The 2025-26 NHL regular season has ended. After all the highs and lows for the New York Islanders, it’s time to look ahead to the offseason. For the second year in a row, the Islanders have failed to qualify for the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was a disappointing result for what was a promising season. This result does not come as a complete surprise, as our season preview for the Islanders did have this team missing the playoffs. However, the way that result came about makes it a more difficult pill to swallow. Having been in the playoffs for most of the season, they went 1-7 in the final eight games to miss by seven points. Although it was a frustrating ending for them, there was a lot of good to come out of it as well.
New York Islanders 2025-26 Season Recap
Before their collapse at the end of the season, which led to head coach Patrick Roy being replaced by Peter DeBoer, the season was going great. Their two stars, Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal, were having strong seasons. Calum Ritchie was establishing himself as an NHL regular. Emil Heineman was putting together a season of over 20 goals. On the backend, they had Matthew Schaefer rising into superstardom at just 18-years old in his rookie year. Furthermore, Ilya Sorokin was stealing wins while playing at a Vezina Trophy level.
Credit Image: © Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via ZUMA Press Wire
It all fell apart in the home stretch. Their goal scoring dried up thanks to the lack of consistent depth goal scoring and the 30th-ranked power play. As for the defence and goaltending, Sorokin could not play Superman forever. As a team, they allowed the second most high-danger chances, and it finally caught up to them. He was making the saves earlier in the year, but it was not sustainable, and other teams took advantage.
Looking Ahead to the Offseason
Now that the season is behind us, we look towards the offseason and how general manager Mathieu Darche will improve his team. Firstly, their cap situation is looking healthy. They enter the offseason with $10.7 million in available cap space before making any moves, per PuckPedia. However, Matthew Schaefer’s successful rookie season earned him $3.5 million in bonuses. This will count as a salary-cap overage because the Islanders ended the season with players on Long-Term Injured Reserve. That means that the Islanders’ cap hit next season is lowered by $3.5 million. That and the league minimum rising from $775,000 to $850,000 will impact their space as well. This means any player already signed to a league-minimum deal will receive a pay increase. Although the leagues salary cap is set to rise to $104 million, which should help balance some of that out.
Secondly, the team will have big decisions to make on their impending unrestricted and restricted free agents. The UFAs are headlined by their captain, Anders Lee. After 14 seasons on the Island, could his time with the team be up? He is followed by Carson Soucy, Tony DeAngelo, and David Rittich as the other UFAs. The RFAs are Max Shabanov, Marc Gatcomb, and Adam Boqvist. With the team having some money to spare and a weaker free agency pool, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a handful of these players returning.
Areas of Need
Going into the offseason in our New York Islanders season review, this is a team that doesn’t need a whole lot. However, the problems that plagued them down the final stretch will have to be addressed. The first being the lack of consistent goal scoring from the top six, and especially on the power play. They were too reliant on Barzal and Horvat; they could use another guy to go along with them. They could also use a body or two on their blueline to prevent them from allowing so many Grade A chances. A good start to that second part happened when Peter DeBoer took over as head coach. He and his defensive style should help the defence going into next season.
As far as player personnel goes, the solutions to those problems could be on the roster already. Veteran forward Kyle Palmieri comes to mind for the top six. He tore his ACL last season and was limited to just 25 games. He has a track record of being a goal scorer, having finished the last two seasons with the Islanders with 20+ goals. Getting him back for next season could be the shot in the arm the forward group needs. The other player is Alexander Romanov, who was limited to 15 games as he dealt with a shoulder injury. He does things that don’t light up the stat sheet. However, when he is out there, he gives his team a steady shutdown defensive presence. While it is a risk to bet on players coming off injuries, these are players who have been good when healthy.
In Conclusion
The Islanders have a solid core of players to build their team around. The group of Barzal, Horvat, Schaefer, and Sorokin gives the team a good foundation to build on. This will be a telling offseason as the team will try to take advantage of this window with Schaefer still being on his rookie deal. With a new coach, Peter DeBoer, taking over the controls, Mathieu Darche will do his best to improve the team with his vision in mind. We will have to wait and see if that is through free agency, the trade market or in-house. They have the money and some movable assets to make the team better and try to remove the taste of how last season ended from their mouth.
Main Photo Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
