Mathieu Darche Isn’t Guessing — He’s Executing The Tampa Bay Formula On Long Island
Mathieu Darche is borrowing from Tampa Bay’s blueprint. Inside the LTIR, cap, and trade strategy reshaping the Islanders.
NEW YORK, NY — When we spoke with New York Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche about his recent acquisitions, he was candid about taking on Ondrej Palat’s $6 million cap hit for this season and next.
“I was talking with the Devils, and I said, ‘What would it take to take this guy?’ And they told me, and I said, ‘I’m going to pay it,’” Darche said.
That conversation resulted in the Islanders sending 13th forward Maxim Tsyplakov to New Jersey in exchange for Palat, a 2026 third-round pick, and a 2027 sixth-round pick.
“So, I took a page out of the Julien BriseBois book,” Darche added.
What Darche meant was weaponizing Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) relief—something BriseBois, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s general manager, has mastered—while staying fully within the bylaws of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The Islanders currently have four players on LTIR, creating $16.75 million in available relief:
Kyle Palmieri ($4.75M)
Alexander Romanov ($6.25M)
Semyon Varlamov ($2.75M)
Pierre Engvall ($3M)
After subtracting Tsyplakov’s $2.25 million cap hit and adding Palat’s $6 million, along with Carson Soucy’s $3.25 million cap hit—acquired Monday for the Islanders’ 2026 third-round pick—New York sits with $6.021 million in usable space heading toward the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline on March 6.
But the LTIR maneuvering isn’t the only page Darche has taken from his mentor.
It goes back to his very first move as general manager, and he has built from there.