New York Islanders: Why the Jean-Gabriel Pageau trade was atypical

The New York Islanders made a big splash by acquiring Pageau from the Ottawa Senators. They overpaid, and that’s surprising for this team.

With the trade deadline in full swing, the biggest move Monday morning seemed to be the New York islanders acquiring Jean-Gabriel Pageau from the Ottawa Senators. With the Senators in full rebuild mode, its easy expected that Pageau would have him and his services sent elsewhere. The Islanders emerged as a likely trade partner.

What was surprising was the return that the Islanders sent north of the border. For Pageau, the Islanders sent over a 2020 first-rounder and a 2020 second-rounder, as per the New York Post.

The first-round pick is top-three lottery-protected, which would push the pick to Ottawa in 2021. If the Islanders go all the way and win the franchises fifth Stanley Cup, Ottawa will get a conditional third-round pick.

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Pageau was one of the best forwards on the trade market while all the headlines revolved around the New York Rangers Chris Kreider (who instead of being traded ended up extended), but did the Islanders overpay for him?

Considering he was a pending unrestricted free agent with a $3.1 million cap hit the answer seems an easy yes, but what was really surprising was how uncharacteristic of a trade this was for Islander general manager Lou Lamoriello.

Since coming to the Islanders at the beginning of last season, Lamoriello has made very few moves on the rosters. He’s mostly built with the pieces left to him by Garth Snow in the wake of John Tavares‘s departure and supplemented them with sneaky good acquisitions.

Lamoriello’s greatest success has come in the goaltending department, where he picked up borderline bargain bin findings in Robin Lehner and Semyon Varlamov who would find career resurgences in an Islanders sweater.

Of course, Lamoriello’s greatest acquisition as Islanders’ general manager was bringing in Barry Trotz on board as head coach to lead the team to greater heights than they did when Tavares was on their roster.

Still, Lamoriello stood pat at last year’s trade deadline. This year trading a second-round pick for veteran defenseman Andy Green was a big move considering how Lamoriello operates, but Monday’s move blew the doors off all of that.

The Islanders offensive struggles of late have been well documented. They needed to beat a lowly Detroit Red Wings team after a four-game losing streak. They currently rank 23rd in the NHL in goals. The Dallas Stars and Columbus Blue Jackets are the only other probable playoff teams ranked lower than them.

Could Lamoriello have panicked a bit leading for him to overpay? Expectations for the Islanders were high after they overperformed last season. Then again remember Lamoriello orchestrated the Ilya Kovalchuk trade to the New Jersey Devils. Even though Kovalchuk had an infamous contract extension, the initial trade between New Jersey and the th]en Atlanta Thrashers seemed to be in New Jersey’s favor.

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If you’re an Ottawa Senators fan you should be thrilled at the return Pageau brought in. You may not have a lot to be expected about right now, but it’s hard to imagine a team offering a better return. The extension makes the high price to get Pageau worthwhile, but the Islanders have invested quite a bit into Pageau. Hopefully, he’ll prove he’s worth investing in.

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