Barry Trotz: Hard truth is that some of these Islanders won't be here next season

TAMPA, Fla. — Barry Trotz spoke an NHL truth when he noted the devastated group of players in the dressing room following the Islanders’ 1-0 loss to the Lightning in Friday night’s Game 7 of their semifinal series at Amalie Arena will not be the group that opens training camp in September.

Annual change is a part of life in the NHL, particularly under a hard salary cap. And very particularly true under a flat, $81.5 million salary cap that is a lingering effect of the COVID-19-induced financial ruin the league suffered without fans in the arenas for a good portion of this season.

So, the offseason question becomes, how many players depart and how radical is the roster reshaping? Remember, this is a franchise that has had the same core group of players pre-dating the Lou Lamoriello/Trotz era, even with John Tavares departing for the Maple Leafs via free agency in 2018.

"It’s just a lot of pain because they gave it their all," Trotz said after the Islanders were eliminated by the Lightning one round short of their first Stanley Cup Final berth since 1984 for the second straight season. "There’s some guys that are playing that are beat up, worn out, hurt and they just keep going. There’s a bond between all the players that is really strong.

"The disappointing thing is we didn’t get this game and this group in that room won’t be together again," Trotz added. "That’s just the lay of the land in the National Hockey League. That’s all the pain. They’re not going to be defined by this game, win or lose. They’re going to be defined by all the games."

There’s no reason to think the Islanders will not be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender again next season, when they move into $1.2 billion UBS Arena at Belmont Park and finally have the modern home they’ve needed since — conservatively — the 1990s.

But free agency and the expansion draft – plus whatever trades Lamoriello may or may not pull of – will reshape the roster.

Among the core players, Casey Cizikas is of immediate concern.

The sparkplug, identity-setting fourth line center is an impending unrestricted free agent. He turned 30 in February and is coming off a five-year, $16.75 million deal. He will undoubtedly be sought-after if he reaches free agency (he seems like the perfect type of hard-edged, energy player new Rangers president and general manage Chris Drury is looking to infuse into his skill-heavy lineup).

Lamoriello must weigh another multi-year commitment to Cizikas and how that fits into the Islanders’ salary structure against the always-present desire for NHL teams to get younger and faster.

A quartet of ex-Devils — Kyle Palmieri, Travis Zajac, defenseman Andy Greene and third-string goalie Cory Schneider — will all be UFAs. The latter three will all probably play somewhere next season on one-year deals, unless Greene, who turns 39 in October, calls it a career. But the 30-year-old Palmieri, originally from Smithtown, will be one of the top forward targets on the free agent market coming off a five-year, $23.25 million deal.

Acquired because of captain Anders Lee’s season-ending right anterior cruciate ligament injury on March 11, Palmieri seemed a strong fit for Lamoriello and Trotz’s defensively-responsible, physical brand of hockey. And there was no doubt Palmieri felt comfortable on Long Island, where he still has family.

But managing to re-sign Palmieri would mean trimming salaries elsewhere.

Lamoriello will have to decide which Islanders to expose to the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft, set for July 21.

The Kraken will select one player from the Islanders, who can protect either seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie, or eight skaters and one goalie.

Re-signing Palmieri would seemingly become much more realistic if, say, Jordan Eberle, who has three seasons left on a five-year, $27.5 million deal, went to Seattle.

One player who is not going anywhere but whose next contract will determine who else the Islanders can and cannot afford is goalie Ilya Sorokin. The highly-anticipated debut of the five-time KHL all-star yielded a 13-6-3 record with a 2.17 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage, plus four wins in the first round against the Penguins.

He’ll be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights coming off a one-year, $2 million deal and it wouldn’t be surprising if his ask is much closer to Semyon Varlamov’s $5 million cap hit.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.