With Lou Lamoriello now at the helm of the Islanders, his primary order of business is trying to get center John Tavares locked up and away from the open market next month. In an appearance on TSN 1050 (audio link), TSN’s Bob McKenzie notes that talks between Lamoriello and Pat Brisson, the agent for Tavares, have occurred on a daily basis since the 75-year-old joined New York last month.
While McKenzie predicts that as things currently stand, the 27-year-old will likely make it to the post-draft interview period, he expects the Islanders to try to be active on the trade market this month in an effort to land another scoring winger to try to entice him to put pen to paper sooner than later. Tavares is coming off the second-best scoring season of his career and if he doesn’t sign early, he will be highly sought after on the open market as franchise centers rarely make it to free agency.
More from the Metropolitan:
- Devils blueliner John Moore is eligible to hit unrestricted free agency next month but if he had his way, he’d stay where he is now. Speaking with Abbey Mastracco of The Record, the 27-year-old stated that “I really like it here, my family likes it here. It’s a good team, good guys and I want to be here.” Moore signed with New Jersey three years ago and played a big role on their back end in 2017-18, playing in a career-best 81 games while logging 20:01 per night, the most of his career.
- Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik suffered an injury to his index finger in the dying seconds of Game Two of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night, notes TSN’s Frank Seravalli. He received a slash from Vegas center Erik Haula who received a major penalty and a game misconduct on the play but time had already expired. Despite the injury, Orpik is expected to suit up in Game Three tonight.