Andrew Gross: Islanders looking at Canucks' Conor Garland as trade deadline nears
The Islanders' Anders Lee celebrates his go-ahead goal during the last minute of the third period against the Florida Panthers with teammate Simon Holmstrom at UBS Arena on Mar. 1. Credit: Jim McIsaac
IRVINE, Calif. — Plenty of trade speculation surrounded the Islanders on Tuesday as they were linked to Canucks’ top-six forward Conor Garland, the speculation getting underway the previous night with assistant general manager Ryan Bowness in Vancouver to scout.
Perhaps this is a deal that is announced on Wednesday as the red-hot Islanders, winners of a season-high five straight, open a four-game road trip against the Ducks at Honda Center.
But what won’t be announced at any time before Friday’s NHL trade deadline is anything involving Islanders captain Anders Lee, whose play has effectively shut down any speculation over the pending unrestricted free agent.
The Islanders are playing too well. Lee is playing too well. No part of parting with Lee — who has 14 goals and 20 assists in 61 games with a three-game goal streak, including a highlight reel winner with 30.9 seconds left in regulation in Sunday’s 5-4 victory over the Panthers — makes sense, even at the risk of losing an asset for nothing this offseason.
“I’ve played a lot against Anders and he’s always hard to play against,” recently-acquired Ondrej Palat told Newsday following Tuesday’s practice at Great Park Ice. “Always in your face. And he’s highly skilled, too.”
Lee is too much of a gentleman, too much of a team leader to make this about himself. But when Newsday asked him point blank whether he had been motivated at all this season by the thought of “heck no, you’re not trading me,” Lee didn’t demur.
“There’s a piece of the pie,” Lee told Newsday. “I have motivation. There’s always a piece just like that. Every year I set out to prove my game, my value to the group and what I can bring every night. This year just has a different taste to it and it’s been a phenomenal challenge. I’ve loved it. It’s never easy.”
Again, the bulk of any conversation with Lee never centers on himself and that was just a small snippet of a longer chat.
A lot of it was how proud Lee is of the way the Islanders have played and how that is what really gives him comfort the chances of him being traded are as close to nil as possible in this business.
“We’ve put ourselves in a position that, I think, we want to get better,” Lee said. “As a group, we have brought our game, our compete and our position in the standings basically to [management] and showed them that we’re there and we can continue to get better. It’s going to be a busy week throughout the league. But I like where we’re at.”
General manager Mathieu Darche has made two pre-deadline deals already because he said he wanted to reward the Islanders, battling the Penguins for second place in the Metropolitan Division, for their play. He acquired defenseman Carson Soucy from the Rangers on Jan. 26 with his third pair in flux since Alexander Romanov injured his right shoulder on Nov. 18. On Jan. 27, he traded for Palat from the Devils with Kyle Palmieri (torn left ACL) out since Nov. 28.
It’s no secret the Islanders would like to add another top-six scoring wing.
Second-line left wing Jonathan Drouin, who practiced on Tuesday and is expected to play against the Ducks after missing Sunday’s win with a lower-body injury, has just three goals and 17 assists in 53 games and has gone 36 games without a goal in the first season of a two-year, $8 million deal. Second-line right wing Emil Heineman,, acquired in the offseason from the Canadiens as part of the deal for defenseman Noah Dobson, has 15 goals and eight assists in 61 games and has just one point — a goal — in his last 15 games.
Anthony Duclair, in the second season of a four-year, $14 million deal, was a healthy scratch for three straight games before drawing in for Drouin on Sunday and will again be out of the lineup on Wednesday if Drouin returns.
Lee, a prototypical power forward being used on the third line, will be 36 this offseason and while it’s likely he and Darche can find common ground on an extension, there’s no guarantee he returns for a 15th season with the Islanders and team-record ninth as their captain.
He’s making a strong case, though.
“Overall, I feel really good with where my game is at,” Lee said. “I’m still learning, still trying to learn and add new things to my game. I just feel like I’m still a better hockey player than I was before and I love that challenge of trying to do that.”
It adds up to this: Lee has told Darche via his play, “Don’t you dare trade me.”
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
