ELMONT, New York — By swinging a pair of trades with New York-area rivals, first-year Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche was aiming to do more than add reinforcements to his club, which sits in third place in the Metro Division. He also wanted to send a message.
“I had to show our players, ‘Hey, I want to make the playoffs,’” Darche said. “I want to reward them for where the team is at this stage of the season.”
“It’s good for the players,” coach Patrick Roy added. “I saw them this morning: They were excited about it.”
Darche first struck a deal Monday with the rival Rangers, landing Carson Soucy for a 2026 third-round pick. The trade was only the fourth ever between the two teams and the first since 2010. Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the Soucy deal became official, Darche weaponized his team’s cap flexibility to acquire Ondřej Palát ($6 million cap hit through 2026-27) from New Jersey for forward Maxim Tsyplakov, whose production has plummeted this season. The Devils also sent the Islanders a 2026 third-round pick and 2027 sixth-round pick for taking Palàt’s contract off their books.
Essentially, Darche got back the third he gave up for Soucy, plus added another late-round pick.
“We’re going to continue to draft and protect the future of the franchise and add two players that are going to help us,” Roy said. “We do believe that today we’re a better team than yesterday.”
Soucy and Palát appear ready to immediately slide into the Islanders’ lineup against the Rangers, the team’s opponent both Wednesday at home and Thursday on the road. Palát skated Wednesday morning on a line with Bo Horvat and Emil Heineman, and Soucy was paired with Adam Boqvist. The defenseman will have the interesting task of going against his former team — and now crosstown rival — twice in two days. He said that when his former teammates texted him good luck, they also mentioned they’d see him on the ice soon.
The 31-year-old Soucy has now changed teams twice in the past 11 months, but the circumstances are opposite. In March, he agreed to waive his no-trade clause with the Vancouver Canucks and move 3,000 miles to join the Rangers. His trade from the Rangers to the Islanders offered a sharp contrast. The teams’ home arenas are less than 20 miles apart.
Soucy is a pending free agent, and his no-trade clause converted to a 12-team no-trade list this past summer. He’s the first Ranger shipped out since general manager Chris Drury announced through a letter to fans that the team was entering a “retool.” Soucy appreciated not having to move far, especially after welcoming his third child, a baby girl, less than two weeks ago.
“Drury did me a favor of not wanting to ship my family (across the country),” Soucy said Wednesday in his first media availability with the Islanders. “It’s nice that we’re not having to move houses and stuff.”
Darche sees Soucy as a player who can bring physicality, experience and penalty kill ability. He has only eight points in 46 games this season, but has a strong plus-2.9 defensive rating, per colleague Dom Luszczyszyn’s Net Rating model. Darche also made note in his news conference that Soucy was one of the only Rangers defensemen with a positive plus-minus (plus-four). The veteran looked like a solid bottom-pair defenseman this season with the Rangers, but the team overall has been disappointing, leading to Drury’s letter.
“Obviously, for myself and the team, not what we hoped when I got (to the Rangers),” Soucy said. “This is kind of the repercussions of that: Guys might have to be moved there because (the Rangers) want to win there, and, unfortunately, we didn’t this year.”
Darche was in the Lightning front office before taking the Islanders’ GM job, so the Palàt trade is a reunion. The two won a pair of Stanley Cups together in Tampa Bay before Palàt signed with the Devils in 2022, and Darche raved about the 34-year-old winger’s playoff resume, which includes 155 games played and 103 points.
“If you look at his stats in the playoffs, his points per game, goals per game, everything is higher than the regular season,” Darche said. “We’re bringing that winning pedigree. Just a guy who plays the right way, who defends well.”
There was a reason, though, that New Jersey wanted to move on from Palàt. His production (four goals and 10 points in 51 games) did not match his contract’s $6 million average annual value. The Islanders, with four players on long-term injured reserve (Kyle Palmieri, Pierre Engvall, Alexander Romanov and Semyon Varlamov) and financial flexibility beyond this season, are more capable of handling that cap hit.
Palàt believes a fresh start could be important after what he described as a “bad” start to his year with the Devils.
“I would love to produce a little more than in New Jersey, but I’m not here to score 50 goals a season,” he said. “Just here to bring the two-way game that is very important in this league.”
Palàt has a 10-team trade list and said he agreed to waive his trade protection to come to the Islanders.
“Great organization, good group of guys that are in a playoff spot, playing hard, playing for each other,” he said. “And obviously family reasons, too. It’s not too far for my family, so I can go home on off days and stuff like that.”
That’s a boost for both him and Soucy. Palát has two daughters, and they won’t have to immediately move from New Jersey. Soucy has a house near Greenwich, Connecticut.
“For the most part, I’m hoping to spend most nights there,” he said, though he added he could end up renting a Long Island apartment or using day rooms for game days.
Regardless, he’ll likely have more peace of mind than last season, when he packed a huge suitcase and left Vancouver while his wife had to handle moving.
By striking deals before the Olympic break and not waiting until the March trade deadline, Darche believes his new players will have more time to settle in. Palát will represent Czechia at the Olympics, but Soucy will get multiple practices with his new club as it ramps back up toward the end of the break.
The general manager also added that he might not be done. He wouldn’t rule out using one of his two 2026 first-round picks at the trade deadline to further bolster the roster.
“Nothing’s off the table if I can improve the team,” he said.
Even, as he showed to start this week, if it means trading with area rivals.