Islanders add more to cupboard at NHL draft Day 2 but Mathieu Darches hard work is just starting

Day 2 of the draft is usually more interesting as a lead-in to July 1 than for any individual prospect drafted.That felt more the case than normal for the Islanders on Saturday. Consensus was that the Islanders were a winner on the first night of the draft, when general manager Mathieu Darche nabbed Victor Eklund and Kashawn Aitcheson in addition to Matthew Schaefer at No.

1 overall.The picks on Saturday, particularly 6-foot-6 wing Daniil Prokhorov at 42nd overall and toolsy center Luca Romano at 74th, got good reviews from experts, but come training camp, neither will solve the gaping roster hole created by trading Noah Dobson. In a different organization, you’d glance at the roster, survey the prospects and assume the Gavin McKenna tank could be incoming.

You’d wonder when the Mat Barzal trade was coming — actually, some people were wondering that, though the answer is that it isn’t — and start thinking about the kind of head start Schaefer could give on the full-scale rebuild. Indeed, after Dobson was dealt to the Canadiens for a package including the picks that became Eklund and Aitcheson as well as bottom six wing Emil Heineman, it’s a lot easier to see a rebuild path for the Islanders than the pieces of a competitor in 2025-26. That will be of no solace to Darche, who has two simultaneous and contradictory mandates — one to rebuild a prospect pipeline that was completely bereft a year ago and the other to keep the Islanders relevant through 82 games next season. “We’re not going to a rebuild,” he said on a Zoom early Saturday morning East Coast time. He nailed the first assignment this weekend.The second will need to be done in free agency, where the Dobson trade gives the Islanders sudden room to maneuver after accounting for restricted free agents Alexander Romanov, Max Tsyplakov, Simon Holmstrom and Heineman. The exact makeup of the roster next season is unclear, with Schaefer, Cal Ritchie and Isaiah George all set to fight for...