Going For It During Schaefer’s Entry-Level Contract
With the NHL Trade Deadline looming, how aggressive will Mathieu Darche be as Matthew Schaefer’s ELC reshapes the Islanders’ Stanley Cup timeline?
With Mathieu Darche’s first NHL Trade Deadline coming up shortly, we are all curious to see the direction he wants to go. It’s unlikely that he’ll be selling off any of his pending unrestricted free agents in Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Anders Lee, Tony DeAngelo, and David Rittich, with his team sitting in third place in the Metropolitan Division.
We’ve already seen him add to this group, rewarding them with forward Ondrej Palat and Carson Soucy as lineup stabilizers. But will he add more ahead of the 3 PM ET deadline on March 6, and if so, how big a move is he looking to make?
The real question is: how important it is for Darche to build a Stanley Cup contender while No. 1 overall pick Matthew Schaefer is on his entry-level deal?