ST. PAUL, Minn. — The question the Islanders should have asked themselves Thursday wasn’t so much why they can’t trade for Dylan Larkin. While they obviously wouldn’t say no to acquiring him, the Red Wings center, who is now sitting out in a bid to speed up a move out of Detroit, isn’t the 100-point, game-breaking player their forward group desperately needs, and it probably wouldn’t make sense for the Islanders to make the sort of offer it would take to pry him loose.
Rather, the instructive piece of a saga the Islanders have the luxury of watching from afar — and the question they need to have a ready answer to by the time a crucial summer of 2027 begins — is why they were not included on the 10-team list to which Larkin would reportedly accept a trade.
The Islanders will have about $40 million in available cap space next summer, money that is key to taking the next step into contention. Historically speaking, they haven’t been a destination team, but the traditional reasons why — a dilapidated Nassau Coliseum, a spendthrift ownership group and a drought of 20-plus years without a playoff series victory — all are long gone.
They’ve got a shiny new arena. They’ve got a high-end practice facility. They’ve had relatively recent playoff success, and there’s reason to believe there can be more in the near future with a core built around Matthew Schaefer and a winning head coach in Pete DeBoer.
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