The opening day of free agency was unusually busy for the New York Islanders. While no new faces joined the team (at least not yet) they handed out some big new contracts to several members of last year’s team.
The most important news of the day was the Islanders giving starting goaltender Ilya Sorokin a long term extension. Sorokin agreed to an eight year extension worth a total of $66 million. It has a yearly value of $8.25 million and begins during the 2024-25 season. The deal will make Sorokin one of the top five highest paid goalies in both AAV and total value.
This contract is pricey but worth every single dollar for the Islanders. Sorokin is the backbone of this team and one of the league’s best netminders. Securing him for the next eight seasons is a tremendous win for the team.
The Islanders also re-signed Semyon Varlamov on Saturday. He got a four year contract worth $11 million with a yearly cap hit of $2.75 million.
This contract is a bit of a mixed bag for the Islanders. Four years seems a bit too long for a 35-year-old goalie. But in the short term Varlamov offers a stable and affordable backup option behind the crease.
Both Scott Mayfield and Pierre Engvall got new seven year contracts from the Islanders on Saturday.
Mayfield’s deal has a total value of $24.5 million with an AAV of $3.5 million. His contract was one of the larger ones given to free agent defensemen in regards to years and total value. Like Varlamov, Mayfield’s deal doesn’t look great further down the line as he approaches his late 30s. But the Islanders could ill-afford to lose one of their top defenseman and got a pretty fair deal as far as his contract’s AAV goes.
Engvall’s seven year deal has a total value of $21 million and an AAV of $3 million. This seven year deal makes a little more sense for a 27-year-old player. Engvall seemed to be a great fit for this team and performed well down the stretch. The Islanders did well in retaining a versatile player for the rest of his prime at a great value.
With these new contracts in place the Islanders have roughly $1 million in cap space left this offseason. This means they’ll only have enough space left to tender a contract for RFA Oliver Wahlstrom. That leaves the Islanders with no room to go after any free agent additions.
Any possible upgrade they pursue, trade or signing, would require them to trade another contract away. And this cap crunch doesn’t get better anytime soon, with the Islanders projected to have next to no cap space available for next year’s offseason as well. This creates a tall task for Lou Lamoriello to make necessary additions with very limited room to do so.
Featured image courtesy of NHL.com
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