Lamoriello Stands Pat at Deadline, Signs Clutterbuck & Parise to Extensions

The 2022 NHL Trade Deadline came and went and at 3 PM ET the New York Islanders were one of two NHL teams to not make any moves over the last 72 hours. Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello had a few pending UFA’s that he could have moved for draft picks, but he stood pat.

However, Lamoriello did make some roster decisions, so let’s start with that.

As first reported by ESPN analyst Kevin Weekes and confirmed by Lamoriello on Monday evening, the New York Islanders have signed forwards Cal Clutterbuck and Zach Parise to contract extensions. Clutterbuck’s extension is for two seasons ($1.75 M AAV), while Parise’s extension is for one season ($750 K cap hit).

“What we did with the re-signing Cal and Zach, they would be two players that we would have to replace in the role that they have, and I don’t feel that that would be able to take place in the summer,” Lamoriello said.

The 34-year old Clutterbuck was held out of the Islanders lineup for Sunday’s contest against the Philadelphia Flyers for “maintenance reasons” with head coach Barry Trotz confirming during his post-game press conference that he was in fact injured.

Clutterbuck had been dealing with something and “it happened to flare up on the one day of the year you’re not supposed to miss,” Clutterbuck said.

“I’m thrilled to sign an extension and have that dealt with especially this time of the year,” Cal Clutterbuck said. “So just thankful that this has gotten done and we don’t have to worry about it. Thrilled to be here for a couple more years with these guys and this organization.

“Obviously, it’s home for me, so (I’m) thrilled.”

The pending unrestricted free agent has been critical in turning the Islanders franchise around and has been a staple on the Islanders fourth line.

“He means a lot. He wears a letter for a reason. And you know, he’s a vocal guy, and guys listen when he speaks,” linemate Casey Cizikas said Sunday night. “He plays hard out there, he does the right things, and guys definitely follow that.”

Was this extension made to keep the New York Islanders “identity line” intact?

“Well, I don’t think we looked at keeping the identity line intact. We looked at it as keeping Cal here,” Lamoriello said. “He’s certainly been one, if not our best penalty killer over the years. He’s stayed pretty much healthy, takes care of himself. And I think we all know the game that he plays, and there’s a good reason why a lot of teams were extremely interested in him at this period of time because he is a playoff-type of performer.”

As for the 37-year old Zach Parise, he was adamant prior to the contest against the New York Rangers, that he’s loved his time with the New York Islanders and would be open to returning.

“I mean we had spoke last year, last summer about even then doing a two-year deal and we did the one to start,” Parise said. “So I was pretty confident that you know, that I would be coming back and we had chatted again about it last week and so just happy that we were able to get it done.

As for other players on this team, Lamoriello addressed not moving Semyon Varlamov, Zdeno Chara, or Andy Greene.

“Varly certainly got a lot of attention but he’s very important to our team. He’s very important to our goaltending.,” Lamoriello said “In my opinion, he is very important to the growth and maturity of Ilya Sorokin.

As for 44-year old defenseman Zdeno Chara and 39-year old defenseman Andy Greene (both UFA’s), there was open communication throughout the season and both players wanted to remain with the Islanders.

“Both felt that they made a commitment to this team. And unless I could get something, a high-end asset that would make us much better, they would hope that that would be looked at and that’s exactly what the end result was,” Lamoriello said. “But both have been extremely important in the development of Noah Dobson and will certainly be an asset going forward right now in helping with the immaturity of where we are right now as a group.”

Lamoriello, despite re-signing two key players but standing pat otherwise, said that he is not satisfied.

“We are certainly not satisfied. I certainly like the way our team has played over the last several games,” Lamoriello said. “I think this is also going to be an indication of exactly where we’re at, now that we’ve gotten all the turbulence that we went through and I’m not looking for any excuses whatsoever, to see who we are as a team.”

“It will really give us an indication of what we have to do.”

As for the offseason plans as of now, ” If we could add a certain type of player that would help our defense…We certainly have, you know, a couple of young prospects that we feel very good about. You don’t know how long it will take them to grow,” Lamoriello said. “Over the next period of time, we’ll find out about our scorers. That’s where we’ve certainly underproduced this year to this point. In fact, I would say disappointed with what has transpired there and we’ll see where our forwards are from now until the end of the year.”