{"id":482749,"date":"2026-01-27T08:13:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T13:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=482749"},"modified":"2026-01-27T08:13:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T13:13:31","slug":"islanders-rangers-soucy-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/01\/27\/islanders-rangers-soucy-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Islanders Hedging Their Bets with Rare Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Islanders are hedging their bets as they look to solidify their foothold on a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference this season.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the Isles completed a rare trade with crosstown rivals, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/rangers\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Rangers<\/a>, involving impending unrestricted free-agent defenceman Carson Soucy.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Islanders Land Key Piece in Soucy Trade<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Islanders landed veteran defenseman <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/03\/06\/carson-soucy-traded-to-eastern-conference\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Carson Soucy from the Rangers<\/a> in exchange for a third-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. Emily Kaplan of ESPN confirmed the initial reports that came from The Athletic\u2019s Vincent Mercogliano.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">As Carson Soucy sits out tonight for NYR for \u2018roster management\u2019 a deal is in place to send him to Islanders as <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/vzmercogliano?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@vzmercogliano<\/a> reported earlier today. <\/p>\n<p>Return is a 2026 third round pick, per ESPN sources.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Emily Kaplan (@emilymkaplan) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/emilymkaplan\/status\/2015955887253229638?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 27, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Soucy trade makes sense for the Islanders. The club is facing challenges to its blueline depth. The loss of top <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/07\/07\/montreal-canadiens-alexander-romanov-traded-to-islanders\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">rearguard Alexander Romanov<\/a> earlier this season has made it tough for the Isles to maintain consistency.<\/p>\n<p>While the emergence of <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/schaema01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-27_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matthew Schaefer<\/a> has been a boon for the Isles, the club needs more depth. The recent injury to <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/p\/pulocry01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-27_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Pulock<\/a>, among others, has forced the Islanders to roll with defenders from their AHL affiliate. Pulock missed the Isles&#8217; game on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/01\/26\/nhl-predictions-islanders-flyers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Monday night against the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a>, leading to <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgis01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-27_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isaiah George<\/a> getting the call.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why the Soucy trade is a solid step for the Islanders to boost their depth. Soucy could slide in with another veteran, <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mayfisc01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-27_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scott Mayfield<\/a>, once Pulock returns to the lineup. Without Pulock, coach <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/roypa01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-27_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Patrick Roy<\/a> has lined up Mayfield with Schaefer, potentially leading Soucy to line up on the third pairing with <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/boqviad01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-27_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adam Boqvist<\/a> or Isaiah George.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Isles Avoid Overpaying for Soucy<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Perhaps the best part of the Soucy trade for the Islanders is the fact that they avoided overpaying. The biggest concern would have been to jettison a high draft pick or a prospect for the veteran blueliner.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, sending multiple picks for the impending UFA could have also been an overpay. Instead, parting with a third-round draft pick is not a bad price to pay for Soucy.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth pointing out that the Islanders would need to re-sign Soucy at the end of this season. If the Isles can hold onto the 31-year-old, the Carson Soucy trade will look even better for the club. Otherwise, Soucy will just go down as a cost-efficient rental for a playoff team looking to make waves in the spring.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: <span>James Guillory-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Islanders are hedging their bets as they look to solidify their foothold on a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference this season. On Monday, the Isles completed a rare trade with crosstown rivals, the New York Rangers, involving impending unrestricted free-agent defenceman Carson Soucy. Islanders Land Key Piece in Soucy Trade The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5716,"featured_media":482764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,4547,34,4548],"tags":[4454,5904],"class_list":["post-482749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islanders","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-carson-soucy","tag-new-york-islanders-news"],"modified_by":"Colton Osmond, Dept Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5716"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482749"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":482765,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482749\/revisions\/482765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}