Islanders cant skip the transition they desperately need

Evan Gold, the Islanders’ newly hired assistant general manager, dipped his toes into controversial waters last week.He did this by committing the time-honored public relations sin of telling the truth. “They’re a transitional team,” Gold said of the Islanders during an appearance on “The Sheet with Jeff Marek,” and the rest didn’t seem to matter much for a small-but-loud slice of the fanbase that was already upset at this acknowledgment of reality. So here is some more reality, of which everyone in the organization and around the NHL is well aware.

The Islanders have not won a playoff series since 2021.They had 91 points last season and missed the playoffs for a second consecutive season.

The best, most important assets in their organization are almost uniformly young enough to be in college, and 10 players enter training camp with expiring contracts, giving the Islanders an estimated $40 million in salary cap space going into next summer. Transition is not only an accurate word to describe this situation, it is a necessary state for the Islanders to be in right now, due mainly to the stagnant operation under the last few years of Lou Lamoriello’s reign, which left them stuck in the NHL’s middle ground, needing to rebuild their prospect pipeline and get out from under a series of bad contracts. “To be a sustainable playoff team you can’t just patch every year and just bring one player here, one player there, you have to build it,” general manager Mathieu Darche told reporters a few days ago when asked about Gold’s comment.“But a good thing is, we have some solid veterans that can keep us relevant, keep us fighting for the playoffs as we incorporate and we always need to mix up both.

You can’t win with only young guys, you can’t win with only older guys, so that’s the transitional part that he’s talking about.” When attendance dipped repeatedly, and fans who were at UBS Arena chanted for Lamoriello’s head, transition w...