The New York Islanders’ offseason started with promise, bringing in a general manager who pieced together three Stanley Cup champions in Lou Lamoriello and the 2018 Stanley Cup winning coach, Barry Trotz.

Islanders center Mathew Barzal won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s Rookie of the Year after the 21-year-old put together a phenomenal 85-point season (22 goals, 63 assists).

The talks to re-sign John Tavares seemed to pick up and he appeared to be heading toward an eight-year contract extension. The Islanders came away as one of the clear-cut draft winners, most notably landing two projected top-10 picks in forward Oliver Wahlstrom (No. 11) and defenseman Noah Dobson (No. 12).

Then Tavares announced he was signing a contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and after losing his team’s superstar for nothing, Lamoriello suddenly began patch-working a new roster. On July 1, with roughly $25 million in salary cap space, Lamoriello re-signed defenseman Thomas Hickey and then subsequently inked forwards Leo Komarov and Valtteri Filppula to deals.

The signings of Komarov and Filppula add depth to a team clearly lacking an identity. Both players are capable penalty killers, surely brought in to help lift the Islanders’ PK, which finished dead last statistically in the NHL last season, killing just 73.2 percent.

Off-season additions

Here's a look at which teams have added the most this off-season through signings and trades.

*Fun note: all of NYI's additions have carried negative values (i.e. below replacement level)* pic.twitter.com/cD2hKfVi6o

— Sean Tierney (@ChartingHockey) July 6, 2018

A few days later, while they were reported to still be in the mix, the Islanders missed out on re-signing underrated defenseman Calvin de Haan, a 27-year-old who had spent the previous five seasons with the team as a strong two-way defenseman.

Tavares and de Haan kept the trend of bad managerial decisions going. In recent years, the Islanders (albeit under then-general manager Garth Snow) have watched Frans Nielsen, Kyle Okposo, Matt Moulson, and Michael Grabner all leave for nothing in free agency, with little replacement power.

Lamoriello kept making moves; he traded for fourth-line forward Matt Martin, giving up a weaker goaltending prospect in Eamon McAdam to reunite the forward with Cal Clutterbuck and Casey Cizikas, one of the best fourth lines in the past several years.

A short while later, Lamoriello signed center Jan Kovar out of the KHL. Kovar, 28, is coming off a down year with Metallurg after a string of point-per-game campaigns. It’s worth noting he played with two dynamic wingers, who may be replaced by a combination of Josh Bailey, Anders Lee, Jordan Eberle, and Andrew Ladd. That’s not terrible, though Kovar will need to adapt to the NHL, a faster, more physical game on a smaller ice surface.

Lamoriello may have struck gold in all of this, signing goaltender Robin Lehner to a one-year, “show me” contract after flashes with the Buffalo Sabres. The 26-year-old was left hanging repeatedly on the NHL’s worst team in 2017-18, finishing with a 14-26-9 record, .908 save percentage, 3.01 goals against average, and .480 quality start percentage.

It was a large drop after two productive seasons with the same bottom-feeding team, and while the Islanders may not fare much better, Lehner has the talent to take advantage of a new opportunity.

“I think he's a unique case and situation. He has something you can't teach, size and talent,” Lamoriello said of Lehner during an interview with Sirius XM NHL Radio on Thursday. “Hopefully our coaching staff can get him back to the form he was at. He's determined to get himself back in the forefront.”

It’s possible he continues to tinker with a roster that seems like a batch of misfits after the “sudden” loss of Tavares while Ryan Pulock and Brock Nelson remain unsigned restricted free agents. 

But without a competitive season, Lamoriello is at risk of losing more names a year from now if he refuses to deal at the trade deadline. Lee and Eberle will become unrestricted free agents and would be highly sought after as top-six wingers, further setting the team back from postseason contention and possibly even into the annual draft lottery mix for a number of years.

Have a question or a comment for Jacob Messing? You can find him on Twitter @Jacob_Messing.