Islanders Begin Trade Negotiations After Alarming Loss to Rangers

The New York Islanders have balanced the playoff bubble for several years; after Monday's 4-0 defeat to the New York Rangers to keep them five points out with 22 games left, general manager Lou Lamoriello has seen enough. 

He wields two attractive trade assets in pending free agent forwards Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri as Friday's 3 p.m. ET trade deadline nears and per The Fourth Period's David Pagnotta, Lamoriello is taking calls on them. 

“What I can tell you is speaking to sources across the league, the Islanders were engaged and had started trade talks involving some of their players, I believe that includes Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri, earlier today, and those talks will continue throughout the week,” Pagnotta said. “The loss pretty much, effectively, puts them into the seller’s market. They will continue those discussions involving those players. There has been interest in others, including Jean-Gabriel Pageau, as well.

“They have a game on Tuesday against Winnipeg. I don’t think that’s going to matter much based on what happened (Monday) evening in their loss to the Rangers but it certainly seems like the New York Islanders are going to be open for business to a certain extent.”