Palat and Soucy Deals Show Darche’s Belief in Islanders

The New York Islanders had shown Mathieu Darche some promise during the first 52 games of the season, so the General Manager and EVP showed them a little something in return – faith.

That’s why Darche swung a pair of moves over a pair of days, acquiring defenseman Carson Soucy from the New York Rangers on Monday and forward Ondrej Palat from the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.

“I want to reward the players for putting us in this position to get to the playoffs,” Darche said on Wednesday. “These are two players that will help us as we push towards the playoff.”

The Islanders are currently third in the Metropolitan Division with 61 points, two back of the second-place Pittsburgh Penguins and four points ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers, who currently sit outside of a Wild Card position, but would be the team to usurp the Isles. Playoffs aren’t a guarantee with 30 games to go, but Darche wanted to make sure his team was in the best position possible to continue its run.

“We've gone out there and put ourselves in a spot where we're in a position to have additions the rest of the way here,” Captain Anders Lee said. “Darche sees that, and he believes in this group just like we do, and he's doing his best to make our team better.”

If a vote of confidence was Darche’s intended message, it was received and appreciated inside the Islanders locker room.

“As players in the room, you feel that confidence from up top, and you always want that during this time of the year,” Jonathan Drouin said. “You hate when you see players go somewhere else… so it's nice to have Pally and Soucy to come in and help us and build on what we're doing here.”

In Palat, who is signed through next season, the Islanders acquired a hard-working, two-way winger with two Stanley Cups and 103 points in 155 playoff games. He and Darche go back to their days in Tampa, but the deal wasn't based on nostalgia, but rather Palat's heart and skillset and ability to play and up down the lineup. In Soucy, they acquired a physically-imposing defenseman who can hit, block shots and play on the penalty kill. Both players bolster the Islanders depth and should help reinforce a team that lost Kyle Palmieri and Alexander Romanov in November.

"Palat's obviously a good, goal scorer, physical and thick like Palms,” Mathew Barzal said. “Soucy [is] obviously like [a] hard-to-play-against D-man, kind of like Romi. So I think both guys really add some nice depth to our team.”

Darche’s moves come well ahead of the March 6 trade deadline and the reasoning is two-fold. The first being the Islanders division-heavy schedule, as six of the Islanders last seven games heading into the Olympic break are against Metro opponents.

“Why wait till the deadline when we have important games against our division?” Darche said.

The other reason is the Olympic break itself – Feb. 6-24 – which Darche hopes will allow Palat and Soucy to settle in and acclimate to the Islanders. There will be some additional practice time before the Islanders resume play on Feb. 26, a luxury not usually afforded to mid-season acquisitions.

“Get the family settled. Get them practice time with our guys and hanging out with our guys,” Darche said. “Obviously, Pally will be at the Olympics, but again, I think that was the timing.”

Darche didn’t rule out making more acquisitions if he felt he had a chance to improve the team in the stretch run and said the Islanders have the salary cap flexibility should a contract run beyond the season.

“I'm not making deals just to make deals. I'm making deals because I think I'm improving the team,” Darche said. “We’re a better team today than we were yesterday with those two players, so if something else comes up that I can improve the team, I'll look at it.”

Darche didn’t sacrifice the future either. He recouped the third-round pick he dealt for Soucy in the deal for Palat and also added a sixth-round pick in 2027. That was noted and appreciated by Head Coach Patrick Roy, who, like his players, was excited for the vote of confidence from Darche.

“I saw [the players] this morning, they were excited about it,” Roy said of the trades. “We're going to continue to draft and protect the future of the franchise and add two players that that are going to help us. I mean, we do believe that today, we're a better team than we were yesterday.”