Welcome back to the latest in an intermittent series that essentially amounts to “Should the Vancouver Canucks try to make a trade for a blueliner from this NHL franchise, and if so, whom?”

Last time around, we covered the New York Rangers. This time, we’re hopping across the water to Long Island to talk about the other New York team, the Islanders. And, if one were picking the stronger of the two bluelines to target, it’s obviously the Rangers. In fact, the NYR might have the superior roster to the NYI across the board, despite only being separated by two points in the standings as of this writing.

But if one were picking which of the two teams looks to be in the more desperate situation, and thus potentially ripe to be taken advantage of in a trade, then it’s probably the Islanders. Sure, the Rangers have disappointed this year, and will probably be making some changes of their own. But that pales in comparison to the state of the Islanders, possessors of both an aging roster and an aging GM who just keeping slipping further away from contention.

Last season, the Islanders barely squeaked into the playoffs, and didn’t stick around long thereafter. This year, they’re all the way down at the bottom of the Metropolitan standings, with little hope of resuscitating themselves.

All this, with the (current) fourth-most expensive roster in the league.

As such, it sure seems like the majority of the Islanders’ veterans might soon be on the block, or at the very least made available. And that list definitely includes some defenders who might be of interest to the Canucks as they seek to solidify their own roster.

As we’ve done priorly in this series, we’ll start by crossing some names off the list.

Despite a tough season thus far – one that took him out of contention for Team Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off – Noah Dobson is still probably the best overall Islanders defender. On the last year of a $4 million AAV deal and a pending RFA, Dobson’s will be an interesting set of negotiations this summer.

But despite what’s happening in the present day, Dobson is still a 24-year-old RHD who put up 70 points in 79 games last year. Wherever he ends up signing, it will be for a considerable salary, somewhere in the $7 million-plus range, one would think. That puts him out of the Canucks’ reasonable price-range already, and we haven’t even discussed the enormous cost of acquisition – or the likelihood that the NYI just hangs on to Dobson through whatever form of rebuild they end up doing, as he’s certainly young enough.

Up next is Ryan Pulock, another RHD who has been at least a top-four talent his entire career, and occasionally a de facto top-pairing guy, a role he is currently playing in 2024/25.

Pulock has always offered a fairly even blend of offensive prowess and defensive coverage from the backend, all the while gobbling up minutes and matchups. In terms of his on-ice attributes, he’d be a definite boon to the Canucks’ general chances of success.

But he’s also signed for this season and three more at a cap hit of $6.15 million, which will bring him to age 35. The length of the contract probably takes retention off the table, and the Canucks would have a difficult time fitting Pulock in without any. It’s not an outright impossibility but, like with Dobson, the cost of acquisition might be higher than they could reasonably offer. The RHD tax is real, and it is steep. Pulock probably remains too rich for the Canucks’ blood.

We can take a moment here to eliminate a few more names from the bottom-end of the lineup, before we move on to the ‘maybes.’

Isaiah George is a 20-year-old just breaking into the NHL, and is thus unlikely to be traded by a team potentially approaching a rebuild. Grant Hutton and former Chilliwack Chief Dennis Cholowski are veteran tweeners of little interest for anything other than possible depth. Same probably goes for veteran Mike Reilly. None of these players are anywhere close to approaching a blueline solution. But they’re not all the Islanders might have to offer.

Rounding out the Islanders’ top-three, in theory, is Adam Pelech, nephew of former Canucks’ GM Mike Gillis. The left-handed Pelech has long been lauded as one of the NHL’s best defensive defenders, and has formed a fairly consistent long-term pairing with Pulock over the years. Also 30 and signed for this and two more years at a $5.75 million cap hit, Pelech should theoretically be cheaper to trade for and fit into the salary structure.

Injuries have been a problem for Pelech on a pretty constant basis. His current jaw injury, a result of a puck to the face, isn’t exactly an injury-prone sort of deal. But any way you slice it, Pelech tends to miss about a third of each season of late, and that’s an important factor to consider.

Overall, Pelech might be a bit too luxurious of an option, still, for the Canucks. Given his reputation, multiple playoff teams would be looking to add his services if available, and that cap hit gets more reasonable by the day. The cost would be high, and then the Canucks would need to ask themselves if Pelech – moderate puck-moving skills and high probably of injuries – is the player they really want to put that many chips on.

Call him someone worth inquiring on, but only in a tire-kicking fashion.

It’s the middle of the blueline where the better options may be found.

Scott Mayfield is someone who has caught the eye of Vancouver fans before. And with good reason: he’s 6’5”, 220 pounds, right-handed, and used to be signed to one of the greatest bargain contracts in the NHL. That’s since been replaced by a $3.5 million AAV deal that lasts three more seasons after this one, but that’s not bad for a big, mean RHD skating between 18 and 20 minutes a night.

Mayfield, at 32, is probably on the downslide of his career, though it’s tough to know how much of that is him and how much is the team around him. He seems likely to be the first one to move from this blueline, as the senior-most member, and that contract is absorbable by just about anyone. There may be some bidding going on, but the cost would have to be more reasonable than for anyone higher than him on the depth chart.

The Canucks would have to try to figure out whether Mayfield offers too much of what they already have on the right side in Tyler Myers and, to a lesser extent, Vincent Desharnais. Mayfield might be a more ‘playoff-ready’ asset, but still a little redundant, and that should make him something less than a priority target.

Last, but certainly not least, comes Alexander Romanov. The 24-year-old Russian LHD is known for his two-way mobility and his crushing checks, and you probably already know where we’re going with this. The Canucks miss Nikita Zadorov, and Romanov could definitely be cast in the role of a mini-Zadorov. He’s also a much cheaper Zadorov, currently signed at an AAV of just $2.5 million, though he expires into restricted free agency after this season.

Romanov’s career has been a bit up-and-down, but it’s currently up, with his 21:22 a night on 2024/25 ranked third on the Islanders and just barely behind the minutes of Pulock and Dobson. Romanov has also battled injury this year and has managed just two assists in 16 games, but then points have been hard to come by for the entire Islanders roster.

Already on his fifth season at the age of 24, Romanov has been healthy in every other campaign he’s skated, and he remains an unfinished product with at least a little untapped potential still remaining, especially in the offensive end.

That upward possibility does lower the Islanders’ priority to deal Romanov. But depending on how contract negotiations are going, if he’s not looking to sign on Long Island long-term, or if the Islanders don’t see him as part of the truly long-term picture, he might end up being shopped around all the same.

Romanov could then be seen as a sort of under-the-radar acquisition; not a household name, but one who could really thrive in a new situation. There’s little doubt that Zadorov played some of the best hockey of his career in Vancouver. Could Romanov, with a similar profile – albeit at four or five inches shorter – enjoy similar success under Rick Tocchet and Co.?

A phone call from Patrik Allvin to Lou Lamoriello is all it might take to find out.