Islanders News: A largely uneventful day at the virtual draft

The 2020 NHL Draft is, mercifully, over. I wasn’t torturing myself by watching, but it was draining even just following along on Twitter from time-to-time.

The second day of the draft is usually over in like three hours, with teams making rapid-fire picks. Yesterday, though, the second round itself took like three hours—and they still had five more rounds to go.

The Islanders used all five of their picks on themselves, so they weren’t involved in any trades yesterday. The trade winds picked up a little bit yesterday, but still not as much movement as we were all promised.

Free agency starts tomorrow, though, in a jam-packed week of roster movement and upheaval. I’m sure it’ll bring more surprises than the draft did.

Islanders News

• The Isles’ first pick of the draft was Swedish winger Alexander Ljungkrantz, selected in the third round, 90th overall. Seems he was a bit of a reach. [LHH]
• Their next two picks were a little better: LW Alex Jefferies in the fourth round and RW William Dufour in the fifth. I think both have a chance to be late-round gems. [LHH]
• And their last two picks were Matias Rajaniemi, a Finnish defenseman, and Henrik Tikkanen, a Finnish goalie. Here’s a list of all the 2020 Isles’ picks. [Islanders]
• Read about all the Isles’ picks here. The team site goes way more in-depth on these guys in this bit. [Islanders]
• GM Lou Lamoriello spoke about the draft, his draftees, and the new start date for next season. [Islanders]

Here’s a little bit of what he had to say:

• Corey Pronman graded all 31 teams’ drafts and the Islanders, unsurprisingly, got a D. They didn’t pick until about the midway point of the draft, so it’s understandable. [The Athletic]
• Pronman elaborated on his grade by giving his scouting reports of each of the Isles’ picks. Not too bad for late-round picks, honestly. [The Athletic]
• The experts—Brian Lawton and Pierre McGuire—feel that Lou should have no issue re-signing Mathew Barzal. [Newsday]
• October 7 is a pretty historic day in Islanders history. It was the date of their first-ever game! [Islanders]

Elsewhere

• The Penguins are definitely going with Tristan Jarry in net; they traded Matt Murray to the Senators for one of Ottawa’s four second-round picks yesterday and the son of an Islanders assistant coach. [NHL | TSN video on the trade coming together]
• In the “well duhhh” department: Taylor Hall will not be re-signing with the Coyotes and will become a free agent tomorrow. Wonder where he ends up and for how long. [NHL]
• Kyle Turris was one of two buyouts the Predators made yesterday. [NHL]
• The Preds also dumped Nick Bonino’s salary on the Wild, sweetening the deal with two picks and getting, in return, Luke Kunin and a later pick. [NHL]
• Sounds like they’re gearing up for a run at Hall. That and more from Pierre LeBrun, including notes on Murray, Kevin Shattenkirk, Tyson Barrie, Josh Anderson, and Brandon Saad. [The Athletic]
• The Lias Andersson saga is over: the Rangers traded the 2017 7th overall pick to the Kings for the 60th overall pick yesterday. Oof. [NY Post | Blueshirt Banter]
• More pain for the Rangers: it is all but confirmed that the recently bought-out Henrik Lundqvist will sign with the Capitals when free agency opens tomorrow. I’m just glad we can still hate him. [NY Post]
• If you’re counting, that’s one RFA goalie and one UFA goalie taken care of; the rest of the goalie market, though, figures to be busy tomorrow. [NHL]
• Ontario’s minister of sport (lmao) said that if the OHL wants to return for the 2020-21 season, they will have to remove all physical contact. No bodychecking. [Sportsnet]
• The highlight of the first round of the draft was Alex Trebek using the Jeopardy! set to make Ottawa’s third overall selection of Tim Stützle. Find out how it was made. [Sportsnet]