Five Takeaways: Lou Lamoriello's Pre-Training Camp Press Conference

With only hours to go before the New York Islanders 2021-22 training camp kicks off, Isles President and GM Lou Lamoriello addressed the media on a variety of topics.
Lamoriello touched on transactions - both announced and previously unannounced - as well as injury updates and excitement for the season. Plenty of ground to cover. Let's get started.

Gustafsson, the only addition of the four, played three-and-a-half seasons in Chicago (2015-20), recording a career-high 60 points in 2018-19. The left-shot has since had stints in Calgary, Philadelphia and most-recently Montreal.
"Erik Gustafsson was a player we had seen when he first came in the league," Lamoriello said. "We weren't ready to make a commitment to try and see if we could get him to be where he was. He wanted to come knowing we had an opening, but with no promises."
Lamoriello did not offer any specifics about Bellows or Dal Colle's contracts. Bellows had three goals in 14 games last season, while Dal Colle had four points (1G, 3A) in 26 games. Schneider did not see any game action for the Islanders last season, spending a majority of the year on the taxi squad, but did play two games in Bridgeport.

2. LEE, PAGEAU AND MARTIN INJURY UPDATES

Anders Lee, who is recovering from an ACL tear in March,
has been medically cleared for the start of training camp
when on-ice sessions start on Thursday. Lamoriello said the Islanders captain will be ready for the start of the season and has been skating.
JG Pageau, who had successful offseason surgery on his hand, is also cleared to participate "100%" in camp, according to Lamoriello.
Both of those updates were expected, but Lamoriello offered an unexpected update in terms of Matt Martin, who had a "minor surgery" to clear up a bone chip in his ankle.
"He has been skating for a couple of weeks right now and will also be ready for the season," Lamoriello said. "We will slow his progress for getting into contact, but he is fully skating and has been for a couple of weeks."
Lamoriello said the team is otherwise healthy and on Long Island for camp.

3. ISLANDERS VACCINATION STATUS

All Islanders players, coaches and staff have been fully vaccinated, and will need to be in order to play for team, according to the GM.
Same goes for the Bridgeport Islanders, whose coaches and staff are fully vaccinated, as well as a overwhelming majority of the players. Lamoriello noted that one player in Bridgeport is not vaccinated and the team is looking to assign him to Europe for the season, but the process is not finalized.
"We will not allow any player in our organization to participate unless they are vaccinated," Lamoriello said. "We are very conscious with what is going on in the world, the Delta variant right now and where that is at. We will take every possible caution that we can to proactively keep our players, our staff, our coaches as healthy as we possibly can and their families."

4. LAMORIELLO ON CHARA AND PARISE

The Islanders GM also gave his thoughts on
the Zdeno Chara
and
Zach Parise signings
, noting both players' veteran experience and character, which should mesh well with what he called a mature group.
"Both of these players bring a character about them," Lamoriello said. "They've both been former captains, they've also been high character as far as how they play the game, the way they compete in the game and we're excited to have both of them."
Specifically, Lamoriello
noted how Chara's size
- 6'9, 250 lbs. - will help clear space in front of the net for goaltenders, as well as his penalty kill prowess. Lamoriello announced that Parise's contract is for one year and praised his ability to play in all situations. Parise scored 10 and 12 power-play goals in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, respectively.
Lamoriello noted the ages of the 37-year-old forward and 44-year-old defenseman, but said he sees them as complimentary pieces and can enhance what the Islanders already have.

5. LAMORIELLO LIKES HIS TEAM

Lamoriello said he was happy and comfortable with his group as currently constructed heading into training camp.
He should be, given his group is coming off back-to-back trips to the third round of the playoffs and has largely remained intact, save for the departures of Nick Leddy (via trade with Detroit) and Jordan Eberle (taken in the expansion draft).
Lamoriello addressed both departures, stating the team felt it had a serviceable replacement in Kyle Palmieri, should Seattle select Eberle. The Isles GM said the Leddy trade was born out deciding to protect three defensemen in the expansion draft and not wanting to lose the defenseman for no return to Seattle, should they have taken him.
With a bulk of the roster returning, Lamoriello said he wants to see growth from the incumbent group and expects internal competition to be high given the Islanders depth.
"This is where we are at and we feel very comfortable with it," Lamoriello said. "We look for the improvement of the incumbent people we have here, but we are happy with this group."
While hope springs eternal for every team at the onset of the season, Lamoriello said the Islanders intent is the same as it has been the past three years and that the competitive fires burn hot within the organization. The always-pragmatic Lamoriello said the focus will be the journey as opposed to the result, a mentality that has benefitted the Islanders in the past three seasons.
"The fire is the same every training camp and the aspirations are the same each and every year," Lamoriello said. "The most important thing is being prepared as you possibly can and then just take it a day at a time and building off it. The key is each and every one of us, no matter what our role is, to do things right and just take one thing at a time."