{"id":139470,"date":"2025-09-07T13:40:43","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T13:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/139470\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T13:40:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T13:40:43","slug":"darche-taking-patient-approach-with-ny-islanders-captain-lees-expiring-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/139470\/","title":{"rendered":"Darche taking patient approach with NY Islanders captain Lee\u2019s expiring contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5s\">As the New York Islanders prepare for the 2025-26 season, one of the storylines hanging over the franchise is the future of captain Anders Lee. The 35-year-old winger is entering the final year of his seven-year, $49 million contract signed in the summer of 2019, and for new general manager Mathieu Darche, the plan is simple: wait and see.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5v\">Lee is coming off a resurgent campaign in which he rediscovered his scoring touch and proved he can still be an important piece in the Islanders\u2019 lineup. After a difficult stretch of inconsistency the previous two seasons, the captain rebounded with a 29-goal season, reminding fans and teammates alike why he has been one of the team\u2019s most reliable net-front presences for over a decade.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"62\">Darche, though, isn\u2019t rushing into any decisions. Taking a patient approach has been part of his philosophy since arriving on Long Island in May. \u201cI said to him, \u2018Let\u2019s start the year and see where it goes,\u2019\u201d Darche said via Pierre LeBrun in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6598709\/2025\/09\/06\/mathieu-darche-islanders-noah-dobson\/?source=emp_shared_article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Athletic<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s no urgency on his side, on my side. He\u2019s the captain of our team, and I really like the individual. But I\u2019m new to the team, right? There\u2019s no one that\u2019s on an expiring deal, that has one year left, that I\u2019ve re-signed. It\u2019s not because I don\u2019t want to, I had enough on my plate this summer. I\u2019ve got a great relationship with Anders.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"65\">That stance mirrors the lessons Darche carried from his years in Tampa Bay under Julien BriseBois: take the emotion out of the decision and focus on the bigger picture. For the Islanders, that means evaluating how Lee and the team perform this season under Patrick Roy, and what the organization\u2019s roster needs will look like moving forward.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"68\">Lee\u2019s leadership is unquestioned, and his presence in the locker room will be critical as the Isles integrate young talent like first-overall pick Matthew Schaefer. But when it comes to his next contract, Darche\u2019s message is clear: let this season play out first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the New York Islanders prepare for the 2025-26 season, one of the storylines hanging over the franchise&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-139470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}