{"id":356467,"date":"2025-12-18T17:06:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/356467\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T17:06:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:06:23","slug":"islanders-maxim-tsyplakov-generating-trade-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/356467\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders\u2019 Maxim Tsyplakov Generating Trade Interest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Things haven\u2019t gone according to plan so far in 2025-26 for second-year New York Islanders forward Maxim Tsyplakov<\/a>, as the talented Russian winger has been a healthy scratch in four consecutive games, bringing his total number of healthy scratches to 14 across the Islanders\u2019 34 total games played.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman reported<\/a> that \u201cother teams are poking around\u201d regarding Tsyplakov\u2019s availability via a trade, but nothing more concrete has materialized yet.<\/p>\n

Islanders head coach Patrick Roy has insisted repeatedly that Tsyplakov is routinely spending games in the press box not because he\u2019s done anything wrong himself, but rather because the Islanders\u2019 other forwards are simply playing too well to be left out of the lineup.<\/p>\n

Tsyplakov addressed his situation yesterday, per The New York Post\u2019s Ethan Sears<\/a>, denying that any potential trade has been discussed with him and his agent. He told Sears, \u201cIt\u2019s tough being the 14th forward, sometimes it\u2019s not happy. Not enjoyable. I just want to play. Not under 10 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked whether potential trades have been discussed with his agent, which is listed as Ryan Barnes of Quartexx per PuckPedia, Tsyplakov said \u201cNot yet,\u201d and \u201cjust see what they do. We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

That Tsyplakov has reached this point in Long Island so quickly is something of a surprise given how successful his rookie campaign was. The Islanders beat out other contenders such as the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> to sign Tsyplakov out of the KHL, and their faith in the player was instantly rewarded as he hit the ground running in the NHL, scoring 10 goals and 35 points as a 26-year-old rookie.<\/p>\n

But so far this season, Tsyplakov hasn\u2019t come close to the level of impact he reached as a rookie. He was New York\u2019s No. 9 forward in terms of ice time last season, averaging nearly 15:00 time on ice per game with a minute and a half per game on the power play.<\/p>\n

That usage has sharply declined this season, after the Islanders added another KHL free agent, Maxim Shabanov<\/a>, over the summer. The addition of veteran Jonathan Drouin<\/a> in free agency and breakout sophomore Emil Heineman<\/a> via trade has also eaten into Tsyplakov\u2019s role. As a result, the 27-year-old has seen his ice time decline sharply, and that\u2019s when he\u2019s not a healthy scratch.<\/p>\n

So far in 2025-26, Tsyplakov is averaging just 9:29 time on ice per game, the fewest of any Islanders forward this season. He\u2019s also only resumed his role on the power play in one game this season, his time on the man advantage almost completely evaporating year-over-year. Consequently, his production is nowhere close to what it was a year ago; he has just one goal and no assists through 20 games this year.<\/p>\n

While it appears that the Islanders and Tsyplakov can continue in this situation into the near future, it\u2019s fair to question whether keeping Tsyplakov in this kind of reserve role is sustainable over the long term.<\/p>\n

Over the summer, the Islanders settled with Tsyplakov before arbitration, with the player signing a two-year, $2.25MM AAV deal to end his restricted free agency. He\u2019ll be an unrestricted free agent at the end of that contract, and it\u2019s unlikely that the Islanders pledged $2.25MM of cap space to Tsyplakov with the idea that he\u2019d be spending much of the season as a healthy scratch.<\/p>\n

With each passing game that Tsyplakov doesn\u2019t play, the more likely it appears that he could be traded. Of course, just one injury or decision from Roy could change things, but at the moment, a trade could very well be the most suitable solution for both the Islanders and Tsyplakov.<\/p>\n

Given the high level of interest in his services as a KHL free agent, his solid 35-point rookie campaign, and the fact that he remains under team control for another season at a reasonable cap hit, it\u2019s unlikely that there would be any shortage of interest from rival teams in acquiring Tsyplakov.<\/p>\n

The Islanders would be \u201cselling low,\u201d to an extent, but if they don\u2019t plan on utilizing Tsyplakov beyond a very minor role this year, it could be best for both sides to work out a trade. If nothing else, Tsyplakov\u2019s playing role in New York will be a key storyline to continue to monitor on Long Island moving forward.<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of Russell LaBounty-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Things haven\u2019t gone according to plan so far in 2025-26 for second-year New York Islanders forward Maxim Tsyplakov,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,195191,5791,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-356467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-maxim-tsyplakov","11":"tag-new-york-islanders","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}