NYHN Daily: Islanders Close to Bringing Back Kyle Palmieri & More

Following the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft, many NHL teams made trades the last few days to bolster their club or rid themselves of contracts. New York Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello has been patient. According to sources, Kyle Palmieri’s contract is all but done, while Gabriel Landeskog is intrigued by the Islanders. Vladamir Tarasenko is still on the Islanders radar.

These stories and more in today’s daily links!

With the expansion draft come and gone, New York Islanders president and general manager Lou Lamoriello continues to forge ahead with an offseason plan he hopes will keep most of his core together for another run at the Stanley Cup. Whether New York comes out on the flip side of free agency, which opens July 28, a better team, worse team or the same team is still uncertain, although certain aspects of the picture are becoming more clear. Here’s what we are hearing. (NYI Hockey Now)

On the latest edition of “Off the Record” Jimmy Murphy discusses the latest rumors from around the NHL. The talk about Tarasenko is that the asking price from St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong is too high. The Seattle Kraken’s ability to draft a strong defensive core may have been for the sake of making trades. Could this draft be one filled with future superstars. (NYI Hockey Now)

The Boston Bruins held onto their first-round pick (21^st overall) and appear to have picked a good one in speedy, skilled Swedish right winger Fabian Lysell. For a Bruins team that was lacking in high-end offensive prospects with a draft-and-development cupboard that had gone dry a bit in recent years, Lysell brings a lot of qualities that Boston doesn’t have in high abundance among their prospect pool. (Boston Hockey Now)

As some of my National Hockey Now colleagues are wildly scrambling to keep up with their teams’ activity, the Pittsburgh Penguins trade inquiries are poking around on a few positions of need but not doing so with the urgency which scrambled the NHL trade market on Friday afternoon. The National Hockey Now network has heard John Gibson’s name mentioned by several sources around the league in conjunction with NHL trade chatter, but never to a specific team–which usually means the calls are coming in but not necessarily getting any traction. However, the Penguins’ source further confirmed what PHN has reported for several weeks. GM Ron Hextall has added a 1B type goalie to the Penguins trade board. (Pittsburgh Hockey Now)

Chuck Fletcher continued his active week on Friday afternoon. It’s been a very busy seven days for the Philadelphia Flyers general manager. On Saturday, he got things started by trading for Ryan Ellis. After losing Carsen Twarynski in the Expansion Draft, he traded Shayne Gostisbehere to clear cap space on Thursday. Now, on Friday, he added another right-handed defenseman in Rasmus Ristolainen. But he paid a pretty steep price to do so. (Philly Hockey Now)

Neither Florida general manager Bill Zito nor his Buffalo Sabres counterpart Kevyn Adams would comment on national reports that the Panthers acquired center Sam Reinhart late Friday night. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported that Reinhart, a restricted free agent, would be going to Florida pending a completed trade call with the NHL. Zito spoke to the South Florida media early Saturday morning at the Lauderdale Yacht Club before the trade call had been completed. In Buffalo, Adams was meeting with the Sabres media. Who is part of this trade — aside from Reinhart — is not immediately known. (Florida Hockey Now)

Sebastian Cossa’s confidence level might loom almost as large as his towering frame. Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman swapped first-round picks with the Dallas Stars in order to grab Edmonton Oil Kings netminder Cossa with the 15th pick of the 2021 NHL entry draft. I thought I had a strong season,” Cossa said. “My play kind of earned it for me. The confidence I have in my game, I think I’m going to be the best goalie in the draft. “I think I got picked where I should be.” The move made Cossa the first goaltender selected in the draft – exactly as it should be, according to Cossa. (Detroit Hockey Now)

After losing Vitek Vanecek to the Seattle Kraken, the Washington Capitals are reportedly looking for another goaltender, and it could be a familiar face: Braden Holtby. Per The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta, the Vancouver Canucks are shopping Holtby. Vancouver exposed him in the expansion draft, but the Kraken passed, taking Vanecek, Chris Driedger and Joey Daccord. ow, the 31-year-old is being linked to the Capitals. Holtby, who Washington selected in the fourth round of the 2008 draft, spent 10 seasons in D.C. He and Washington parted ways in 2020 after he became a free agent and signed with the Canucks. (Washington Hockey Now)

The Vegas Golden Knights took another step towards restocking their prospect pool on Friday night by keeping their first-round pick and selecting center Zach Dean with the 30th overall pick. Last week, Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon dealt fading prospect center Cody Glass to Nashville Predators. The move meant the Vegas Golden Knights officially traded away all three of their original 2017 first-round picks: Glass, Nick Suzuki, and Erik Brannstrom. On Friday, Dean joined the new class of pivot prospects, including fellow first-rounders Peyton Krebs and Brendan Bisson, who are already in the Golden Knights system. (Vegas Hockey Now)

With the 28th overall selection in the 2021 NHL draft, the Colorado Avalanche selected Oskar Olausson, a right-wing from HV71 of Sweden’s Hockeyallsvensken league. “It feels so good, I can’t explain it,” Olausson via Zoom, just minutes after he was selected. “I’m very happy and it’s a very good team for me to come to. “A really good city and a good team I want to play with. I think my game will fit in with that team. It’s going to be really fun to play and I can’t wait.” (Colorado Hockey Now)

It’s safe to say that the San Jose Sharks couldn’t believe that William Eklund was available to them. Many projections — from Corey Pronman’s most recent mock draft to San Jose Hockey Now’s own sources — saw the slick Swedish playmaker as unlikely to drop to No. 7. But that’s why, as they say, you play the game. In a moment of surprising candor, San Jose Sharks director of scouting Doug Wilson Jr. revealed that Eklund was second on their big board, behind only second-overall pick Matty Beniers. (San Jose Hockey Now)