and Anders Lee. And the only reason I'm bringing that up is because Charlie Coyle recently signed for 6 by 6. And they're relatively close in age, right? Charlie Coyle 34, Anders Lee 35. They don't play exactly the same position. Lee's a winger, Charlie Coyle's a center.

[00:10:49]Um, but you've got the significantly worse player in Anders Lee, right? Who's again, you're just looking at the shooting percentage, which is lower for Anders Lee. And that's his bread and butter is his shot, or at least his goal conversion is dropping. Uh, you don't have a great defensive player. Like, they don't really use him a whole lot defensively.

[00:11:08]He's primarily an offensive player.

[00:11:10]Well, he's one of those guys we're talking about earlier who's going to have to drop down in the lineup, uh, assuming he stays, um, to make room for more talent up top. And he's not really a defensive player.

[00:11:22]That's not great. You need the guy to be, you know, responsible more responsible defensively. I'm not saying he's bad defensively. I'm just saying, you know, his bread and butter, the crux his game is offensive if offensive hockey. He's not really the you know, the defense guy.

[00:11:37]And then he's not really the fastest skater either when you compare him at least to Charlie Coyle. You know, it's not like crazy uh slow, but that's his max speed of 22.24.

[00:11:48]But like speed bursts are way down comparative to Charlie Coyle. Like like crazy slower.

[00:11:54]Right?

[00:11:56]So, you got a slower player losing productivity.

[00:12:00]Would you really sign up for 3 more years at 6.6?

[00:12:05]I'm fine with keeping Anders Lee.

[00:12:07]I I and I I'm at like a 40% chance the Islanders keep him just because he's the captain, loyalty has a part to play.

[00:12:14]He's a big part of this team emotionally.

[00:12:17]But I'm not signing up for 3 years at 6.6. If we're talking about like $5 million, fine. Fine.

[00:12:26]Right? That's 1.6 extra million dollars in our pockets for another 3 years, right? So, multi do the math. I can't do the math, you know, quickly here.

[00:12:33]Um that that's big savings. And $5 million is yes, not as much as it was in previous years.

[00:12:40]Um so long as we allow the other kids to take the step or take the position given up by pushing Anders Lee lower in the lineup.

[00:12:50]I'm fine with a 6 by as I'm sorry, I'm not fine by 6 by 6, but I'm fine by Sorry.

[00:12:56]I'm not fine by 3 by 6 by 6, but I'm fine with something along the lines of 2 to 3 years at $5 million. At least that that's where I'm fine with. Let me know where you're fine with Anders Lee's contract. Either he stays or not. I know some of you're going to say no, just let him walk type of thing and that's okay.

[00:13:12]Um but just let me know where you're at.

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