Darche Makes First Moves, Re-Signing Palmieri, Boqvist

Twenty-four hours ago, Mathieu Darche hadn’t finished shaking hands and taking pictures after his introductory press conference.

Fast forward 24 hours, and he’s signed two contracts. Kyle Palmieri signed a two-year extension at $4.75 per year, while Adam Boqvist signed a one-year extension at $850,000. Palmieri’s contract has a full no-trade clause for year one, and a 16-team no-trade for year two.

Boqvist makes close to what his qualifying offer would have been, a shade over $800k. For Palmieri, the number will be below his current cap hit, perhaps right around Jason Zucker’s two-year, $4.75 million per year extension.

Palmieri scored 24 goals and 48 points last season, playing consistent top-six minutes and a role on the power play. Head Coach Patrick Roy named him an alternate captain after the team traded Brock Nelson.

Just yesterday, Anders Lee spoke on how badly he wanted to see Palmieri stick around:

“Of course, it’d be great. Look, you can’t just replace someone like Kyle out of thin air sometimes, and I know what he means to this team. I also know what he means to me as a friend and a teammate. Kyle’s a great player and has played in this league for a long time. He knows what it takes to win, how to play the game. He can get dirty if he needs to and he puts the puck in the net. Those are tough to replace. Palms is a great teammate to so many guys in that room and a great leader. So it would be great to have him back, absolutely.”

The Islanders’ captain got his wish less than 24 hours later.

Boqvist scored two goals and eight points in 17 games with the Islanders, including three power-play points. The former eighth overall pick arrived on January 31 and fit Roy’s system quite well. He could be in line for a heavily expanded role this season.