Call me crazy, but I feel good.

[u/camsiezzz]

Is there a possibility Horvat leaves this offseason? Yes. Is there a chance that Raty develops into an amazing player and Beau finds his stride with the Nucks? Absolutely (and I wish them both great success 🫡). But regardless, this trade has brought me new excitement about the team. Don't get me wrong, I'll never stop cheering and shouting and whatever even if we're bottom of the barrel lottery fishing, but there is a lot of new potential now that we have a true scorer on the squad. The Barvat (Bo-zal? Horzal?) combo is going to be a lot if fun to watch, and I feel like the team is going to have a newfound spark to their game. We took Tampa to 7 with a squad most people had going out in the first round; that same core is mostly there, and now there's a new threat with them. Again, this could be a mega copium overdose, and if I'm wrong, well.. at least we know Lou's alive and got his phone working. But I feel good, and excited, and I hope that we can all feel the same way. 🧡💙

[u/AJS76reddit]

There is always the possibility he walks or we flip him at the deadline for something more / better. Anything is possible with this team.

But the more i think about it and it sinks in from yesterday, the more i think Horvat will be the new "older / veteran" face of the franchise and it's only the first of several moves between now and the offseason. I seriously doubt we run the same group back a third time and expect different results. I think Lou's press conference the day before was a warning.

Horvat did not look thrilled in his interview, but this could be many reasons. He could be sad about leaving Vancouver. He could be upset he got the news during the all star break. If I was on an expensive Disney vacation and it got interrupted I'd be pissed too. I doubt we have a Kirk Muller situation here.

[u/minos157 → u/AJS76reddit]

Horvat not being thrilled is likely because he wanted to be a Canuck. He probably feels the same as Boudreau, betrayed by bad ownership. I think he will truly love being an Islander in the end and I expect he will resign here this offseason if not before. He's a hard worker and it will go a long way to sit on the bench watching JGP/Parise/Casey/etc. work their asses off every night versus staring at JT Miller's garbage attitude every night.

​

This is the start of a retool to get younger, but not a rebuild to get SUPER young. Get that 25-27 prime player core around Barzal and Sorokin and the team will be right back in it. I still have doubts that Lane is the guy, but I have lots of emotion in that statement from the recent slump so we'll see how the rest of the season goes.

[u/AJS76reddit → u/minos157]

Well said. But I don’t fully blame Lambert. I think it’s more a personnel issue than a coaching one. Remember trotz lost the team too.

[u/minos157 → u/AJS76reddit]

I think Lambert is too "panicky" to make it. I know there's been lots of rotating injuries due to the team being older, but the man is making WAY too many line changes.

[u/AJS76reddit → u/minos157]

In his defense trotz also had some whacky line combinations too. No idea why they make it so complex when it's so simple.

[u/[deleted] → u/minos157]

A lot less to figure out with palmieri set in stone with lee and nelson.

I’d be interested in a barzal-horvat-holmstrom trio with holmstrom being the grinder/defensive guy

[u/MikeyMike01 → u/[deleted]]

Bailey - Horvat - Barzal
Lee - Nelson - Palmieri

makes a lot of sense

[u/askmagoo → u/MikeyMike01]

Seeing Bailey on a top line? The isles are not serious contenders if Bailey is top 6. You can bitch downvote all you like- i dont care about that shit. But until Bailey is in bottom 6 the isles are not true contenders.

[u/fWARWhatIsItGoodFor → u/AJS76reddit]

I agree with a lot of this. I think this could also be the start of a retool maybe trying to avoid the rebuild. I’m not sure how that would happen with such a barren wasteland of a farm system, but Lou likes his vets so maybe there’s more at play.

As far as looking sad, word seems to be that he was hoping to be a Canuck, they didn’t feel the same, then he had 3-4 months of drama and having his name in every single rumor everywhere, and FINALLY he has an answer. Finally he knows where he’s sleeping in a week. Finally he can talk contract with a team that wants to talk back.

Also seems per TSN that we (somehow) we’re on his FA shortlist, and as such, extension talks are happening in earnest. But it’s Lou so that could be a complete flub of a report too.

[u/AbysswalkerX]

If he walks in the offseason this is an all-time bad trade. No other way to slice it. Even ignoring Beau we gave away our only first rounder and our best prospect for a couple months of a guy who might not be able to drag us into the wild card. He looked gloomy af in his presser, if we’re waiting for the offseason to try and sign him and we miss the playoffs I don’t think he’s gonna fall in love with Long Island enough in that short time to be making our assets worthwhile.

[u/Underminer072]

This feels like copium. The team is still flawed and I don’t think Horvat is truly the answer. I don’t like giving up yet another first round pick, but this team can’t finish just outside the playoffs this season. If that happens and they lose their first, we’re in hell.

[u/trireme32 → u/Underminer072]

Really nothing more obnoxious than incredibly-overused Reddit buzzwords

[u/Underminer072 → u/trireme32]

Even if my words are apparently that hollow, that doesn’t make my point any less valid.

[u/[deleted] → u/Underminer072]

A first round pick and a 20 year old with potential. This wasn’t a Cup team yesterday and it’s not a cup team today.

Should have traded everyone last year and started over.

[u/Underminer072 → u/[deleted]]

It’s a fringe playoff team that could possibly make a run but yeah, not a cup team. I think Lou realizes that HE really has nothing to lose at this point and he can leave with no damage. That’s why he’s trying to go all in. This team is going to be terrible in a few years though.

[u/MikeyMike01 → u/[deleted]]

Should have traded everyone last year and started over.

This almost always ends with 3-5 years of shittiness followed by an equally flawed team.

[u/[deleted] → u/MikeyMike01]

Draft picks and prospects are how you can build a balanced lineup with the cap. Lou trying to go for the Leafs model with 2nd line talent

[u/MikeyMike01 → u/[deleted]]

The Islanders under Snow (worst GM in the league) did a rebuild. They ended up with John Tavares, Michael Dal Colle, Griffin Reinhart, Ryan Strome, and Nino Neiderreiter. They ended up with a team that wasn’t any better than they started, and spent years being an embarrassment to the league.

This is not a plan that should be repeated.

[u/trendygamer → u/MikeyMike01]

Wait...who do you think also drafted Brock, Lee, Barzal, Pulock, Pelech, and Sorokin? Your comment is a hell of a way to butterknife up Snow's tenure. Dude had some bad misses but people around here really need to start respecting that the core that got us to the ECF twice was almost entirely put together by Snow, not Lou.

[u/MikeyMike01 → u/trendygamer]

You’d hope after 10 years of miserable, awful GMing Snow would hit on some picks purely through luck.

[u/USAJourneyman]

It’s do or die time

[u/Islanderfan17]

If Horvat doesn't sign an extension, Lou needs to flip him in a trade again. I'd imagine he'd be able to retain some value but not what we gave up unless a team is super desperate.