Of course, Anders Lee recognized Tuesday night could mark his final game with the Islanders. Yet the captain and pending unrestricted free agent chose to devote his energy to the game and getting one last win for the fans at UBS Arena.
It was very on-brand for the selfless leader, who has given so much to the organization over 14 seasons. The irony was that the finale of a second straight playoff-less season was very much about a future Lee may not be a part of with first-rounder Victor Eklund making his NHL debut.
“This is a little bit of a preview of what camp is going to be next year,” Pete DeBoer, coaching his fourth game for the team, said about inserting Eklund and Liam Foudy, a fellow callup from AHL Bridgeport, into the lineup. “When I got here I wanted to see as many guys as possible without jeopardizing a playoff spot.”
That concern ended with Sunday’s 4-1 loss to the Canadiens.
Wednesday will be breakup day and exit interviews and then likely uncertainty for Lee until the free-agent market opens on July 1.
Newsday asked Lee, completing a seven-year, $49 million deal and his eighth season as captain, whether he expected quick clarity from first-year general manager Mathieu Darche.
“That’s a good question,” said Lee, who turns 36 on July 3. “I don’t know. I know we’ll have our closing meetings and have a chance to revisit some of this conversation and go from there. My focus, as a player and the captain of the team, has been on the team and what I can do to help it.”
Lee played all season knowing contract talks would wait until the offseason. He has not wavered in his public stance that he wants to return to the NHL franchise that drafted him in the sixth round of the 2009 draft.
Lee is still a strong and durable power forward for the Islanders. He entered Tuesday with 19 goals and 23 assists, and he played all 82 games for the third time in four seasons and the fifth time in his career. He has missed just one game in four seasons.
But Darche may very well want to make room for younger talent such as Eklund.
“We’ve got some great young blood in this organization,” Lee said. “It’s awesome the young blood that we had come up this year with Cal [Ritchie] and Schaef [Matthew Schaefer] and Eklund is in the pipeline and we’ve got other guys down there that are doing their best to get up here. It speaks a lot to that group and to the development of where we want our organization.”
Note the language Lee used. “We want.” “Our organization.”
Lee is clearly not ready to separate himself from the Islanders willingly.
“No question,” said Lee, who was honored with the Sid Payne Good Guy Award before the game as decided upon by the Islanders’ media contingent. “I’ve given everything I’ve had to this organization. It’s all the things. It’s where I’ve played my entire career. I don’t take anything for granted. I just want to have another good night tonight with the team and this group.”
Eklund entered the lineup on top-line center Bo Horvat’s wing, where Lee had skated the previous 12 games. Eklund earned his first NHL point with a secondary assist on Horvat’s goal in the second period. And that was Horvat’s 300th career goal.
He was selected 16th overall in June as part of a draft class that included Schaefer and defenseman Kashawn Aitcheson and pushed to come to North America to complete this season after notching six goals and 18 assists in 43 games for Djurgardens IF of the Swedish Hockey League. He had two goals and seven assists in his first seven games for Bridgeport.
“I just wanted to play hockey,” Eklund said. “We [Djurgardens] ended our season pretty early, unfortunately. Also to just get a feel of the AHL. You never know for next year so you might as well be prepared.”
But if Tuesday was a preview of the future for the Islanders, DeBoer was very cognizant of showing respect to current players such as Lee who might not be returning. That list includes fellow UFAs Tony DeAngelo, Carson Soucy and goalie David Rittich and possibly some organizational mainstays such as Casey Cizikas.
It’s tough to predict how Darche will approach the offseason.
“Change is inevitable,” said DeBoer, coaching his sixth NHL team in 18 seasons. “I’ve always admired the leadership and the pride of the group of veterans in there that I’ve watched battle over the years.”
That includes defenseman Adam Pelech, who has battled numerous concussions and injuries throughout his career but played all 82 games for the first time.
“Luckily I’ve been able to stay healthy this season,” Pelech said. “Really happy to have a healthy season.”
As is Lee, who has long been a constant for the Islanders.
But after Tuesday, that’s no longer a guarantee.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.