Islanders News: Players and Cups to chase, teammates to enjoy

It’s Tuesday. Sometimes really big news breaks on Tuesday. Sometimes it doesn’t.

Ostensibly Isles-Related Reading

• NEW: Arthur Staple’s Islanders notebook this morning includes Lou looking at a veteran coach — apparently interest in Trotz is strong — Tavares listening but the Islanders remaining the front-runner, and changes incoming with Lou expected to wheel and deal at the draft. [The Athletic]
• ICYMI: Team Canada’s Islanders like Mathew Barzal and Jordan Eberle talk about being part of the squad’s five Isles teammates at the World Championship. [Isles]
• The Top 10 Active Players Without A Cup includes some great company for John Tavares. [NHL]
• Capital Questions: Will Barry Trotz stay? Will John Carlson? Will Philipp Grubauer be traded to, oh, say a team that needs a goalie? [NHL | Puck Daddy]
• If Trotz isn’t staying in D.C., he still can’t officially leave until July. But does Lou Lamoriello want a new Islanders coach in place this week? [SNY]
• Hockey is doing well in Rhode Island, the smallest U.S. state and home of the Lamoriellos and the Capuanos, among others. [Athletic]
• A very reasoned, sober take on why a team like the Flyers should, sure, bid for Tavares, however unlikely. [BSH]
• There are already odds out for who will win the next Cup, because the degenerate gambler needs his fix (I kid), but one of the decent longshots — again, in terms of the degenerate gambler — is to make a play on the 60-to-1 Islanders. [The Athletic]

Ilya Kovalchuk is shopping for an NHL team, currently out West visiting some of them. No direct word on the Islanders, but everyone some are saying it’s a possibility. Dreger calls the Islanders among “darkhorse” candidates, while LeBrun [sub] has a list of teams that doesn’t include them.

Elsewhere

• Down Goes Brown lists eight teams that, like the 2018 Capitals, won the Cup after narrowly escaping death earlier in the playoffs. He may be too young to realize the ‘82 Isles belong there. [Sportsnet]
• Perhaps you’ve heard? The Canadiens really need a #1 center. [Sportsnet]
• The Bruins have their own summer needs. [TSN Offseason Gameplan]
• If there’s one thing old curmudgeons and new young thangs can agree on in hockey, it’s that players who fight through two months of hell to win the Cup should be allowed to do damn near anything they want to celebrate it. [Sportsnet]
• Some tales on how and why each Capital passed the Cup to the next guy. [Wash. Post]
• Cheers to Sportsnet’s Roger Millions, retiring after 39 years covering this great sport. [Sportsnet]
• Promising forward Nic Petan is still waiting for an opportunity to break Winnipeg’s top six logjam. [TSN]
• The Golden Knights jumped right into the offseason by signing...Steffan Matteau? [Sportsnet]
• Meanwhile, sounds like Oliver Ekman-Larsson is going to stay in Arizona.